I had to watch this week’s Strictly on the iPlayer since my husband watched the football last night. It’s handy because I can skip Bruce Forsyth’s between-dance blether, which is good because I’m a bit bored of Brucie-bashing. Particularly since, apparently, he’s not retiring after all. So I’m going to have to just learn to love him. Or at least tolerate him. Anyway, this week’s dances were the paso doble (which I love) and viennese waltz (which is only okay). How would they all cope?
Lisa Snowdon and Brendan Cole were out first with the paso doble and I think it might have been my favourite dance of the series so far. It made me tingle and I could have watched it all night. I did think her shoulders were a bit high a couple of times and I thought some of her moves could have been sharper, but I LOVED it. Bruno Tonioli commented on Lisa’s shoulders and arms too. They got three 7s and an 8, which I thought was extremely stingy. I wonder if they suffered by going out first so the judges are setting a kind of mid-point to work from?
To keep his bum in, Ola Jordan tied herself and Andrew Castle together. And he’s getting paid for this, people. It seemed like it was a very basic viennese waltz, but it was much better than his previous dances. He was very stiff, but at least he was upright (mostly – he did stumble once). He has mastered his bum, as Len Goodman put it.
Christine Bleakley’s paso doble was nice, but I thought it was tentative and it didn’t look at all like a paso. She moves beautifully though. Craig Revel Horwood gave it a 3, which was very low for Craig and Len actually said, “That was worse than Andrew Castle’s then, was it?” which, yeah, he had a point, but it was a bit rich coming from Len, whose scoring is all over the place!
Like I said, I don’t really “get” the viennese waltz, so there wasn’t much for me to get excited about in Austin Healey’s. Of course, at the same time, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I just thought “meh” until the very end, which gave me a bit of a shiver, but I think that might have been the music. The judges adored it though, so maybe it is just me. The way they banged on I thought it was going to be 9s and maybe even 10s, but he scored two 8s and two 9s.
The opening of Cherie Lunghi’s paso was a catastrophe so I was then afraid for the rest of the dance, but it was very good, albeit a little tentative, presumably because she made such a pig’s ear of the beginning. It didn’t thrill me though. Len said he thought it lacked attack because she didn’t have the confidence in this particular dance. I think if it had been another contestant the judges would have made more of the disastrous beginning, but they do love Cherie.
Heather Small’s viennese waltz didn’t do anything for me either, but the judges loved it… apart from Craig who called it “pedestrian”. Well now I don’t know what to think!
Oh dear, poor Mark Foster. The less said about his paso the better, apart from the fact that, at one point, you could clearly see Bruno in the background, cringing and laughing, which I thought was a bit rude. He went on to describe the dance as “a painful shambles” and Mark did indeed look pained. Throughout the routine, I was thinking “praying mantis” (but without the menace), but Craig then described him as “a stick insect on acid”, which was spot on. At least I imagine it was, never having seen a stick insect on acid.
I thought Tom Chambers’ viennese waltz was, to use a Craig word, ghastly. It was skippy and his spotting on the turns was really obvious, plus the combination of the Brylcreemed hair and smug expression made him look like Lord Snooty. The judges, however, loved it. Apart from Len. Len didn’t like it for technical reasons, including that Tom did a reverse turn “all on your balls” leading to an actual unscripted humorous remark from Bruce, “We all missed that!”
John Sergeant’s paso was the same as all his other dances: charming, entertaining, but, you know, rubbish. And it ended with a lift, which none of the judges mentioned! Len praised Christina for her choreography, which I totally agree with. Craig said, “You take marching to a whole new level… and I’ll leave it there.”
Vincent Simone’s viennese waltz with Louisa Lytton is the only viennese that’s ever thrilled me (probably because the judges said it wasn’t a viennese waltz at all), but I also loved his routine with Rachel Stevens. It did move me and I was transfixed, so it just shows that it’s not the dance, it’s the choreography. Although the judges didn’t get too excited. Vincent said it was “magical”. I love Vincent.
I completely forgot about Jodie Kidd, but she was last out with her paso and then I couldn’t quite make my mind up about it. Some bits were amazing, but at other times it was, as Bruno said, “rough”. He said she lost precision because she went for attack. I thought she looked like she was concentrating too hard. Craig said he found it exciting to watch. I agreed with both of them.
So at the end of the night, Austin and Erin were top of the board with 34, while Mark and Hayley were bottom with just 16. I don’t know about Austin, but I do think it’s probably Mark’s turn to go because he’s the only one left with no rhythm and, by this point, rhythm should be a minimum requirement, shouldn’t it?
Strictly Come Dancing, BBC One, Sunday 26 October, 7.15pm
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