TV's Castle flops out of Strictly

Castle's performance was "heavy-footed", according to one judge

GMTV presenter Andrew Castle has been voted off Strictly Come Dancing after judges said his samba fell flat.

The former tennis player became the seventh celebrity to leave the BBC show after losing out in the dance-off to singer Heather Small.

Head judge Len Goodman said his routine lacked "bounce" and he should be more bouncy castle than Andrew Castle.

All four judges kicked him off after he came in the bottom two in the public vote, scoring 21 points out of 40.

Castle lasted the same number of weeks as his GMTV co-host Kate Garraway, who appeared in the competition last year.

Len Goodman told the presenter: "The key to the samba is you've got to get that bounce out."

'unleash the beast'

Fellow judge and choreographer Bruno Tonioli added: "The samba should have the excitement of the Brazilian Grand Prix and this was a Brazilian grand flop: no bounce, poor hip action, heavy-footed."

And choreographer Arlene Phillips told Castle he should stop holding back in his performance.

"You just need to unleash the beast, just let it go," she said.

After hearing the bad news, Castle paid tribute to his professional partner Ola Jordan.

He said: "Can I just take a second here to thank... the person who's as beautiful as she is talented and generous too - Ola."

Singer Heather Small and her partner Brian Fortuna survived the dance-off for the third time.

Next Sunday Beyonce will make a special guest appearance on the results show.

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