Can flat-footed John Sergeant survive another week of Strictly Come Dancing? Peter Rhodes explains why he will be voting for him

Now is the hour to put down that glass of Wincarnis, engage the hearing aid, pull on the slippers and pad across to the phone to vote for John Sergeant.

He is the people’s champion, the paunchy epitome of middle-aged Middle England with a face like a sackful of sago and the dancing ability of a turtle. You thought TV talent shows were about talent? Oh, wake up and smell the Horlicks. These shows are all about cornering part of the voting market and milking it for all it’s worth.

If you can’t crank up a Glasgow or Belfast accent to secure the Celtic vote, then try blubbing about your bereavements/operations/drug habit and hope like hell for the sympathy vote – ” I’m singing this for me nan, Simon.”

And we, the Great British voting public, play our part by supporting the ones we empathise with. So what if they can’t sing for toffee or, in John Sergeant’s case, seem to be constructed entirely of left feet?

Here is a chance to vote with all the integrity of a Eurovision panel. To hell with the dancing, we simply like John Sergeant.

We want the underdog to win. We want to see the outrage on the faces of those pompous, nit-picking judges when the wrong one triumphs.

After the public vote saved 64-year-old Sergeant last weekend, judge Bruno Tonioli declared: “I’m spitting feathers, I’m appalled and disgusted. I don’t understand it. It’s a dancing competition.”

This denunciation will be worth thousands of votes for John Sergeant on Saturday. There are few greater pleasures in life than defending a good egg like Sergeant against a judge who sounds like an Italian ice cream.

And maybe there’s a deeper sense of getting even. Maybe we want to take a swipe at the whole phone-in racket which, we now learn, was rigged for years.

We like John because he’s not a polished, poised celebrity. He’s the half-remembered face from dozens of BBC reports who re-invented himself as a charming, intelligent and funny personality.

He is unassuming and quite unpolished with a striking resemblance to that other unkempt national treasure, Jo Brand.

Sergeant may never scorch the rug with a simmering tango, but he’s the guy you’d like to meet in the pub or the favourite uncle who make Christmas complete.

So vote for John and his partner Kristina Rihanoff. Not because he’s a great dancer but because he’s a great bloke. And for all the frenzied posturing of the judges, Strictly Come Dancing is not about dancing, and certainly not about discovering new talent,

It is entertainment, pure and simple, and we vote for Mr Sergeant because Mr Sergeant entertains us rather well.