Tears Before Blackpool

Week 8: Top 8 Perform - 9 November 2019

Last week! The VISCOUNTESS was crushed under the wheels of the Bushell express as Mike and Katya somehow sailed their way through a third dance off!

This week! Everyone wants to get to Blackpool! For the sake of all our sanity and the fact that my insane work schedule already has me super far behind with recapping, let's assume that wanting to get to Blackpool is mentioned in every link and VT and I will just recap the bits that aren't that, deal? *Fingers crossed for an easy recapping life*.

Our pre-credit video opens with Michelle saying 'one bad dance and you can find yourself out of the competition'. I mean - not going on how often the judges saved David and Mike, but there we are. Cue credits! Aww, they make me sad for Will.  Hope your leg's healing OK, Will!

Our hosts enter on the arms of the G-men.  Dresswatch: Tess is in a weird bacofoil dress that would probably be okay if it didn't have a great big strip hanging off the side of it, and Claudia in a black dress with white edging could be quite pretty, were it not very floppy around the bosom and threatening to wardrobe malfunction at any moment.

In the audience: Kimberley Walsh. Let's be glad they didn't invite her last week to see what they did to the legacy of her Charleston.

The judges enter - although Shirley takes a while hanging about like a creeper, presumably waiting for her earpiece to kick in. The four of them enter separately and Shirley and Motsi don't hang about waiting for the men before they are into an intimate dance and Shirley rubs Motsis tummy. Darcey who now?

Claudia makes a nodding joke to all the people at home playing the Blackpool drinking game and we must advise you not to do this because your poor livers definitely won't be able to handle it.

Our couples enter: Emma and Anton, Chris and Karen, Saffron and AJ, Mike and Katya, Michelle and Giovanni, Alex and Neil, Karim and Amy, Kelvin and Oti. Wow, that line-up feels so depleted already, doesn't it?

Alex and Neil

Yes, he lives!

Their training footage features Alex dancing with both Kevin and Neil as, of course, we didn't know until Friday which of them would be dancing this week. We also get some injury porn of Neil resting his bad leg a lot, and he tries to tell us that the kick ball change is an easy move.  Not on the evidence of some of this year's jives.

They appear to be dressed as the younger siblings of Faye and Giovanni's Barry and Yvonne from last year (Harry and Yvette?) and they are dancing the jive to 'Let's Twist Again'. Wardrobe have done Neil slightly dirty as his shirt and trousers are both pretty baggy and look like they were made for somebody two clothes sizes larger. [And the shirt doesn't properly cover his horrible tattoos. - Steve] Alex looks good in the bright yellow top and skirt they have put her in, however, and the skirt is one of those mega-swishy ones that suits the jive really well and aids the performance.

You can see how Alex's confidence has really come on over the last few weeks - she is really in control of that aspect of the performance, grinning away and looking like she's having the time of her life. The dancing itself is pretty sloppy in places - her leg work is not especially precise, and sometimes looks a bit ugly, but it's performed with such charm that it's easy to forgive the fact that it's a bit rough around the edges. Her rhythm is pretty decent, and she and Neil both look happy to be here. Whilst I don't see this doing anything other than cementing her mid table, as our designated journey contestant, this is a good example of seeing the journey narrative in progress in a way that feels genuine rather than just for the sake of the pre-scripted storylines - and to be fair, the Alex and Kevin situation has made her journey a little bit more interesting/complex than most.

It gets a standing ovation from the audience, including Kimberley and two members of the Taylor family from Eastenders. In the Clauditorium, Kevin is cheering loudly and I can't be alone in secretly wishing they'd attempted to do the dance with all three of them, can I? Just for shits and giggles? Mind you, Blackpool week does tend to be the time when prop dances are pulled out, left, right and centre. So maybe the throuple will live on.

