Head Judge Shirley Ballas – who this week was the judge with the casting vote – said that she would also have chosen to save Balvinder and Julian, should she have been required to vote.

When asked by Tess Daly about their time on the show, a tearful Ross King said: “I have loved every single minute of it. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us, all the people who voted – they’ve been amazing. I want to thank everyone here in this room, backstage, the judges, the crew – every single person here has made me so, so welcome. And, I want to thank a very special lady who has been with me through it all and has been absolutely everything: she’s been a mentor, teacher, carer…” (To which Jowita added “barista!”) “…I could not have wished for a better partner, and I could not have wished to be on a better show. Thank you judges for all your remarks.”

Tess then turned to Jowita Przystał and said “Jowita, you called Ross ‘Your King’”. Jowita replied: “And I still stand by it! Thank you so much for all of your work. For everything you have done during rehearsals. We laugh a lot – but we also cried! Thank you so much, and I hope I’m going to be a little part in your life forever.”

Sunday’s results show also featured a routine from Strictly’s Professional Dancers in tribute to the Minecraft movie, plus Nancy Xu and Kai Widdrington dancing to a magnificent performance from Lang Lang of Reflection from the film Mulan.

The remaining thirteen couples will take to the dancefloor next week when Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday 18 October at 6:30pm, with the results show on Sunday 19 October at 7:15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Both of this weekend’s episodes are available to watch now via BBC iPlayer.