Will Castle serve up a Paso Doble fault?

As soon as the Strictly Come Dancing resident band struck up the opening notes of Amy Winehouse’s appropriately titled You Know I’m No Good we all could’ve guessed what was coming.

Andrew Castle, in his sporting heyday the best tennis player in Britain, and pro dance partner Ola Jordan endured a decidedly rocky 90 minutes during Saturday’s live broadcast of the BBC’s hit primetime TV show.

After their opening dance of the sixth series, their visually challenging Cha Cha Cha, and week three’s by now famous ‘head-butting’ Tango sequence came the couple’s American Smooth routine.

“More dazed and confused than American Smooth,” was how Strictly judge Bruno Tonioli put it, while fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood blasted Castle for tripping over his own feet and for his “banana-like” hands. Ouch!

Even the nice one on the judging panel, Len Goodman, couldn’t defend the performance. “A gallant effort,” he said, but “it didn’t work tonight.”

It was entertaining, don’t get us wrong, but entertainment of the slap-stick variety – particularly towards the end of the performance when the GMTV presenter almost dropped the lovely Ola as he attempted the final lift of the dance.

Miraculously, however, despite notching up the second-lowest score of the evening, the duo again escaped the Sunday night dance-off – Britain’s breakfast TV-watching public must have been hard at it on the phonelines.

Instead it was Don ‘Rising Damp’ Warrington who was kicked off the programme after singer Heather Small out-danced him in the live play-off.

This week Castle will be learning the dramatic Paso Doble, which, says the BBC website, should feature sharp movements and have elements of Flamenco dancing.

Let’s hope Andrew and Ola can serve up a performance that’s more ace than doble fault…