Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas made a hilarious innuendo as she lauded actor Joe McFadden’s routine.

The head judge praised McFadden as the “dark horse” of the competition who was “coming from behind” following a comical charleston on Saturday night’s show.

The Holby City star and partner Katya Jones donned matching marching band outfits for the routine to Ella Fitzgerald’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band which scored the duo a new high of 36.

But viewers were struck by Ballas’ accidental X-rated comment as she was labelled a “minx” on Twitter.

@Evilcheltdevil tweeted: “‘Coming in from behind’? Careful Shirley.”

@Mattman_00 wrote: “errr…. dark horse joe coming from behind on shirley… this is xrated stuff.”

@Fatherbananas posted: “Shirley stop” while @PerpitateNic wrote: “Shirley you minx”.

Prior to their charleston, McFadden and Jones had never scored higher than 32.