Plunge 'Pool

Week 9: Top 7 Perform (BLACKPOOL Week) - 16 November 2019

You might think that after seven consecutive series of making an annual pilgrimage up north that this show might have peaked with its Blackpool evangelism, but you would be wrong: we open with softly-scored footage of the glitterballs and such being packed away ready for the journey and transition to dreamlike drone shots of the Blackpool Tower, with Michelle saying over the top that "the Blackpool Tower Ballroom means everything to me" (does it? Really?), Alex saying she just wants to savour every moment, and Saffron being extremely Saffron by broadcasting herself and AJ on the train to Blackpool from her phone. Like and subscribe! We see Kelvin and Oti and Chris and Karen alighting from the train at Blackpool North talking wistfully about "125 years of history" and the need to give a performance "worthy of the Blackpool ballroom". Ah yes, wouldn't want to disgrace the location that brought us such award-winning performances as Ann Widdecombe's "samba", Judy Murray's Viennese waltz, Peter Andre's jive or Ed Balls' jive. Karim thinks it feels like a dream to be dancing there, and Emma thinks that dancing at Blackpool is going to be a different experience from being in the studio at Elstree. Well yes, for one thing the Tower Ballroom isn't just across the road from your workplace. Anton (for some reason) takes the celebs and pros off to the Pleasure Beach and tells them that it's a rite of passage that they have to go on a rollercoaster before they can dance in the Tower Ballroom. I dunno, I'm pretty sure that AJ and Amy at least were dancing in the Tower Ballroom when they were still about a foot short of those "you must be this high to go on this ride" notices. AJ possibly still is. Anyway, everyone goes on the rollercoaster and screams. Woo!

Titles! This week with extra-echoey clapping, courtesy of the cavernous Blackpool ballroom.

It being BLACKPOOL, of course, we open with an elaborate routine involving the entire cast and several add-ons, to the accompaniment of 'For Once In My Life'. Kevin is playing the conductor of the big Blackpool orchestra, and it opens with all of the pros doing a bit of hoofing before the celebs are allowed to come out and join in the fun. There's a bit of celeb-on-celeb dancing too, including Kelvin dancing with Michelle, Chris dancing with Emma, and Karim dancing with Alex. Saffron, as the odd one out, has to dance with Anton. Poor Saffron. As a routine it's all quite big and flaily, and it's not really to my taste if I'm honest, but then I'm not sure anything is ever going to be as good as Ballroom Blitz. (And a couple of the celebs looked genuinely lost in it, which makes me think they didn't really have enough time to rehearse it properly.)

Tess and Claudia enter - Tess in a silver floor-length dress slashed right up to the hip on one side, and Claudia in a loose-fitting gold-sequinned trouser suit. In the audience: Mike, Gethin, Gemma Atkinson, Jai from Emmerdale, Mandy from Hollyoaks, all the stars.

Claudia says that sadly Mike and Katya didn't make it to Blackpool (except Katya was in the opening routine and we literally just saw Mike in the audience, so) and then we make it the judges, in the following order: Motsi (brandishing novelty sunglasses), Bruno (waving some candyfloss that I genuinely mistook for a feather duster at first), Shirley (with a beach ball) and Craig (sporting a pink fluffy cowboy hat). For some reason that I can't quite determine, Motsi misses her cue entirely for the end pose and takes about five seconds longer than anyone else to get into the frame. Tess declares that every couple has a Strictly milestone that they hope to reach, and after Movie Week and Hallowe'en Week, this is the big one. Honestly, does anyone ever believe anyone whose goal was "just to make it to Movie Week"? That's week three. Aim higher, my goodness. Anyway, it's time to welcome our Strictly stars: Emma and Anton, Chris and Karen, Saffron and AJ, Michelle and Giovanni, Alex and Neil, Karim and Amy, and Kelvin and Oti. We get to see shots of everyone beaming with excitement to be here and...Kelvin is not one of the world's natural smilers, is he? It's basically 30% smile, 70% grimace. I guess voting for Brexit does that to a person.

