Layton Williams was certainly the glowing star of Strictly Come Dancing’s second live show on Saturday night, as he made history scoring 36 points.
The West End sensation, 29, sent fans – and clearly, the judges – in overdrive in a quickstep dance to Puttin’ on the Ritz by Gregory Porter alongside his pro partner Nikita Kuzmin, 25.
The pair scored the highest marks so far, bagging an impressive slew of 9 from all the judges on just their second week – an event which happened only once before in Strictly’s history.
Layton and Nikita blew fans away as they exuded perfect synchrony and confidence during their second live performance on the dance floor.
The actor stole the show as judge Motsi Mabuse was in awe of then performance and called it the ‘dance of the night’.
Making history: Layton Williams was certainly the glowing star of Strictly Come Dancing’s second live show on Saturday night, as he made history scoring 36 points
Star of the night: The pair scored the highest marks so far, bagging an impressive slew of 9 from all the judges on just their second week – an event which happened only once before in Strictly’s history
The quickstep performance didn’t disappoint, as Layton has teased it earlier on Tuesday during an appearance on Lorraine.
The Bad Education star discussed his challenging Strictly Come Dancing on the morning show and admitted he ‘thought he would cry’ during the show.
The actor appeared alongside his dancing partner Nikita on the show and said: ‘I saw my mum on the screen, and there was a lot of info on TV before you go on. I was like think: ”I’m going to cry”.’
The singer revealed getting into Strictly was challenging because of learning how to dance with another person and admitted he ‘still has a way to go’ to impress the judges.
Meanwhile choreographer Nikita agreed: ‘Because we are training in a ballroom, it’s a completely different subject.’
‘The judges are always there to help us, even when we criticise it,’ he added.
Layton said that the judges comment ‘really explain it’ and admitted: ‘I have a lot of work clearly still.’
The Strictly duo looked over the moon as Lorraine praised their iconic performance.
Stealing the show: The West End sensation stunned in a quickstep dance to Puttin’ on the Ritz by Gregory Porter alongside his pro partner Nikita Kuzmin, 25
Perfect pair: Layton and Nikita blew fans away as they exuded perfect synchrony and confidence during their second live performance on the dance floor
Praised: The actor stole the show as judge Motsi Mabuse was in awe of then performance and called it the ‘dance of the night’
Challenging: The quickstep performance didn’t disappoint, as Layton has teased it earlier on Tuesday during an appearance on Lorraine
‘It was very sexy, potential lovers teasing. But this Saturday we are going gross!,’ said Layton – referring to the second live sensational dance.
Nikita joined him as he teased a bit of what will be a historical performance on Saturday night: ‘We are switching up 1920s, putting on the Ritz.’
Talking about the high competition in the ball room, Nikita admitted: ‘Everybody so good this year.
The Ukrainian-Italian dancer said: ‘Is just nice to try things, try new characters and is so good to me to choreograph this beautiful man.’
And Nikita did not hold back from revealing that in the class room, Layton is actually a ‘goofy goofy mood’.
‘I don’t remember last time a student was giving me so much trust and focus,’ he added.
Their appearance on Lorraine comes after Layton’s prior dance experience has been called into question following his first performance.
Despite putting on an incredible display during their Samba to Little Mix’s Touch, which earned them an impressive 29 points, some fans weren’t sold on the performance.
Their dance encouraged a fresh wave of claims that it is ‘unfair’ for Layton to be involved on the BBC1 show because of his dance background.
The controversy was even addressed by judge Anton De Beke, who jumped into defend the performer, who has also starred in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
After the routine, Anton said: ‘I know you have previous dance experience but that’s very different from what we do here especially when you’re tackling a dance like samba with an enormously difficult technique.
‘What you need to work on are your feet, they are a bit turned in. It goes up through the legs. So you start with the basics and it will filter up. From the waist up it’s extraordinary and you’re quite magnificent.’
However, Anton’s words appeared to have fallen on deaf ears for some viewers, who still complained that Layton had an unfair advantage over the others.
Strictly Come Dancing 2023: Who are the couples?
Nigel Harman and Katya Jones
Bobby Brazier and Diane Buswell
Annabel Croft and Johannes Radebe
Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima
Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice
Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington
Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lauren Oakley
Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu
Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola
Adam Thomas and Luba Mushtuk
Jody Cundy and Jowita Przystał
Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin
Nikita Kanda and Gorka Marquez
Les Dennis and Nancy Xu
Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer
