Strictly’s Shirley Ballas hails Stacey Dooley’s ‘passionate’ paso doble

Shirley Ballas has hailed Stacey Dooley for dancing a “passionate” paso doble on last week’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Speaking on BBC Two’s Strictly spin-off, It Takes Two, Ballas said she had been “taken” by the documentary maker’s dance during last week’s show.

Dooley, 32, took to the floor alongside her partner Kevin Clifton to Malaguena by Brian Setzer, securing herself 39 points out of a possible 40, with only Craig Revel Horwood handing her a nine.

Asked by host Zoe Ball who she had been impressed by, Strictly’s head judge replied: “I’d probably have to say Stacey Dooley’s paso doble. I’m a bit of a paso doble girl myself.

“There have been many fantastic performances but I think that she brought that from the very beginning.

“It was exciting, it was passionate. She was into her thing. When she started off at the beginning she had this most wonderful feeling. I was a bit taken by the paso doble.”

Ballas, 58, also spoke of her surprise at YouTuber Joe Sugg success on the show, adding that he was “in it to do the best he can”.

She added: “The biggest [surprise] of everyone for me, I have to say, is Joe Sugg. When he came down the stairs, I knew he did a bit of blogging, this and that, but I thought: ‘Will he take it serious?’

“He has proved that he is in it to do the best he can. He did it for his grandma. He surprises me every week.”

Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One on Saturday night.