Chris & Karen

Can I just say from the outset that not every gentleman can pull off hot pink trousers, but Chris really can so fair play to him. These two are opening the show with a salsa set on a rollercoaster, but first we must flash back to last week's tango where Craig told Chris that he really needs to up his game, and Chris and Karen giggled as they exited the studio that they were expecting a lot worse. I suspect this is why Chris is clearly doing so well in the competition: he's taking the competition seriously in that he's genuinely trying his best and committing to learning to dance rather than just going for the cheap laughs, but he's not taking himself seriously at all - and that combo of earnestness and modesty is catnip to voters in my experience [That and the continued post-Kevin rejuvenation of Karen - Rad]. Chris is excited to get on with the salsa this week because it's more of a party dance so he can relax and have fun with it, and not have to worry about doing a stern face. Chris says that he's been to Blackpool a few times but he's never seen the illuminations, so he and Karen hop on "the most extravagant tram I've ever seen my life" and they pass a Sooty advertisement so Chris tries to explain to Karen who Sooty is (this might seem odd now but trust me, it will be important-ish later). Chris dad-jokes that he wouldn't like to be the guy who changes the bulbs and Karen cackles, and these two are so well-matched sense-of-humour-wise aren't they? Chris snarks that he's looking forward to dragging down the average talent level on the night, and he can't wait to get out there and get going.

They're dancing to 'Uptown Funk', and it's at least 12 bars before they even get out of the prop rollercoaster car, which doesn't fill me with confidence for what's coming. I know that genre distinctions on this show are getting less and less important, particularly in the big theme weeks, but this is basically street/commercial with a few bars of salsa thrown in. Chris does pretty well with what he's given - he's in sync with everyone else, there's some hip movement (although I definitely saw more in the training footage during the week, which is a shame) and he genuinely looks relaxed out there - but you'd have to be feeling pretty generous to call this a salsa. 

Chris and Karen leap all over the place with glee once it's over, and Shirley and Bruno are on their feet applauding. Chris grins that he's always wanted to be in a music video, and he feels like he's just lived it. I'm happy for him, of course, but I think he's inadvertently just highlighted the big problem with that routine. (I'll tell you what's not a problem, though: Karen's abs. Goddamn.) Tess welcomes the band (singing this week: Hayley, Nick, Andrea and Tommy) and it's over to Shirley to open for the judges. Shirley says that nine weeks ago Chris had never danced in front of an audience and was incredibly shy - and now look at him out here in Blackpool in his pink trousers. She says he was "everything we expected to start the show", which is...interestingly non-committal. Bruno calls it "infectious fun" and says that Chris has started happy hour - he liked that it was a salsa "spiced up with hip-hop", although I'd say it was more like the salsa at one of those parties where everyone double-dips and you can't tell what anything started out as but now everything is salsguacacreamandchives. He congratulates Chris on getting "much more serpentine". Craig thought it lacked flow and hip rotation, but the timing wasn't bad and Chris fitted in with the rest of the dancers behind him - so he has upped his game as requested. Motsi thinks it was slick, fun and energetic, and now she wants to go partying with Chris. Has anyone warned Motsi about the history of Strictly afterparties in Blackpool? I think she has a right to know.

Chris and Karen scoot into the Clauditorium (behind a curtain) and Chris thanks the show for letting him open it tonight. Chris says that he hoped the backing dancers would dance in front of him and hide his mistakes, but the producers nixed that idea. Scores: Craig 7, Motsi 8, Shirley 9, Bruno 9 for a total of 33. Not quite their highest score, but definitely one that they're very happy about - and Chris points out to Claudia that he's top of the leaderboard. Heh.