We welcome the orchestra and singers - this week it's Hayley, Andrea, Jamie and Tommy. Shirley says Alex did very well today, she loved the concept and she is glad to see Neil back. She praises Alex's connections and lightness of touch and the fact that there was a mixture of basic and complicated choreography. She says Alex looks like she's having the time of her life. Bruno calls it 'bright, lively and with a sunny disposition' and says that it's good to see her growing in confidence and embracing the situation of swapping partners so so much. He does note that her flicks needed a sharper retraction and a little bit more crisper precision in the movement so that she can continue to compete with the stronger dancers. Craig says, very occasionally, her centre of balance was off and he agrees with Bruno about having more attacks on the leg work and making it look sharper than it might help to anticipate the beat, but he can see that she is selling it and working it really well. Motsi says that it feels like we are seeing 'a new couple - like a couple that we knew, but then somebody had an affair and the lights have been turned back on'. MOTSI. [SCREAMING, I am screaming - Steve] Neil looks like he doesn't know what to say, unsurprisingly. Well, I guess we were waiting for Motsi to have a real moment and here it is! She says that she loves the improvement in Alex's body and thought it was very compact and that she had beautiful transitions and was always having fun.  

Neil looks very sweaty and nervous as they come back to Tess and, mercifully, she doesn't make him respond. In the Clauditorium, they both hug Kevin and Claudia says that this is a marked difference from the last time they opened the show in week one and the word journey is thrown about lots of times in case you had forgotten which storyline belongs to Alex. Scores: seven, eight, eight, eight for a total of 31. We wish the lionesses good luck in the match they're currently playing and Claudia asks if Alex wants to know the score or not, because she doesn't want to spoil it. That's very conscientious of her, 

Our special terms and conditions contestant this week is somebody that I'm surprised has not already been signed up for the show - Clara Amfo. [In the event that they do I hope she fares better than she did on Celebrity MasterChef. - Steve] However, she is not the real star here, it's Nancy pulling focus like crazy in the background dancing along and giving the camera everything. Please give this woman something to do, show I'm so intrigued by what little we've got to see of her and want to know so much more.

Mike and Katya

I guess the show really isn't that wedded to taking them to Blackpool if they are being death slotted (and only one week after the pimp slot as well).

In the VT, Mike seems a mixture of despondent and resigned about being in the dance of and he clearly has the sense of somebody whose patience with the whole process has worn thin and would quite like it to be over now. Their paso training sees him struggling with the shaping and mostly looking constipated or mildly irritated as Katya tries to manoeuvre him every which way and there seems to be some weird move involving them kneeling on each other's legs, which isn't coming off well, so we will see how that translates to the dance floor.

They're dancing to 'Tamacun' and he is in a navy outfit - at first I thought it was a onesie, but I think it is just trousers with a really high waist and cumerbund and a semi-transparent leotard top - it's difficult to tell in the lighting, it could be a onesie. [Aren't all the male celebs' outfits basically onesies given that their shirts get sewn to their pants? - Steve] Either way, it doesn't particularly flatter him, although Katya looks great in the blue dress they've put her in. And, unlike many of the women tonight, her bosom is being supported really well in it. As you might expect, this is not a dance for the ages - he clearly looks uncomfortable and is pouting throughout, and there's a bit in the middle where it looks like he's forgotten what he's doing. The end pose with them kneeling on each other's legs, looks very shaky but they at least don't fall over as they were doing on the training footage. On balance, it's certainly not one of their worst routines, but nor is it particularly memorable. However, if it is the last routine they go out on, it's not too shameful and does demonstrate him at least attempting the steps.

Bruno goes on about seeing too many bananas in his shaping and says a lot of the time it looked like he was joining the dots rather than dancing and that there is a balance in a paso between power and feeling heavy and this felt heavy, rather than having movements that went with the musical phrasing. He appreciates the effort, but it was too heavy and rigid overall. Craig says some of the shaping in his top showed promise, but there was a point where it went horribly wrong and it ended up feeling like he was stuck to the floor and really rigid in places. Motsi adds that you can see at the beginning that there was some focus and some strength. There were attempts at leading her into the chasses, which isn't an easy thing to do and she felt that the beginning and ending was strong, even if in the middle. It had its problems. Shirley says he comes out and gives it 150% every week. I think that's part of the problem. Shirley - if they'd dialled it down to a hundred, as per Motsi's criticisms of some of the others last week - it would make them perhaps seem less annoying. Shirley notes that there were a lot of problems, but there were also one or two fantastic moments and overall it was a good effort.

