Watch as Strictly star Pete Wicks whispers sweet message to his dance partner Jowita Pryzstal seconds after huge dance error

Pete Wicks was heard repeatedly apologising to his Strictly Come Dancing partner Jowita Pryzstal seconds after finishing their routine on Saturday night. 

The former TOWIE star, 36, transformed into Queen frontman Freddie Mercury as he opened the BBC show performing a salsa to hit Another One Bites The Dust.

Though he was certainly dressed the part with Freddie’s trademark moustache and slick backed hair, Pete’s performance was flawed. 

The reality star’s routine involved a daring lift where he swung Jowita just above the floor where she came incredibly close to bashing the dance floor. 

As they finished the dance for the shows first-ever Icons Week, Pete could be heard apologising to Jowita as she approached him. 

He said: ‘I’m sorry, darling. I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry’. 

Jowita was heard reassuring Pete saying everything was OK. 

The judges, Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Anton Du Beke and Motsi Mabuse enjoyed Pete’s showmanship and noted his errors. 

Head judge Shirley said: ‘You embraced the character of Freddie Mercury so, so well. I’m not going to overjudge this and I’ll tell you why.

‘You made quite a lot of mistakes, so it wouldn’t be fair to, we all know you made mistakes we could see them.

‘But what I was impressed with was how you picked it up. You carried on like a trooper, you did your lifts and thought I’m just going to get on with it and do the job.

‘May they vote for you because you were great.’

Meanwhile Craig said: ‘What a terrible shame. It lacked rotation, it lacked fluidity’.

Motsi added: ‘The dancing needs to get better.’

Pete ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard scoring just 22 points for the performance with Craig scoring a four and the remaining three judges scoring sixes.

Speaking to host Claudia Winkleman afterwards, Pete said it was an ‘honour’ dancing as Freddie but called the song choice ‘ironic’.

He added: ‘It’s probably written in the stars, but I enjoyed it.’

Elsewhere during the show, professionals Nancy Xu and Carlos Gu awkwardly kept their distance in the Clauditorium.

Just hours after the live episode aired on the BBC it was claimed that the pair have had a ‘shocking’ falling out and are now refusing to speak behind the scenes.

Nancy, 33, and Carlos, 31, both grew up in China and have been close since childhood in the past have shared cute nicknames for one another. 

The pair have unfollowed each other on social media and according to new reports, tensions backstage have left their fellow pros ‘shocked’. 

And as the dancers and pros debriefed with host Claudia in the upstairs area of the studio Nancy made sure to stand on the far left with her celebrity partner Shayne Ward. 

Carlos – who doesn’t have a partner this year – was stood far away on the other side of Claudia as he supported Amy Dowden after she returned to the show following a health scare.

Carlos was dressed as David Bowie with his iconic face paint and rede hair.   

An insider told The Sun on Saturday: ‘The feud between Nancy and Carlos is really sad and has left everyone really shocked. They’ve been close since childhood, but have fallen out and unfollowed each other on socials.’

It’s claimed tensions arose after Carlos was left disappointed not to be paired with a celeb this series, while Nancy has been busy in rehearsals with Shayne Ward, 40.

The source added: ‘The atmosphere on set is said to be awkward and tense when both are around, and to many it was a relief when Carlos didn’t attend the show weeks ago’.

Meanwhile a separate source told MailOnline: ‘Both Carols and Nancy are extremely cordial and always incredibly professional on Strictly premises’.

MailOnline have the dancers representative and the BBC for comment. 

The Icons Week results will air this evening on BBC One at 7.20pm.