THE curtain finally fell on Mark Benton as he becames the ninth celebrity to leave the Strictly dancefloor tonight.
It means that, despite a low score, New Waltham professional dancer and his celebrity partner, TV presenter Susanna Reid, have made it through to the quarter finals.
Saturday Night Fever hit the ballroom this weekend with a host of spectacular routines from the musicals on Strictly Come Dancing.
Hosts Sir Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly welcomed the remaining seven couples onto the Strictly dance floor for another chance to impress judges Len Goodman, Darcey Bussell, Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood, and the viewers at home.
Between them, the seven remaining couples danced a Charleston, Salsa, Quickstep, American Smooth, Viennese Waltz, Samba and Rumba. The judges' scores were combined with the results of the viewers' votes to decide the lowest scoring two couples facing the dance off.
Top billing last night went to Abbey Clancy and Aljaž Skorjanec who earned the first perfect score of the series for their Salsa to 'You Should Be Dancing' from Saturday Night Fever, securing 10 points from each judge.
Mark Benton and his partner Iveta Lukosiute faced tonight's dance off for the fourth week in a row alongside Ashley Taylor Dawson and his partner Ola Jordan who faced the dance off for the very first time.
Both couples performed their routines again; Mark and Iveta did their Samba to 'I Just Can't Wait to be King' from The Lion King, and Ashley and Ola performed their Rumba to 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin.
After both couples had danced a second time, the judges delivered their verdicts with Craig, Darcey and Bruno all choosing to save Ashley and Ola. Len added that he would have agreed with his colleague's decision to save Ashley and Ola.
Looking back at his time on the show, Mark said: "What a time I have had! I've got to say thank you to my dear friend and fantastic teacher Iveta, she is amazing. I also want to thank my amazing wife and children, the backstage guys, the beautiful band, the judges they are all amazing. I have had a ball."
Iveta added: "This is my first season and Mark made it so special and memorable. I enjoyed every minute with him, he made me laugh. I taught him dance and he taught me many more things than that. He is my family."
The professional dancers raised the curtain on Sunday evening's results show with a special themed dance from the musical Fame followed later in the evening by UK multi-platinum-selling and Tony Award-winning opera singer Alfie Boe who sang his rendition of 'Bring Him Home' from the hit musical Les Misérables.
Next week's quarter final show will feature the return of the Swing-a-thon, where the remaining couples dance Swing simultaneously and will be voted off the dance floor one by one by the judges until only one couple remains, all before getting back down to the serious business of seeing which two couples will face the dreaded dance off. The quarter final will be on Saturday 7th December at 7.10pm, with the results show on Sunday 8th December at 7.20pm on BBC One and BBC One HD.
See tomorrow's Grimsby Telegraph for more Strictly news.