Reading the terms and conditions this week, a genuine icon: Sooty. (See, told you that Sooty bit earlier was going somewhere.) Sooty, of course, is not really capable of long speeches so Richard Cadell has to do the talking for him. (Can't believe nobody thought of this ahead of time, should've got Sweep instead.) The best part of the framing of all of this as a puppet bear whispers in the ear of a grown man pretending to be able to hear him is the fact that Johannes and Graziano are right in the middle of the shot, reacting exactly as you'd expect anyone who didn't grow up in the UK to react to any of this: with polite confusion and slight concern.  [Luba and Nadiya as well.  A++ to whoever choreographed where everyone was standing, I chortled - Rad]

Emma & Anton

Death-slotted? Oh yes. Emma loved every minute of last week's theatre/jazz dance, and apparently her parents haven't stopped talking about it. She was quite surprised to get a nine, and that made her really happy. This week they have an American smooth to 'Let's Face The Music And Dance'. Emma and Anton get the obligatory "up the top of the tower" VT, where Anton points out the Winter Gardens to Emma and shows her where it all began for him. They have a little dance in the Empress Ballroom, which Emma finds lovely, but then they go to the Tower Ballroom and Emma's even more excited. Wow, can't believe this show has taken to negging other Blackpool venues in order to promote its own, must stop toxic in community.

The good news: this looks a lot better than it did in rehearsals, because most of the footage I saw on It Takes Two looked very awkward and bumpy, and this is actually...well, smooth. There's still a bit of gapping between them and I'm not entirely sure they're moving as one in a way that I would expect them to be by week nine, but this is definitely Emma's best work on the show. She's a little bit rictus in the grin, a little wobbly in the lifts and I think her frame could still do with a little bit of finessing, but the final section of pivots is genuinely impressive, and just like with Alex a few weeks ago, it's great when someone who you'd sort of written off in your head surprises you like this. [The song arrangement made it seem like a funeral dirge so I was surprised the dance was as good as it was.  Not as good as its score, obviously, but what was tonight, double K aside possibly -Rad] 

How did it land with the judges? Well, Bruno calls it "glamorous, glossy, classy, sophisticated" and says it was like watching a 1940s movie queen. Craig thought there was beautiful movement around the floor and it was elegant and graceful and she hit some fantastic lines, but her face was a bit like a china doll with just one expression throughout. Motsi thought Emma looked divine and the dance was amazing - she looked light as a feather when she was lifted, and the two of them really looked like a partnership. Shirley finishes by saying that she thought the facial expression was correct for the dance, and it had beautiful execution and lovely footwork - by far Emma's best dance so far. 

Back behind the Clauidicurtain, Emma says she was getting very emotional at the end - it felt like a real ensemble piece and like she was in a big show. She has loved every minute, and then she and Anton do a bit of "you're the best, no you are", and then the scores come in: Craig 8, Motsi 9, Shirley 10, Bruno 10 for a total of 37. The look of sheer disbelief on Emma's face when Shirley whips her 10 out is absolutely amazing. We briefly go to Emma for a reaction before someone hisses down Claudia's monitor that these are Anton's first ever 10s outside of a special, so however momentous it might be for Emma as a superfan to get two 10s at Blackpool, she's immediately pushed aside so we can focus on a professional dancer who's taken 15 years to accomplish that. Still, at leat Emma gets highs from Michelle, Dianne, Kevin and Amy while Anton is milking it. 

(Sidebar: I liked it, but...10s? I'm not sure. Although if this is basically some contractual thing where Anton refuses to retire until he gets a 10, I'm all for it.)

Alex & Neil

Well, if the bus didn't come for Emma like we were expecting it to this week, maybe it will come for Alex with this conceptually-curious Beyoncé-themed paso? Let's find out. Alex says it was surreal to do her jive last week and get that feedback - she says she's not having to put a smile on for the dance any more, the smile is just coming naturally because she's having such a great time. In rehearsals, Alex giggles that she's always wanted to dance to Beyoncé, that was her dream, and shows Neil a little video she put together of her doing her gym training to Bey. She's got a bit of a challenge this week because the paso isn't a happy dance like the last few weeks have been, so she's trying to channel the struggles she's overcome in her life and turn them into paso fuel. Neil points out that normally they would give Alex some extra men to dance with, but in the spirit of her female empowerment routine, this year they've given her all-female backing. Well, apart from Neil, obviously.

