'A night of miracles': David James wins his greatest 'Strictly' score as Mike Bushell gets a 9

Strictly Come Dancing’s king of the dance-off David James has finally found his greatest showman with a 12-point improvement on last week’s score.

But he wasn’t the only celebrity to show a vast improvement in what was dubbed “a night of miracles”, as Mike Bushell even managed to pick up a nine for his Quickstep.

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Ex-footballer James and his partner Nadiya Bychkova also had success with the Quickstep, inspired by The Greatest Showman to the film’s song From Now On, and shocked judges and viewers with a transformation in their performance.

James, who has been in both dance-offs of the series so far, threw himself into his week four routine with an energy level that was a complete surprise to the judging panel.

Bruno Tonioli asked him: “What is going on, did you change your diet? You were dancing!

“I’ve never seen a transformation like it.”

Head judge Shirley Ballas agreed: “It’s miraculous, the change from week one. I’m absolutely gobsmacked.”

The couple earned a score of 28 points, including a very unexpected eight from Tonioli.

James and Bychkova’s scores in the previous three weeks have ranged from 10 to 17, so his high 20s points total seemed to lift him out of the danger zone for the first time in the competition.

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Also rising from the bottom end of the leaderboard to up his game this week was Mike Bushell and his partner Katya Jones who managed to bag a nine from Motsi Mabuse.

In previous weeks, Bushell has been treated as the joke contestant of the competition, but this time his score totalled a huge 32 points and reduced partner Jones to floods of tears.

Tonioli branded it “a night of miracles” as he marvelled at the change in performance from both Bushell and James.

However, at the opposite end of the scoring were Alex Scott and Neil Jones, who suffered some harsh criticism of their Tango.

Mabuse told Scott: “You’re being a little bit careful because you’re trying to make everyone happy. You know what, it’s never going to happen, so you need to say nice that you’re sitting here judging me but I’m going to do my thing and enjoy it.

“I don’t think we’ll ever, ever, ever be extremely happy, so you just have to do your thing.”

On 23 points, Scott and Jones are the lowest scorers of week four so are in a risky position for the dance-off.

Strictly Come Dancing returns for the results show on Sunday at 7.15pm on BBC One.