LEN GOODMAN - STRICTLY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL HIT BY VOTING MIX-UP

STRICTLY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL HIT BY VOTING MIX-UP

The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special had to be halted during recording after the judges' votes left four couples in joint first place.

The four-way tie would have prevented the remaining two couples competing in the one-off edition of the BBC1 show from winning the contest.

Audience members - though not viewers watching at home - were asked to recast their votes after head judge Len Goodman had re-ranked the couples whose scores were tied.

Though the Christmas edition did not involve a public telephone vote, the mix-up is the second time this series Strictly Come Dancing has been affected by a problem with the voting set-up.

Holby City actor Tom Chambers - who won the sixth series of the show on Saturday - was allowed through to the final earlier this month even though fellow contestants Lisa Snowdon and Rachel Stevens had been awarded identical scores by the judging panel.

That meant that whatever happened in the audience vote, Chambers and his dancing partner Camilla Dallerup would have had to face the dance-off and that was deemed to be "unfair" by the show's producers.

Almost 1,800 people complained over the scoring mix-up and the BBC has promised a review of the system to prevent future anomalies.

"During the course of filming the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special, there was a four-way tie at the top of the leader board after the judges had voted," said a BBC statement issued today.

"In these circumstances Len Goodman, as head judge, ranks the tying couples and that is what happened on this occasion.

"In order to allow for this contingency the show was stopped to give Len an opportunity to reach a considered decision and for producers to brief the presenters and dancers on the changed running order."

The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special can be seen on BBC One on Christmas Day at 1900 GMT.