So yes, they're dancing to 'Run The World (Girls)', and the arrangement of the track is surprisingly sympathetic to a paso, which does quell my fear that this was just going to be a weird tonal mismatch. Alex has got the haughty manner of the paso quite nicely, but she's a little bit too light in her stomps for my liking, and I don't quite think she's got the back-bends right either - instead of that lovely paso curve, it's more of a straightforward dip. There are some positives though: she does look in charge of the group, and her character holds throughout, and despite a few questionable choreography choices from Neil (not quite sure what the whole bit where she seems to be channeling Vishnu was all about), it works much more than I expected it to. It's not a triumph, nor a disaster, but it's closer to the former than the latter. [I hated the massive gold headdress so much it distracted me from everything else - Rad]

Johannes? Loved it, naturally.

Craig says that when he first looked at her, he thought the hair would be the star of the performance: "but actually, you worked better than the hair". Wow, what a backhanded compliment! It was theatrical, and had a modern take, and he thought it was really great. Motsi is very proud of Alex for that dance and bringing out an all-girls team, but she also really likes that Alex just attacked that dance and even when things didn't quite go right, she was always on top of what she was doing. Shirley calls it a "pure girl paso" and she held her own at the front with beautiful twist turns and a fantastic fall-away reverse, which is apparently one of the hardest paso steps. Bruno describes it as "the Queen of Sheba leading a posse of Amazons" - something happened "that wasn't quite perfection" but apart from that it was amazing.

Alex tells Claudia that the dream lived up to expectations, and she loved getting to play out "females empowering other females and the male respecting that". I totally get what she's saying, but I can't ever hear anyone say "females" without thinking of the dad from Friday Night Dinner so the message is getting slightly lost with me, unfortunately [I think also 'females' is a bit MRA so I 
don't like it either - Rad]. Apparently Alex has been getting a lot of support from the Lionesses this week, and her mum is in the audience on her first trip to Blackpool. Scores: Craig 8, Motsi 8, Shirley 9, Bruno 9 for a total of 34 - Alex's joint-highest score so far, and her best score in three weeks.

Kelvin & Oti

After a jail-themed comedy skit from Claudia and Tess wherein the main takeaway is that Tess holds her phone in quite a weird way, we move on to Kelvin and Oti, who will be doing a jive to 'Jailhouse Rock' this week. Apparently Kelvin has been desperate to dance the jive for ages and has been nagging Oti about it, so now that it's here she's been determined to squeeze in as much content as she can. Kelvin says that he's got lots of happy memories of family holidays in Blackpool as a kid, and also that his gran hasn't been able to come and see the show yet because it's in London and it's too far away for her to travel, but she can come to Blackpool - and he and Oti give his nan a sneak preview of the ballroom. Apparently 'Jailhouse Rock' is her favourite song too, so he's getting big nan points this week. His nan's so impressed at the change in him from being "that toothy little lad who were in Emmerdale" into a large adult man dancing. [His nan is the best nan this series so far - Rad]

So their jive is - well, it's really good. Very good indeed, in fact. Kelvin's setting the pace for the professionals dancing behind him, and Oti's even thrown in a little showy bit where he can go from a press up position into launching himself off the ground, and I'm wincing just thinking of all the ways my muscles would snap if I even attempted that [That was pretty amazing and gives me hope for their showdance - Rad]. Also, one thing that I think is quite cunning on Oti's part: although there are a lot of extra dancers and props, there's nothing in here that would feel like a loss if you had to strip those aspects out to reprise this in the final, which is where a lot of iconic theme week routines fall down (remember how Caroline Flack's charleston just lacked something without the extra dancers for the lifts?).

