Fleur East addresses prop incident that led to her restarting Strictly dance-off

Strictly Come Dancing’s Fleur East has addressed the prop incident that led to her restarting her dance-off performance, saying: “The show must go on.”

The singer and presenter, 35, and her professional dance partner Vito Coppola restarted their performance following an “incident with a prop”, although this was not shown on TV.

Appearing on Loose Women, Coppola revealed it had been his tumble that prompted the restart.

He said: “Basically what happened is that in the first few seconds of our number, I just fell down on the chair.

“Literally was like a bad fall. Everyone was gasping but I showed them I was OK and able to restart – so thank you.

“I’m fine, I’m here today, so all good. Thank you very much.”

Loose Women panellist Denise Welch asked them: “It was health and safety, wasn’t it? That’s why you did it again.”

Coppola replied: “We were continuing because we always say to each other, ‘If anything happens, let’s just keep going, keep continuing’.

“And literally I was trying to stand up and continue, and when I turned around she was like spinning.”

East added: “I was ready, I was like the show must go on. And then production decided to stop the music. We were like, ‘Oh, OK’.”

In a statement shared with the PA news agency, a BBC spokesperson said the show had been stopped “as a matter of urgency”.

“After an incident with a prop at the beginning of Fleur and Vito’s dance-off performance, the decision was made to halt proceedings to check they were not injured, as a matter of urgency,” the spokesperson said.

Following the final performances, judge Craig Revel Horwood said it was his “responsibility” as a judge to “save the better dancer”, meanwhile Motsi Mabuse said there were “different levels of dancing on the dance floor”.

Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday November 5 at 7pm, with the results show on Sunday November 6 at 7.15pm on BBC One.