It’s the Strictly Come Dancing final this Saturday (16 December) which means one thing: either Layton Williams, Bobby Brazier or Ellie Leach will be crowned the Strictly 2023 winner and take home this year’s glitterball trophy.
West End star Layton has been wowing the judges and viewers alike with his incredible performance, earning the first – and so far, only – full marks performance of the series when Craig Revel Horwood picked up his number ten paddle for Layton’s paso doble with Nikita Kuzmin.
However, the competition hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing for Layton as he’s faced criticism for his past dance experience. Although he’s not let it affect his performances, Layton has now opened up on how he’s dealt with the backlash.
Speaking ahead of the final Layton said, “I think people think I just rock up to the studio and I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s go’. I wish we could get people to come in and see [us training] sometimes.
“From the very beginning, I’ve been like, ‘If people are going to expect a certain level, let’s give them that and then some’. I feel like, hopefully, we have managed to rise to people expectations.”
He continued, “It has been hard, the pressure of feeling like you have to do well. This is the funny thing, no one’s going hard and moaning and complaining when I’m rubbish. Remember the Viennese waltz? I didn’t get no tweets that week, did I?
“It’s only when you’re doing cute that people want to drag you down, which is fine, and we’ve managed to get around that.”
This is the first time that Layton’s dance partner Nikita has made it all the way to the final, but it sounds like he isn’t letting the pressure get to him.
He said, “I feel like we’ve won no matter what. If you look back at every single thing we’ve done in the training room, our friendship, representation, I couldn't have asked for a better journey."
Although we’re excited to see who triumphs in the final, we will be sad to see Strictly bow out for another year – but at least we’ve got the Christmas special to look forward to.