Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman has denied that the show is fixed.

Jamelia claimed this week that she knew producers had already decided she would be leaving the competition before the judges voted in the dance off-because they re-recorded a standing ovation for Peter Andre’s dance.

Peter Andre faces Jamelia in the dance-off on Strictly Come Dancing
Peter Andre faced Jamelia in the dance-off on Strictly Come Dancing (Guy Levy/BBC)

But Len denied the charge and reiterated that producers ”never interfere with our integrity or tell us what to say”.

“Eleven years I’ve done this show. Never has a producer, and I promise you, has ever come up to us and said, ‘mark so and so a bit higher, we’d love them to stay in’.

“They never interfere with our integrity or tell us what to say. We’re not scripted to say this or say that. We just come out, say what we see, and give a score,” he told Zoe Ball on It Takes Two on Wednesday.

Jamelia
Jamelia and Tristan MacManus lost out on their quickstep (BBC/Guy Levy)

Jamelia took part in her fifth dance-off on Saturday, dancing the quickstep with partner Tristan MacManus, against Peter Andre and Janette Manrara’s jive at Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

She was sent home by three of the judges - Craig Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell and Bruno Tonioli – despite receiving a higher score than Peter.

Len reasoned, “Firstly I didn’t think (her dance) was significantly better, and you can tell from the marks there was two points in it. Bruno and I gave them both 8s, and Darcey was one point different and so was Craig, so it wasn’t a clear cut thing, it was close.”

Peter Andre and Janette Manrara on Strictly Come Dancing
Peter Andre and Janette Manrara jiving on Strictly (Guy Levy/BBC)

Len said that he had watched back the two dances and still believed that Jamelia should have remained in, but acknowledged that the judges could only mark using their experiences.

“I thought Peter in the dance-off did dance a little bit better. I thought his kicks and flicks were a little bit sharper, so I can well understand why the other judges went for Peter, and I still felt Jamelia in that dance-off was a little bit better. It doesn’t make me right and it doesn’t make them wrong,” he said.

Strictly judges
Len explained that the judges come from different areas of dance (BBC/Ray Burmiston/Matt Burlem)

He added: “If you take Craig, he’s from the world of theatre, Darcey from the world of ballet, Bruno is from the world of pop videos and choreography, and I’m from the world of ballroom, so you are going to get different opinions, but it doesn’t make me right.”

After backlash from viewers, Len said that the show had decided to change procedure, with judges required to give their reasoning behind their choice.

“Henceforth when it comes to the dance-off, and they say Craig ‘who are you going to save’, he will say ‘because I thought blah blah blah, this and that’, and it will go down the line and we will explain ourselves as to why we’re going to save whoever.”

Iwan Thomas and Ola Jordan
Ola Jordan, who partnered with Iwan Thomas this series, also claimed the show was fixed (BBC Pictures)

Strictly’s director Nikki Parsons directly responded to Jamelia’s claim that Peter’s standing ovation was faked. She said he did get the audience on their feet and that extra continuity shots were taken during the four minutes it took to get the props off the stage.

However, Jamelia isn’t the first contestant to claim that the show is fixed.

Professional Ola Jordan told The Sun: “People are over-marked and under-marked. In my opinion they know how many votes people scored in the previous weeks and then they try to influence their position on the leaderboard.”