Strictly: Sheffield's Dan Walker brushes off second-lowest score of Movie Week

TV presenter Dan, who lives in Sheffield with his wife and three children, made a princely effort on the dancefloor tonight with a Sleeping Beauty inspired foxtrot.

Sadly, the South Yorkshire favourite made a wincing misstep midway through the performance. And despite a valiant effort to recover, the stumble was picked on by the judges, earning them the second-lowest rank of the night with a score of 21.

"I wanted to say ‘arise, Sir Dan,” said judge Anton Du Beke. “But it went wrong.

"You were dancing quite elegantly, you’ve got a wonderful posture, your footwork is improving – but you went wrong… But it wasn’t a bad effort.”

True to fashion, Craig Revel Horwood was less encouraging, who served the couple with a scolding score of 3 to boos from the audience.

"They were big mistakes, darling, they weren’t tiny ones,” said the well-known scathing critic.

"You clearly lost your confidence, which is a shame. You need to learn how to get into these situations and rebuild the mood.

"It wasn’t great. Sorry."

Judge Motsi Mabuse was kinder, saying: “You have to lose yourself once you get on the dancefloor… That’s why I fell in love with your dancing in the first place.”

In response to the judges, Dan said: “I can’t tell you what went wrong.”

In the post-dance interview, Dan and Nadiya dedicated their fairytale foxtrot to the two daughters of rugby player Rob Burrow.

BACKGROUND: Dan Walker trains at Sheffield dance studio ahead of live TV debut

The two girls of the former English scrum-half - who is battling Motor Neurone Disease – sent the ballroom couple a video of encouragement this week and Dan took time to thank them on telly.

Meanwhile, the bottom-rung score means the couple could be battling for their place in the show at Sunday night’s live elimination show.

It comes after the pair were in the running to get voted off last week, only for Nina Wadia to leave instead.

Tonight’s show, which is the third week in the this year’s series, was themed after the annual Movie Week, where the stars dance to famous film scores.