Dan Walker: 'Lovely to see how much it meant' Host applauds emotional Strictly performance

Dan Walker, 42, praised Paralympian Will Bayley, 31, and his professional partner Janette Manrara, 35, for their performance on Saturday night’s Strictly Come Dancing.

“They should give @WillBayleytt and @jmanrara a little glitter ball for that performance tonight. Lovely to see how much it meant to them both and so many others,” he tweeted to his 581,500 Twitter followers.

The Paralympian and his pro-dance partner performed a contemporary dance to Seven Years by Lukas Graham and were awarded a total of 32 points by the judges.

Fans congregated under his tweet to agree with the BBC host, with one user remarking: “Yes they should. I was a blubbering mess and I don’t often vote but I did tonight. Loved it and loved them.”

“Did I see a tear in Craig’s eye?” Another quizzed.

A third tweeted: “I defy anyone to watch that and not get emotional, I just wanted to give that young man a hug!”

Will suffers from arthrogryposis which affects all four of his limbs, but that didn’t stop him on Saturday as the pair received a standing ovation from the studio audience and the judges, all except Craig Revel Horwood who was hurriedly writing notes in his notebook.

Guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro who was standing in for Bruno Tonioli, had to compose himself before giving his feedback: “You brought chills. You gave me chills. That was incredibly inspiring and there are going to be young boys and girls who watched that performance and know that anything is possible.”

Judge Motsi Mabuse was also left speechless and in tears and received a big hug from Will.

Head judge Shirley Ballas said: “Well this is you. You came out here, you shared your journey, I’m sure every child in every children’s hospital is looking at that today and has discovered no matter what you put your mind to, you can do it and get extreme circumstances­.”

Craig also gushed: “Clear emotional story telling and an absolute a complete inspiration.”

Surrounded by his fellow contestants, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house as Will told Claudia Winkleman: “It meant so much to me, every step,” after they left the dance floor.

In their intro, Will and Janette visited Great Ormand Street Hospital where Will was once a patient when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

A patient gifted a handmade mini glitter ball trophy to the dancer who was overwhelmed with joy.

The athlete dedicated his couples choice dance to all the doctors, nurses and patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a real tear-jerker statement that left fans an emotional mess: “I have watched Strictly from day 1 and NEVER have I cried before. Tonight I was moved to tears by Will & Janette. In pieces. Brilliant, well done,” another Twitter user said.

Their emotive dance sent Will and Janette’s votes rising as social media users declared they would be voting to save the couple from elimination.

But unfortunately one celebrity had to go and this week ex-footballer David James and partner Nadiya Bychkova were given the boot from the show.

Odds weren’t in David’s favour from the get go last week and it seems that the bookmaker’s predictions were correct.

Sunday’s results saw David and Nadiya go head to head with BBC’s Mike Bushell and his partner Katya Jones in the dance off.

All four judges chose to save Mike and Katya which left some fans raging following the controversial exit of Dev Griffin and Dianne Buswell last week.

But now that the eliminations are over with, we can all look forward to the Halloween episode in week six.

Strictly Come Dancing continues next Saturday on BBC.

source: express.co.uk