JOE Sugg is pinching himself after he was voted through to the final of BBC TV’s Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday.

Lacock’s YouTube prankster, former thatcher and now dancer has confounded expectations by being one of two novices to make the last week of the show. Together with his dance partner Dianne Buswell, he performed two dances on Saturday night. They were a Viennese waltz to ‘This Year’s Love’ by David Gray and an Argentine tango to ‘Red Right Hand’ by Nick Cave.

Despite criticism from the judges, they safely negotiated their way to the final, while it was Lauren Steadman who lost out in the dance-off with Ashley Roberts and Pasha Kovalev.

Joe attended Corsham School and was for a time a trainee thatcher with his uncle Gary Sugg in Wiltshire.

His uncle said: “It’s good that a Wiltshire lad is through to the final. We’re all very proud of him and apart from my mum he’s the only dancer in the family. We all went up to Blackpool for that round where his nan had danced in the past and it was brilliant. I’ve read in the papers that he’s the housewives’ choice so he must stand a chance of winning.

“My favourite dances were the cha-cha-cha because it had the thatching theme and the foxtrot where he got a couple of tens from the judges.

“He would have made a really good thatcher if he’d stayed in the business, but he decided to go into social media.”

Gary Sugg said that he had customers coming up to him to say they never watched the programme but because Joe was in it they watched it every week and voted for him.

“The BBC came down to film here,” he said, “to get the thatching in as a theme. We met Dianne and she is a lovely girl and it felt like Dianne and Joe were like brother and sister. They just click and understand each other.”

Marlborough dance teacher Cheryl Heuston said: “As a complete beginner, Joe has improved week by week, and has fought off some tough competition to get where he is.

“Although Joe’s scores were much lower than the previous week’s, this just proved to me that the judges are becoming more critical as the dancers get closer to the final.

“His posture, performance and musicality has improved massively.”