Halloween rumba the kiss of death for Dell’Olio’s ambitions on Strictly

Italian businesswoman Nancy Dell’Olio has been criticised by the Strictly Come Dancing judges for the last time.

The property lawyer and former girlfriend of ex-England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson had been clinging on to a place in the BBC1 dance contest despite maulings from the panel, but was voted off the show after a rumba with her professional partner, Anton Du Beke, failed to impress.

They picked up the lowest score from the judges in Saturday night’s broadcast, just 14 points out of a possible 40, and the viewers seemed to share the opinion of the experts when their votes were counted yesterday.

In keeping with the Halloween theme of Saturday’s show, Dell’Olio climbed out of a coffin before the pair danced to Spooky.

Judge Craig Revel Horwood told her: “The moment you stepped out of that sarcophagus was the moment it went horribly wrong.”

Len Goodman, said: “There were moments of Mills & Boon, and moments of meals on wheels.”

And judge Alesha Dixon commented: “Nancy, I think you’re a sexy woman and you know how to work it. But I have to be honest, you are a walking disaster. You both should have stayed in the coffin.”

Dell’Olio said: “I will miss many moments, of course. It has been such a full-on experience. I am going to go back to the rest of my life.”

The show had an average audience of 10.2 million viewers, or a 42.7 per cent share, the BBC said.

The 15-minute peak for the programme at 7:45pm saw a figure of 11.3 million.

Rival ITV said The X Factor on Saturday night also peaked with 11.3 million viewers.