The Late Late Blog: Week Five
Friday, 23 October 2009
I never was very good at handing my homework in on time. Yes, this is very late. But better late than never.
I have an excuse, anyway. The dog ate my blog. Okay, not really, but we are running an event with Brian and Kristina for 300 people this weekend, and that’s been taking up most of my time. An alternative excuse was that I lost the will to live after 15 minutes watching three boring F1 pundits standing around in the rain talking before Strictly came on.
So this will be short and sweet…
Ricky Groves and Erin Boag
Dance: jive
Music: Boy from NYC (Darts)
It’s Ricky G, it’s Latin, so I make it time for a comedy routine. Which it was, complete with a comb as a prop. Somehow it didn’t have the impact of their cha or paso, so maybe the joke’s wearing thin? Erin must be running out of hi-larious ideas by now. It’ll be interesting to see how she makes Ricky’s rhumba comedy. Maybe they’ll re-enact that scene from When Harry Met Sally?
Jade Johnson and Ian Waite
Dance: Viennese waltz
Music: It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (Seal)
I didn’t much like the music, and I’m not sure why they’ve reverted to the corset-on-the-outside style of dress for Jade…but apart from that, hard to criticise this much. As with the quickstep, Ian seldom does a bad Viennese. Effortless.
Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna
Dance: jive
Music: Tuitti Frutti
Brian started off with his patented hair-slick, which was sadly missing from their salsa. This was a really ambitious jive and, while some elements were perhaps a bridge too far for Ali, a pretty good one. I’m not sure how much Brian liked Len telling him to dial the difficulty down. (Loved him leaving the dance halfway through to sit on Rachel Stevens’ lap though…)
Jo Wood and Brendan Cole
Dance: Viennese waltz
Music: Trouble (Ray LaMontagne)
The dance wasn’t up to much on the whole (v amused by the difficulties Brendan had in taking hold past the chains hanging off Jo’s dress), so this was notable largely for the full-on Cole strop. As many people have already said, I don’t think Craig’s Skippy comment was personal or especially rude, and Bruce was entirely wrong to kick off about it. Still, it’s good to see that they’ve returned the real Brendan!
Zoe Lucker and James Jordan
Dance: jive
Music: Tainted Love (Soft Cell)
Another baffling song choice, which just doesn’t jive (geddit?) with the happy, bouncy nature of the dance for me. It was proficient but somehow not memorable, and in a way it’s not surprising that Zoe ended up in the dance-off. I just don’t think her personality is coming through…
Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe
Dance: Viennese waltz
Music: How Can I Be Sure (David Cassidy)
A lovely Viennese waltz with a lot to recommend it – but not worthy of Alesha’s 10. She’s not doing herself – or Ricky – any favours…
Craig Kelly and Flavia Cacace
Dance: jive
Music: It Takes Two (Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston)
And Flavia’s feud with the wardrobe department continues. Turquoise shiny knickerbockers = not a good look. Craig’s jive was very dad-dance, though at least he didn’t have that frozen expression of mortal terror. He can’t be around much longer, though, can he? Can he?
Joe Calzaghe and Kristina Rihanoff
Dance: jive
Music: Rock This Town (Stray Cats)
Pretending your partner’s leg is a double bass is a new one for Strictly. We’ve had leg-guitar, back-keyboards and imaginary maracas, but – well. Joe looked to be enjoying himself, but the moment we realised he’d scraped himself off the bottom of the table we knew he was a goner…
Natalie Cassidy and Vincent Simone
Dance: Viennese waltz
Music: At Last (Etta James)
They still can’t put Natalie in a dress that flatters her figure. And the elegance of this VW was somewhat impacted by the full-throttle lip-synching to Etta James. Like so many people in this competition, I’m not seeing an upward curve for Natalie.
Laila Rouass and Anton du Beke
Dance: jive
Music: Modern Love (David Bowie)
Step. Away. From the Bowie. Ye Gods, what is it with the sacrilege this year? If that weren’t bad enough, it was the soundtrack to a frankly pretty appalling jive. Any leg action Laila might have had, in between going wrong, was lost in the leg-fringeing that made her look like Spider from Meg and Mog. Anton’s Latin weakness is well-documented, but given he has a decent partner for the first time since ever, you’d think he might take the dances that constitute a full 50% of the competition just a little bit more seriously…
Phil Tufnell and Katya Virshilas
Dance: Viennese waltz
Music: Mad About The Boy (Dinah Washington)
Great music choice, and – even though Phil seemed to be wearing Ian’s Nasty Grey Tailsuit – I thought this was well danced. Craig’s 4 was really harsh.
Chris Hollins and Ola Jordan
Dance: jive
Music: Roll Over Beethoven (ELO)
More dad-dancing. Chris hasn’t shone since his first-week rhumba, which is a real shame. I don’t think ballroom will ever be his thing, but jive should have suited his compact frame, and this just…didn’t.
Tonight’s filler
We don’t see many good pro-celeb sambas on Strictly, so seeing the pros do it properly is always a treat. Spoilt, naturally, by Anton doing a parody of it in the back corner. In a puke-green shirt. Unbuttoned. Eurgh.
Vincent and Flavia showed off one of their tango-y things, and then Spandau Ballet desecrated their own memory by performing a really dismal version of Gold, which was my personal anthem during finals at university. Not cool, guys.
The dance-off
At last, a dance-off shockah! Of course it was totally inevitable that Joe would go out against anyone else (except possibly Craig), but that story really played second fiddle to Zoe’s misery and James’ flashback to Gabby Logan. Just how few votes must they have had to collapse into the bottom two on that leaderboard?
Next week: samba and American Smooth. They’ve left the hardest till last!