BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing was at the centre of a furore last night after the BBC decided to suspend the public phone vote.

All three semi-finalist couples were astounded when it was announced they were all going through to next Saturday’s grand final, but the fact that tens of thousands of viewers needlessly rang in to save their favourite couple has caused outrage.

According to the Sunday Mirror, the BBC’s switchboard and internet forums were overwhelmed with complaints from viewers who felt they’d wasted their money when it turned out that their votes were being carried forward to next week.

Last night, the BBC confirmed that they’d been “inundated” with calls from angry viewers who demanded an explanation.

The announcement of the suspension of voting came as a shock after the judges scores last night put Rachel Stevens and Lisa Snowdon way ahead of Tom Chambers who couldn’t have been saved by the public vote.

A Strictly insider told the newspaper, “Lisa and Rachel are really annoyed and frustrated – they feel they have worked hard all week but it’s been wasted as they’ve not gone anywhere. Even Tom, who stayed in although he was last, is baffled.

“I think the Beeb did it because they wanted to appear clean after other voting scandals.”

A BBC spokesman is quoted as saying, “We have had a lot of calls. It isn’t that people are angry, more like confused.

“We found ourselves in a unique situation because of the way the voting system works. Because Tom Chambers could not be saved by the public vote we felt it wasn’t fair because he couldn’t be saved from the dance off.

“As far as we are aware this has not happened before and we didn’t anticipate it.”

Was this fair? Let us know what you think.