Layton Williams needed to take a moment for himself after some shocking comments on Strictly Come Dancing last weekend.

Craig Revel Horwood floored the nation when he failed – once again – to give Layton and his partner Nikita Kuzmin a 10, having found timing issues in their couple’s choice on Saturday.

This was after Layton and Nikita performed an incredible pole routine to Ain’t No Other Man by Christina Aguilera, which was dubbed ‘creative genius’ by head judge Shirley Ballas.

Viewers were up in arms after Craig pointed out that Layton and Nikita weren’t ‘in sync’ 100% of the time, and even Layton needed to ‘have a quiet word’ with himself after failing to score a perfect 40 for the third time this series.

Chatting about Craig’s remarks to Fleur East on It Takes Two on Monday, the Billy Elliot star said: ‘I, for sure, had a quiet word with myself to be like, oh, a little bit… but then, I though, we can’t be disappointed because we went out there and did the best that we possibly could.’

‘We’re still very grateful. It’s such a high score. 39 is almost perfect, you’re one score away from being perfect, so we’re still very grateful. We’re putting a lot of effort in and to receive such a high score is really lovely,’ Nikita added.

Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin scored 39 points for their epic couple’s choice (Picture: PA)

‘Of course, we’re gonna take the comments on board and shoot for that 40 one day, hopefully, it’ll come if we stick around, wink, wink!’, Layton joked.

‘But it gives us something to work forward to. There’s something about finishing a performance and going, do you know what? We really just did the best that we could on the night.’

‘At the end of the day, we are really proud of ourselves and everything we do,’ Nikita exclaimed.

‘As long as we are happy and people at home are happy to see what we do, that’s our job done.’

The much-loved duo had millions of viewers fighting their corner over the weekend, with social media arguing that Craig seems to have some sort of vendetta against Layton for always being ‘picky’ in his feedback.

One person wrote on X (formerly Twitter): ‘Don’t know who peed in Craig’s cornflakes this morning’, while another said he is now simply ‘asking for too much’.

The West End star was initially knocked by the feedback from Craig Revel Horwood (Picture: BBC)

Layton and Nikita insisted they are ‘grateful’ for the high praise (Picture: BBC)

Nikita is proud of the couple for doing their best each week (Picture: BBC)

‘Craig hates Layton. There is no other explanation. That dance was SENSATIONAL!!!’, another penned.

In his original comments, Craig told Layton and Nikita – who were joint top of the leaderboard with Ellie Leach: ‘This is a little bit of a dilemma for me because I loved it, number one, but it wasn’t entirely in sync.’

Craig was entirely drowned out by boos, with even the other celebs and their partners joining in with the jeering.

He went on: ‘That being said, you are one of the most incredible dancers that I have seen on this show over the 20 years I’ve been doing it.’

No couple has scored 40 this series, so could Layton and Nikita’s American smooth this coming weekend finally give them that perfect total?

We can’t wait to find out…

Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturday and Sunday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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Craig Revel Horwood found issues with their amazing routine.