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After last week’s rather... unfortunate Wembley Show, things were back to relative normal with this week’s Strictly. In fact, despite a bit of a slow start and yet another terrible Tess outfit, this was a vast improvement on last week. Not that it would have been hard, to be fair.
Down at the bottom of the leader-board was Robbie. In his samba, Ola’s “stand there while I dance around you” choreography was out in full force, and the strip was clearly one of the most half-hearted gimmicks in Strictly. And surely electric blue football shorts and socks must rank among the least sexy items of clothing ever? Joining him down at the bottom was poor Anita and her cha-cha-cha. Robin was forced to sit this week out, and so Brendan gamely stepped into his shoes. Unfortunately for Anita, this is the one fast Latin dance you really can’t act your way through, so it all felt a bit lifeless and dull.
Fresh from her appearance in the bottom two last week, Holly promised to GIVE IT SOME WELLY with this week’s foxtrot. And it certainly had a very bombastic opening but after that it was... a foxtrot. So, fine and all, though the song didn’t really work, but nothing more to it really. She did seem to be putting more into it this week, but there’s only so much WELLY you can give to a foxtrot.
This week also saw the return of the Charleston, with two of the celebrities tackling it. My main problem with this dance on Strictly is that I prefer my Charleston to be either goofy and loose like Ali and Brian’s, or laid-back and sexy like Kara and Artem’s. But the show has decided that the only version that counts is the “HILARIOUS” version that doesn’t really require much technique, and that vision hurt both this week’s efforts. For all that, I thought Alex was missing the all important swivel action, but her dance did have some very cute moments. On the other hand, Jason and his ridiculous facial expressions were so actively terrifying that I couldn’t see past it. Ridiculously over-marked.
My favourite Chelsee clearly wasn’t all that comfortable with the Argentine Tango, but she managed to pull it off pretty well nonetheless. Maybe not all the leg flicks (“GANCHOS! SWEATY PAMPAS! LADIES OF THE NIGHT”) were spot-on, and the intensity was a bit lacking, but she coped pretty damn well with a very difficult routine. And finally, finally, Harry had a full routine of dancing! He really can dance and doesn’t need the gimmicks, so this was just absolutely wonderful to see. Excellent timing, excellent footwork, excellent frame, and captivating from beginning to end. Marvellous.
And then we came to the swingathon, which, despite my initial scepticism, it was actually a lot of fun. Most notably, it gave us the return of Angry Ola as she and Robbie were kicked off first (I love Angry Ola with all my heart), and the sight of Holly and Artem just sort of... giving up and going for a piggyback seconds before they were asked to leave the dancefloor. Harry and Chelsee were easily the most impressive, and it actually righted the leader-board, moving Chelsee above Jason and Alex above Anita. Good work, show.
Was this the most predictable bottom two yet? Holly clearly isn’t getting the votes, and Anita obviously the favourite to go. I’ll miss her, but I won’t particularly miss her dancing or the way Strictly deals with her (“You’re over fifty and you didn’t collapse before the end... EIGHT!”) It was a sweet, dignified exit for a sweet contestant who knew her time was up.
Next week, MOVIE NIGHT promises a Shrek-themed jive from Chelsee (YAY!), and “more characterisation” from Jason (NAY!).
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