The reception in the ballroom is nothing short of rapturous. Tess tells Kelvin that he really just made Blackpool rock, and we see that he's definitely got Nan Approval from the audience. Tess asks Motsi if he just made her day and Motsi responds that no, he just made her life. Heh. She says the hardest thing to get in the jive is to get the "pendel...twists in the chassés - I'm speaking German, man, you killed me". Hee. Anyway, Motsi thinks it was out of this world. Shirley declares herself speechless, and says that Kelvin had contrabody in his kicks and flicks - which means he was going opposite arm to opposite foot, and apparently that's very good indeed. Bruno says that the judge and the jury have found him guilty of a jive of the first degree, which makes me want somebody to do their opening cha cha cha to this song next year please. Craig thought the chassés could have been a bit lighter, and the entire room unites in despair. On the other hand, he loved the flying push-up.

Behind the Claudicurtain, we hear how Kelvin stans for Blackpool so much that he's been off to visit his favourite arcade and his favourite chippy while he was here. Apparently this is the first time Oti's mum has been in the audience to see her live on the show too, and he organised for her to come over a little bit early as a surprise, which he broke to Oti just before the show and "upset her a little bit". Yeah, maybe not the best strategy, all things considered, but a sweet gesture all the same. Scores: Craig 9, Motsi 10, Shirley 10, Bruno 10 for a total of 39. Fun fact: that's Motsi's first 10 for Kelvin. Karim, Saffron and Michelle all got 10s from Motsi before Kelvin did. Guess we didn't need to worry about her playing favourites with her little sister after all. That's Kelvin's highest score, the highest jive score, and possibly also the dance that cemented his win? It wouldn't surprise me. [Nah, the samba cemented his win.  Along with the lack of hunk competition and Karim's probably smaller pre-existing fan base.  Although it'll be interesting to see if the Brexit thing boosts or harms his popularity - Rad]

Saffron & AJ

Saffron had A Moment with her waltz last week and ended up at the top of the leaderboard, and she's still a little bit lost for words. Next she's got the quickstep, at Blackpool, on the big sprung floor, gliding around elegantly...these are all AJ's points of focus, incidentally. Saffron's is "can I have feathers?" Such a simple child. Saffron is keen to make the dance upbeat and fun, but also points out that they've been working so hard that they conk right out when they stop for a five minute break. AJ tells her that it's incredibly important to drill the steps again and again so that they're on top of it all when they have to perform it in front of extra dancers and the floor is pushing back at them, and by "they" obviously he means "you". Saffron hopes that the change of venue won't get the better of her nerves-wise. I just hope she remembers that it's moved this week and doesn't just turn up at Elstree on the Friday wondering why all the lights are off.

They're dancing to 'Marvellous Party' by Beverley Knight, and it's set at a...marvellous party. I mean, it's not a party I'd particularly want to go to, but that's true of almost all parties anyway. I had anticipated this being where it all came together for Saffron: a big ballroom number at Blackpool that played to her strengths and preferences, and while there is good stuff here - the pace, the footwork, the swing and the sway - it doesn't quite come together as it should. There's a big side-by-side section where Saffron's always just that little bit out of sync with AJ, and she just doesn't quite have the charisma to deliver the big final section where she's right down the front being pursued by all of the male supporting artists.

Shirley tells her that she "put the quick in quickstep", and that when you have to shift your bodyweight while moving at that speed and changing direction, it's really hard and she coped with it very well. However, there were a few missed steps in there. Bruno says she captured the feel and the spirit of the jazz age and he was impressed with how she coped with the changes in rhythm, but he agrees with Shirley that there were "a couple of not quite in-sync moments". Craig spotted her left elbow dragging towards the end and some timing slip-ups, but he thought it was fantastic. Motsi finishes by saying she's loved Saffron from the beginning and that dance made her love her even more because she's proven that she's fearless and has worked on everything that the judges have asked her to do. "Aww, thank you!" Saffron coos.

Behind the Claudicurtain, AJ says that this was the perfect dance for Saffron to do here and he couldn't be happier with how it went. Claudia then gets Saffron to repeat the story from her VT about how she sleeps during her five-minute breaks, because we're running low on Saffron content at this point apparently and we're having to recycle. Scores: Craig 8, Motsi 9, Shirley 9, Bruno 9 for a total of 35.

