Craig Revel Horwood got "whacked" in the face by "an old woman" because she was unimpressed by his 'Strictly Come Dancing' critiques.

Craig Revel Horwood

Craig Revel Horwood

The 55-year-old choreographer is known for his harsh comments on the judging panel of the BBC One Latin and ballroom contest, and though viewers don't always agree with his remarks, it seems they don't want him to be nicer.

He said: "An old woman came up to me on the street and whacked me across the face.

"Then she said, 'That's because you said something really bad about my favourite celebrity. But please don't change, I love it!' "

While he may upset contestants with his comments, Craig "doesn't care" how he makes them feel as he's only interested in the dancing, not the celebrities themselves.

He admitted to Event magazine: "I don't care about the celebrities, oddly. I care about the dancing but I don't care about their emotional state and I don't care how they take the criticism, because that's not my problem."

And the judge insisted he doesn't have the time to be nicer with his critique.

He said: "There's no time to sugar-coat it. I've got 20 seconds to speak my mind."

Last year, it was claimed Craig was ready to quit the show after being told to apologise for making a joke about previous winner Stacey Dooley and her professional partner Kevin Clifton, who later got together romantically, and he admitted there was some truth in the rumours.

He said: "There is some truth in the fact I said that if the BBC told me what I had to say - if I was scripted in any way - and if I was told I couldn't say something, then I would not want to do the job.

"But I said, 'I will apologise, absolutely, if it has upset her.' I spoke to Stacey directly after that comment anyway. Plus they'd moved in together!'