Strictly Come Dancing 2023 Week 6 recap: Best moments from Halloween show

It was a jam-packed night so for all the highlights from Strictly Come Dancing Week 6, you can check out our handy video above.

Last night's show was the first since the surprise exit by Amanda Abbington and her professional partner Giovanni Pernice.

It opened with an emotional message from Claudia Winkleman, who acknowledged Amanda's departure which was announced earlier in the week on account of "personal reasons".

After we got acquainted with the contestants's spooky get-ups, Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu opened up the show with a Black Swan-inspired Paso Doble that "set the tone for the evening", according to head judge Shirley Ballas.

They set the bar high for the night, scoring an impressive 33 for their routine before the "highest American Smooth of the series" was executed by actor Adam Thomas and his partner Luba Mushtuk, who played a pair of wizards on the night.

After facing the dance-off in last week's episode, Zara McDermott was back for a Charleston to Jeepers Creepers by Al Donahue and his Orchestra. The routine was cheered on from the sidelines by Zara's boyfriend Sam Thompson and his sister Louise, but the routine failed to captivate the judges as Zara bagged the lowest score of the night.

Next up, fan-favourite Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin took on a vampire-themed Tango to Olivia Rodrigo's song of the same name which got a standing ovation from the audience.

The judges beamed with praise as Craig called the performance a "theatrical triumph" but pointed out some minor mistakes, including a rogue thumb of Layton's sticking out throughout the routine. The pair ended up at second place on the leaderboard.

While other performances on the night provided a mix of scary and joyous costumes, Nigel Harman and partner Katya Jones failed to completely wow the judges, as well as newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lauren Oakley who scored 27.

EastEnders star Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell certainly had the judges talking about their Hansel and Gretel Cha-Cha, but while Bobby's hips may have been the main compliment of the night, the judges agreed that technically, it could have been better.

Anton Du Beke also made a poignant reference to the late Strictly head judge Len Goodman when commenting on Annabel Croft's Tango with Johannes Radebe.

He remarked: "I tell you who would love this, dear old Len would love this because you took hold at the beginning. And you started to do a Tango in hold and you came out of hold when the music stopped playing. Absolutely brilliant."

But it was Angela Rippon's ode to Murder, She Wrote that really got fans talking. While many viewers didn't understand the Halloween pull of dressing up as Angela Lansbury, many were left stunned after their performance because of Craig's high score of 9.

While that's not altogether too surprising, Craig scored the highest out of all the judges, which was one of the only times that has ever happened in the history of his appearances on Strictly.

But it was the final performance of the night from Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola that astounded everyone as they took on a Salsa to Murder on the Dancefloor.

Ellie blew the judges away with Motsi Mabuse proclaiming it "the dance of the night" while Craig praised the pair for incorporating so many different styles into their Salsa. The compliments kept coming and the scores were the highest of the night as Leach and Coppola sat at the top of the Strictly leaderboard with an impressive score of 38.

Strictly Come Dancing's results show will air on Sunday 29th October at 7:20pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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