Murray 'to be dancefloor disaster'

Craig Revel Horwood is predicting Judy Murray will be a dancefloor disaster when she makes her debut on Strictly Come Dancing this weekend.

The sharp-tongued judge, who has been with the show since it started a decade ago, believes the mother of tennis champ Andy is going to be a handful for her professional partner Anton du Beke.

Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, Revel Horwood said he had been unimpressed when she took part in a group dance earlier this month on the preview edition of the BBC1 show in which the couples are paired up for the first time.

He said: “Anton is the perfect person for Judy. I have only seen 30 seconds of her dancing and that was enough. I think Anton really has his work cut out.”

Revel Horwood said Murray’s sporting background will have prepared her for his no-nonsense assessments of the contestants’ abilities, as he explained: “Generally sports people get on very well because they are used to criticism.

“When you’re a sports person, your coach is always telling you what’s wrong, not what’s right, so you can improve it, and that’s basically my job on the panel. Now if she can’t get used to hearing the truth about her dancing then she’s going to have to rethink the entire programme.”

He said he expected singer Pixie Lott to be “fantastic”, but added that success would depend on the personality that chimed with viewers as well as ability.

The programme judge also talked about the impact that the close proximity with their dance partners has on contestants’ relationships away from the show.

He said: “When you’re dancing the rumba, up close and personal for eight hours a day, well, it does release the happy endorphins in the brain and lot of people didn’t have that before Strictly, and then you start exercising and the chemistry between people changes.”