Strictly Come Dancing bids farewell to second contestant after tearful tribute to 'very special lady'

After Ross and Balvinder went head-to-head in the dance off, the judges delivered their unanimous verdict to save Balvinder and Julian. Craig Revel Horwood led the vote, followed by Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke. While head judge Shirley Ballas was spared from casting her vote, she said she would have also chosen to save Balvinder and Julian. 

Reflecting on his time in the competition, a tearful Ross told host Tess Daly: "I have loved every single minute of it. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us, all the people who voted – they've been amazing. I want to thank everyone here in this room, backstage, the judges, the crew – every single person here has made me so, so welcome.

And, I want to thank a very special lady who has been with me through it all and has been absolutely everything: she's been a mentor, teacher, carer..." (To which Jowita added "barista!") "...I could not have wished for a better partner, and I could not have wished to be on a better show. Thank you judges for all your remarks."

Turning to Jowita, Tess then said: "Jowita, you called Ross 'Your King,'" to which the professional dancer replied: "And I still stand by it! Thank you so much for all of your work. For everything you have done during rehearsals. We laugh a lot – but we also cried! Thank you so much, and I hope I'm going to be a little part in your life forever." 

Sunday's results show also featured a performance by the professional dancers to pay tribute to the Minecraft movie, while Nancy Xu and Kai Widdrington delivered a showstopping dance to Lang Lang's 'Reflection' from Mulan.