Michelle & Giovanni

My expectations are confounded again because I was predicting the pimp slot for these two tonight, given their shock placing in the dance-off last week and the fact that they've got a heavily-anticipated street/commercial Couple's Choice to 'Vogue' going on. Michelle's daughter Lola appears in the VT to explain the importance of vogueing in her mother's life, and how she got involved in the drag scene by going to clubs and vogueing. Michelle explains that she was a teenager who had no place in New York City and she was taken in by the gay community, where she knew that she had found her family. She wasn't questioned for what she looked like, or whether she was cool enough, or skinny enough, she could just be herself. (Ah yes, those famously non-judgemental gays! Definitely my experience.) Michelle's daughter Lillie also contributes to the VT saying that she's incredibly lucky to have a mom like Michelle, and that she's only been out for a few years so her mother's been involved in the fight long before she was. 

To be with her people, Michelle goes to Funny Girls to meet the drag queens (who are all credited as "performance artists", and it's kind of odd that the show would be reluctant to say "drag queen" given the rest of this VT), who talk about how Michelle is an advocate for the community. Michelle gets a bit teary and says she's going to dedicate this dance to the community that has been there for her since the beginning, and that she loves her daughters and her husband. The dance is for the mothers who fight for their kids, and the community that fought for each other. (I do wonder, though, given the general age and viewpoint of the audience of this show, and having just discovered last week that you basically have minimal support in the public vote, whether "I was raised by gays and drag queens" is a particularly wise place to mount your rebound attempt.)

So. This dance. Well, first of all, I want to air a bit of a grievance with the handling of street/commercial as a genre on this show. I feel like if a couple go for contemporary, I know exactly what I'm getting: waft. If they go for theatre-jazz, I feel like I can confidently predict what to expect: jazz hands, canes, some Fosse moves if they're good enough. But street/commercial at this point just feels like a big melting pot for people to basically do anything. This year alone it's been 'Let's Get Ready To Rhumble', it's been Aladdin, and now it's 'Vogue'. I just don't feel like I can pinpoint what it is, at least within the confines of this show, and I'm finding that quite frustrating. [I don't think the show knows what it is, either, probably because 'commercial' could mean anything - Rad]

Okay, now that I've climbed down off my soapbox, how does Michelle deliver street/commercial? Kind of disappointingly, if I'm honest. It's mostly just a lot of rhythmic walking, and not only is there not as much vogueing as I expected, there's not even really that much dancing. I mean, Giovanni is queening it up for the ages and I'll always be here for that, but considering Michelle was there for vogueing when it happened, I expected to be full-on getting my life to this performance, but it all feels quite austere and distant. There's a whole segment in the middle where Michelle is sitting down, for goodness' sake. It just all feels like all build-up and no payoff, and in a week where she desperately needed both the judges and the public on side, I think Michelle could be in trouble. [I just watched the whole thing wishing I was watching Johannes do it instead.  Maybe they should have done something with a vogue section rather than making it all about vogueing.  Or have been better at it, at least.  And who the hell signed off the sitting down? - Rad]

Bruno says that he remembers Madonna at the 1990 Music Video Awards, and that this was a great tribute to the mother of all divas. Craig thought there needed to be more definition because vogueing is about being very definitive (I love that he is voguesplaining to a 1980s club kid from New York City, that's got to sting), but he loved the "high stylation" of it and the sentiment. Motsi loved the styling and Michelle's face, and she feels like Michelle is in a movie telling a story. She gives her a "shantay, you stay" [Which... ulp - Rad]. Shirley says that Michelle used the music to its fullest and it was a "spectacle of armography, that's what you went for, that was your choice". Eeesh. She liked the detail and the sentiment. Some very...polite feedback for this dance, I think.

Claudia tells Michelle that they were all vogueing behind the curtain, and Michelle confirms she was always going to do this for her Couple's Choice. She adds that it was "a lot" this week to pay tribute to the community that brought her up. Scores: eights all round for a total of 32, placing her at the bottom of the leaderboard. "Michelle at the bottom of the leaderboard" is definitely not how I saw this evening playing out, and I have a sneaking suspicion she's toast.

