Will Mellor admits he's 'a bit annoyed' by harsh Strictly judging after illness

Will Mellor has admitted to being "a bit annoyed" that the Strictly Come Dancing judges scored him so harshly after a week in bed with flu.

Coronation Street star Mellor, 46, had appeared on spin-off show It Takes Two last week sounding very unwell and explaining that he had a bad virus which had meant he had to miss almost all of his training.

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But he still took part in Saturday's live show with partner Nancy Xu - and said he wished he hadn't bothered as they languished in second last place on the leaderboard with just four points from Craig Revel Horwood and five from Shirley Ballas for their Rumba.

Mellor told the PA news agency: "I’d only trained for about five hours that week because I’d been in bed with the full-on flu virus. I was in a bad way. The judges knew, but they just decided not to mention it or take it into consideration.

“I was a bit annoyed by it, to be honest, because I was struggling, and when you’re that way you feel a bit sorry for yourself, and when I got the scores I was a bit, ‘After all that…?!’. I got a four from Craig, but that’s just the way it is. They have to judge it as they see it, and that’s up to them.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have [danced], because the judges slagged me off – I should’ve just left it!”

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However, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke did seem to take his difficult week into account, both scoring him seven.

Mellor said: “It’s hard taking criticism when you’re not feeling great. I don’t want it to come across that I’m complaining about the judges’ scoring – that’s part of the competition.

“I wanted to dance, it was my decision – they offered to let me have the week off, but I thought I’ll see how I feel, and if I can dance, I should do.”

Although Mellor and Xu were in second last place, just three points ahead of Matt Goss and Nadiya Bychkova who were sent home, it was actually Kym Marsh and Graziano Di Prima who were in the dance off, suggesting the viewers took pity on Mellor in their voting.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.40pm on BBC One.

Watch: Who is Strictly's Will Mellor?