STRICTLY judge Craig Revel Horwood has defended keeping Seann Walsh and Katya Jones on the show — so they can do a “dance of shame”.

There had been calls to axe the love cheats after they were pictured by The Sun on Sunday snogging on a boozy night out.

But Craig, 53, said: “My take was, keep them in the show, make them do the Dance of Shame, if you like.

“I’m just saying it’s really important if this does happen to you, you face up to it. If you’re on your Christmas party and you snogged the boss, for instance, you’d still have to do the walk of shame on the Monday, wouldn’t you?”

Yesterday Seann, 32, and pro partner Katya, 29, were filmed cooking and scoffing a pizza for a skit on the show — the day after unconvincing apologies for their smooch on spin-off It Takes Two.

Grim-faced Seann, dumped by actress Rebecca Humphries, 32, said their five-year relationship was “far from perfect” anyway. Russian Katya insisted her marriage to show choreographer Neil Jones, 35, was “absolutely fine”.

Craig discussed the scandal while filming Saturday’s Jonathan Ross show with fellow judges Shirley Ballas and Darcey Bussell.

When talk turned to the couple’s dance in week three, a drastic improvement on the week before, he made a bizarre comparison to X-rated actors.

He said: “I would put it down to hard work and being able to act through the dance and tell that story. You know there are people in porn, for instance.

“You know the cutaway shots, they’re not really doing them, we all know that. No, darling!”

Darcey, 49, interjected: “I know nothing about porn, sorry,”

Craig also claimed the show’s “curse” affects only dancers already in unhappy relationships.

He blasted: “One person is married, the other one had a girlfriend but my point in this entire thing is, if you come on Strictly, sometimes you are in a relationship.

“Of course that is not working anyway and people, I have noticed, that if they are in love or are married, end up being absolutely faithful to one another because of that love.

“It doesn’t mean you’re going to fall in love with your partner at any given point.

“And it doesn’t mean that you’re going to fall in love with your dancer does it, at any given point in time?

“That’s like me falling in love with Darcey.”

He said: “If you come on Strictly, sometimes you are in a relationship. Of course that’s not working anyway and people, I have noticed, that if they are in love or are married, end up being absolutely faithful to one another because of that love.”

Show chiefs have downgraded Seann and Katya’s next dance from a sexy rumba to a jaunty Charleston.

Craig said: “I wanted to see the rumba, the dance of love, I’m sure everyone wants to see that.

“That’s one of my favourite dances. You still have to act through it.”