Karim & Amy

Karim opens his VT by saying "so last week...happened." Heh. He and Amy are determined to bounce back with their charleston at Blackpool, which is a big, fun, high energy dance that should be a much better fit for him than the Viennese waltz was. For some reason they have drawn the short straw and been lumbered with one of those rarely-seen these days comedy VTs, which involves Karim being shrunk by unseen forces and trapped inside a claw-grab machine at the arcade.

At least it has some sort of relevance to the dance because Karim begins it suspended from the ceiling by a giant claw, and is lowered down in a harness that gives him, not wishing to put too fine a point on it, a very Visible Penis Line. They're dancing to 'Happy' by C2C, and obviously there's a big spotlight moment for Amy and her fellow flappers at the beginning while Karim gets free of his harness, but once he's free to begin the routine runs very nicely, thank you. It's fast and kind of wild but of course that's always been Karim's comfort zone, and he's definitely managed to tidy it up from some of those slightly scrappy-looking rehearsal clips. It's a proper tour-de-force which goes down very well in the room.

Craig calls it "clean, tight, precise" and is impressed that Karim managed to do the head wobble on top of everything else. Motsi says she's speechless - she's judged for eight years in Germany, and she wants to give it more than a 10, she wants to give him her hairpiece and her clothes too. Shirley cackles and says something that could be either "You're going to give him your hairpiece!" or "you're going to give him your herpes!" I've listened to it back several times and honestly it could go either way, but I'm going to assume, since this is a family show and Tess didn't make any hurried apologies, that it was the former and I've just got a dirty mind. Anyway, Shirley says that Karim was absolutely flawless this week and it was hard to tell he wasn't one of the professionals out there. Bruno says that he called Karim "a young Gene Kelly" a while back, and this proves he was right. He thinks this will be an iconic routine in weeks/years to come, and in fact goes one further and calls the whole night spectacular: "it's always magic in Blackpool!" I imagine Gorka still doesn't think so, mind.

Karim zooms behind the curtain and says that he had a lot to prove after last week, so this week he wanted to come out and do himself proud - and the charleston was much more his style than the Viennese waltz anyway. Claudia reminds us that this was Amy's first competitive charleston on Strictly and the first time she's still been in the running in Blackpool, and she just wants to thank Jenny (Thomas) and Sean (Moon) for their choreo. Claudia: "I think we might know Motsi's score, let's find out the others." Heh. The audience are whooping expecting the first 40 of the series, but it's not to be: it's a 9 from Craig and 10s from everyone else for a close-but-no-cigar total of 39. Karim is very happy, but everyone boos Craig anyway.  [Honestly, even though I liked the dance a lot, I LOVED the Craig 9 just because of the obnoxiousness of that audience roar of anticipation for his 10.  Trolling of the highest order - Rad]

Final leaderboard

1=. Kelvin & Oti - 39

1=. Karim & Amy - 39

3. Emma & Anton - 37

4. Saffron & AJ - 35

5. Alex & Neil - 34

6. Chris & Karen - 33

7. Michelle & Giovanni - 32

So, not a lot in it there, but it does look like Michelle's in a particularly tough spot, trapped below two people who we already know have managed to escape being bottom of the leaderboard without being in the dance-off. I think she's definitely looking at another dance-off, it's just a question of whether there's anyone she could beat. Theoretically: Alex or Chris, I think she could take, but since the judges seemed to prefer those dances in the first instance, it's by no means a given.

Graziano has been dressed as Zoltar the Fortune Teller to declare the lines open, and we revisit this evening's dances: Chris's "salsa", Emma's American smooth that got Anton's first ever 10s and surely for that very reason got her a stay of execution, Alex empowering the girls, Kelvin rocking the jailhouse, Saffron going to an above-average party, Michelle striking a pose with nothing (else) to it, and Karim finding redemption in a bright, colourful charleston.

So, who's going home? My money's still on Michelle, but maybe the gays will rally for her. We'll find out soon...