VETERAN POLITICAL journalist John Sergeant will waltz off the set of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancingfor the last time on Saturday night for fear he could actually go on to win.
"The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far," he said yesterday with the announcement that he plans to hang up his dancing shoes after a farewell performance on this week's show.
The 64-year-old broadcaster has endeared himself to the British public in face of constant criticism from the award-winning show's judges, who last Saturday placed him at the bottom of their score card for the third week in succession. Amid a gathering "national debate" about this exercise of people power - and with social networking sites mobilising support for the outsider - some bookmakers had sharply dropped the odds against him defying the experts to claim the title.
That prospect prompted Strictly Come DancingJudge Arlene Phillips to liken Sergeant to "a non-dancing Mickey Rooney", following last week's exclusion of actress Cherie Lunghi - the ninth celebrity contestant to leave the show - despite what judges described as her breakthrough performance.
Phillips told the BBC earlier this week that, while his fellow contestants rehearsed, Sergeant sat around reading the Guardianor otherwise spent his time fooling around with dance partner Kristina Rihanoff.
"We've never had anyone this bad who has gone this far," she railed. "It is a little bit disheartening when the public are voting for a non-dancing Mickey Rooney . . . his posture's wrong, his feet are turned in, he hasn't got the rise and fall, is head's on one side. In terms of dance, everything is wrong with it." Ms Lunghi, meanwhile, accused the former wise man of BBC political coverage of turning the show into "a soap opera".
Yesterday singer and presenter Cilla Black, speaking at the pantomime season launch in London, declaring herself "shocked and stunned" upon hearing the news of Sergeant's departure. "I think it is an absolute disgrace because it is a public show, it is supposed to be entertainment," Black protested. "So yes, the judges judge on the dancing, but at the end of the day it is the public that pays money for the licence and it is up to them to judge who they want on the show."
Business secretary Peter Mandelson, who said earlier this week he would like to be asked to go on the show, said: "John Sergeant should not bow out. He has become the people's John Travolta and he should be a fighter, not a quitter."
BBC controller Jay Hunt: "He has been an entertaining contestant and is hugely popular with the viewers. We would have liked him to stay, but we respect his decision to leave."