Before we get to Saturday, a word about Children in Need. Newer viewers of Strictly may not know that it began life as a celebrity version of Come Dancing, but some of the money from phone votes went to Children in Need. The BBC put the figure at £1.4 million for the 2006 series alone. These days we vote online for free but it's funny how something that used to be part of your Saturday night disappears and you only think about it again when Pudsey turns up.
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I used to love it when we got a little bonus Strictly in the actual Strictly studio, with judges, scores and all the daft jeopardy of a competition that didn’t matter one bit. You could be halfway through watching an appeal show and suddenly find yourself having quite strong opinions about who ought to win a tiny glitterball.
For me, Tyler West and Alexis Warr were probably the best of the lot and there's already public appeals for Rylan to be invited on to the main show next year, but Mel Giedroyc and Neil Jones made it for me. Reuniting after a 2021 Christmas special, their bonkers morris dancing to The Floral Dance was a perfect nod to Terry Wogan, who helped host the very first Children in Need telethon, and it made me laugh out loud. And yes... I’m as surprised as you are that I’ve now said something nice about Neil two weeks running (jokes : we love him really!).
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Last week we lost Bethany and Nancy after a dance-off against Cach and Maddie. The judges split two apiece and Shirley’s casting vote kept Cach in. Remember that when we get to his Charleston.
Meanwhile, I watched Saturday’s show double wrapped in crochet garments I'd made myself, whilst I admiring yet another gorgeous outfit on Emma Willis. I maybe the least sexy woman in Britain but I'm bloody warm, though.
Last week we were asking whether anybody had even mentioned Blackpool. This week, in the group chat, Vanessa considered having a drink every time there was a BLACKPOOL KLAXON and was already questioning her life choices six mentions in. By the time they started singing it, I think she’d had quite enough of the whole enterprise. I lost count about 12 minutes into the programme.
I do love seeing them dance at the Tower Ballroom. I just think that if we’re going to treat getting to the home of ballroom as the biggest achievement of the series, why are we all coming back to Elstree the week after? Put the final there. They’ve done it before: Jill Halfpenny won there in 2004 and Harry Judd in 2011. And here’s the bit I didn’t know: the regular November trip grew out of Children in Need needing the Strictly studio at Television Centre. Next Saturday, 21 November, it’s back to the Tower for one week. Imagine if the Glitterball was waiting there too? Then you could mention Blackpool every five minutes.
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Graeme and Lauren’s Quickstep had some lovely foot closure. He looks so much better in ballroom hold, which made it all the more frustrating when things went wrong in the side-by-side section. I had him down for the dance-off straight away. At that point I thought possibly Jaime or John with him. I hadn’t seen Jaime yet.
Nikita got the fire and drums out for Dani’s Paso, and bloody hell, I loved it. Her confidence and technique is growing week on week and she really shone here especially with the complexity of the choreography and the solo sections. I know the group wanted to throw something at Craig when he started on about the illegal lifts, but I’m with him on calling them out as there have been a few sneaking through lately. All the same, if Dani and Nikita get to the final, I want to see that dance again.
Whe it comes to John, I'm not sure why I'm still not warming to him and this Jive didn't help. It felt very stop-start and meh. The music should have pushed him to provide more oomph and, watching it back I wasn’t even sure the Jive was doing Katya any favours. Maybe she was matching his speed; maybe the rhythm of the song was part of it. Either way, I liked the song more than I liked the dance.
I’m really enjoying Tabby and Mark together. The Viennese Waltz was clean and very spinny and whilst it wasn't my favourite dance of theirs, it gave us (and them) an opportunity to slow it down a bit and get precice with technique. Also, in case you’ve only just tuned in, Mark is Canadian and would like to go to Blackpool.
And then Cach and Maddie did that Charleston. I was waiting for Craig to bring up the swivel and he went and gave it a nine (shows what I know!). A week after the dance-off, they got 39, and you could see exactly why. I love what Maddie had helped choreograph here as you could still tell it was a Charleston from across the room, but it looked like something she’d made for Cach. I’d love to see a bit more of her personality upstairs and in front of the judges, too. That’ll come.
“That smile you’re wearing now, wear it all the time because we love to see your teeth.”
~ Johannes Radebe, to Cach
Aljaž went from Children in Need on Friday to stepping in for Kai on Saturday. An Argentine Tango is a hell of a dance to do with a last-minute partner so huge kudos to both him and Delta for making this sizzle! It's interesting to see that Aljaž was chosen to partner Delta at short notice, especially when there are pros on the team that aren't paired with celebrities but I suspect this is all down to height at the end of the day. I did find myself wanting Delta more up on her toes, with a stronger point when she extended her leg, and some of the shapes looked awkward to me. But I also know what I’m like when a pro steps in: I immediately start wondering what that partnership might have looked like all series. I’ve really warmed to Kai this year yet Aljaž is still one of my favourites. Both things can be true, even when I’m making life difficult for myself on the sofa.
Whoever matched Lacey's eyeliner perfectly to the colour of her dress made me happy before she'd even taken a step. I found myself declaring that it was a fab-u-lous Foxtrot at which point Anton said it looked more like an American Smooth. Given that Dani’s American Smooth was the one I wanted to watch again last week, perhaps I just need to admit I like an American Smooth. Whatever Vito put in it, Lacey looks more confident every week. How does he keep doing that with his partners?
Previously, I have said the Paso was the one time I’d allow cape faffing. Will looked like he was hanging out the washing, so I may have to add a clause. I wanted more strength in his shaping once the cape went away, but I also think he looked very feminine (not because of the guyliner) and the Paso demands a very masculine aura, but I'd starting giggling at this point and couldn't quite get back into it! As an aside, Dianne’s hair looked amazing, and Smalltown Boy is one of my favourite songs ever.
What a way for Jaime to come back. I loved the character she gave the Charleston, and Carlos always seems to get great lighting for his routines. I was trying to remember who she reminded me of whilst wearing the top hat and eventually landed on Madonna at the MTV awards. Due to the continuation of Jaime's recovery from injury, they couldn’t do lifts, so they gave us steps, timing and acting instead. It's funny that I spent the first Paso defending Craig for calling out lifts, then finished the night delighted by a Charleston without any. It turns out you can keep me perfectly happy with everybody’s feet on the floor.
By the end I still had John and Graeme down as my bottom two, and I really wanted Jaime to have a Sunday off from dancing for her life. As for next week, after all that build-up, the Tower Ballroom had better be as good as Vanessa’s first drink made it sound.
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The Spreadsheet Section!
First, the usual list of who danced what and to what music, along with the score breakdown from each judge and the total for the evening.
Next, in readiness for Blackpool, I’ve ranked the couples who danced on Saturday (this may be updated when the latest dance-off results are officially announced) by their total judges’ scores across the first eight weeks, and counted how many ballroom, Latin and speciality dances each has done
I can see that the field has leaned slightly towards Latin overall (31 routines to 28 ballroom) but two of the celebrities at the top have reached this point in different ways. Cach has completed three speciality dances and scored higher in each of these than in either of his Latin routines. Tabby, just one point behind, has an even Latin/Ballroom split with only two speciality dances. Dani is the only celebrity not not have performed a speciality dance so far. The average (out of 40) takes in to consideration the weeks that Delta and Jaime have not danced.
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The podcast is on pause, but the opinions are still arriving every Saturday. Come and join the weekly chat in the WTF Strictly Facebook group.