Small hits back at 'Strictly' judges

Heather Small has claimed that the Strictly Come Dancing judges were too "harsh" when they commented on her performance at the weekend.

The M People singer and her partner Brian Fortuna faced criticism for poor footwork and a lack of energy after dancing the Quickstep in Saturday night's show.

"I was surprised because I thought it was quite harsh," Heather admitted on spinoff show It Takes Two. "I enjoyed the dancing though, so I tried to take on board what they said, but it was a bit conflicting. When Craig [Revel Horwood] had to jump to my defence I knew that there was something going horribly wrong!"

Fortuna added: "There were things that I agreed with in what they said, but at the same time I think that Heather came out and she nailed it. She kept an energetic smile on her face from beginning to end and that's what we set out to do. Now, the footwork might not have been perfect all the way through, but I was very proud of what she did."

The couple eventually found themselves in the bottom two but were granted a reprieve after the judges chose to eliminate actress Jessie Wallace.

Asked about the result of the public vote, Small insisted: "I wasn't shocked. I mean, with the scoring we got we were third from bottom so you know that you're not saved and the likelihood of you being in the dance-off is quite high."