BBC angers Strictly fans with phone vote fiasco

The broadcaster refused to refund voters saying that the votes will be carried through to next week's final.

The decision was not made until after millions of viewers had spent two hours casting their votes at a cost of 15p a phone call.

Some viewers have complained that it was a stitch-up with the judges manipulating the result to make their choice of finalists inevitable, while others have accused the BBC of changing the rules in order to maximise ratings for the final.

There were originally meant to be three couples in the final, but following John Sergeant's controversial decision to leave the show early, the BBC decided to continue voting off one couple each week and have just two in the final.

The popular political journalist's exit from 'Strictly' sparked more than 2,000 complaints from viewers with speculation that he had been forced to quit following pressure from the judges.

The BBC has been involved in a series of phone-in scandal scandals over recent years. It came under fire when it emerged that between 2005 and 2007 it had kept more than £100,000 that viewers had pledged to charity.

In March last year viewers of 'Comic Relief' were encouraged to enter competitions they could not win because lines had closed.

In July 2006 'Sports Relief' viewers were encouraged to enter competitions they had no chance of winning and winners were faked by using production team members.

Later that year 'Blue Peter' allowed a child visiting the studio to pose as a caller in a phone-in competition when technical problems stopped real calls coming through.

'Blue Peter' found itself in trouble again in January last year after the results of a poll to name the show's cat were altered.