In the Clauditorium, Claudia says he must have been disappointed with Craig's comments - even though Bruno was the one who was more heavily critical this time. Katya says he is a winner already for getting this far, and Claudia praises him for having resilience and coming through so many dance offs. Scores: five, seven, seven, six for a total of 25.

Claudia goes over to Chris and asked him how he's feeling about going from being second on the leaderboard to doing the tango and he says he likes the change but finds it difficult to do a serious dance when he generally likes making people laugh. Fair enough. 

Karim and Amy

Last week, their quickstep went really well, continuing his run of solidly entertaining ballroom, but from the training footage on ITT, his Viennese waltz hasn't so far looked like it's going to hit those standards. The footage shown in this VT doesn't do anything to alleviate those concerns, but of course, many people have turned it around on the night and he is generally a very good dancer. Also, Amy loves Blackpool and we get some photos of her performing there as a kid and crying a lot at the thought of Blackpool.

They are dancing to 'Give Me Love' which I'm not familiar with but is a load of soppy bollocks because: Viennese Waltz. It opens with quite a neat visual effect - a lighthouse is projected onto the floor and they are in the tower (a little stage/podium), but from a distance, it does give a decent optical illusion of them actually being at the top of the lighthouse. Karim looks pretty dapper from the waist up in a waistcoat and shirt top, but the trousers he's wearing are a bit baggy around the bum and thigh area - I don't know what wardrobe have done to the men this week, but I don't approve. Amy, likewise, is hampered by her costume. She has the biggest arm hankies I have ever seen. And, rather than looking beautiful and elegant, they keep getting in the way of the dancing and getting themselves tangled up between her and Karim so that it looks really ungainly. The dance itself starts quite well with Karim doing lots of balletic gestures, but the moment they going to hold and start to attempt the fleckerls, it all starts to fall apart. He is clearly great out of hold, but in hold, he seems much less confident and he really hasn't got to grips with the spinning. It's interesting, because it does look as though he might be struggling with dizziness, but he's one of the few contestants this series where that hasn't been mentioned in his training footage. There's also something faintly uncomfortable about the fact that the song has lots of lyrics about 'turning this around' which, knowing the show, was intended to be very literally a reference to them spinning around in the dance but actually feels like then pleading that they can do better than this next time.

Craig says they must be really disappointed that there were some mistakes and they ended up getting entangled.  He says there was too much rise and fall overall and it was very bumpy and that the whole thing was over egged and it needs to be quieter and smoother. I think last week was literally their one week of 'let's just do the dance rather than over egg it', Craig - and with Blackpool approaching, let's see how 'try not to overdo things' is going to work. Both Amy and Karim look tearful but Motsi says it's not easy to do everything, and he has beautiful arm work and beautiful flow and so there were parts that looked quite strong and that even though there are nerves, he needs to not let the pressure of them get to him. Both Karim and Amy are really crying now. Shirley says we know that he is a great dancer, but once he got in hold. It looked a bit uncomfortable and he needs to think about his heel work and his footwork, although his frame was generally not too bad. Bruno says it's obvious that it went wrong and got entangled. But he understood what they were trying to do in terms of telling a story of stormy romance and there was a moment where it was right, which he compares to watching a kite flying in the wind, which I think usually would be more of a metaphor for failure, at least in my experience of kite flying. He praises the creativity in the choreography and says that everybody makes mistakes but you shouldn't drop the originality through fear.

In the Clauditorium, he cries some more, and Graziano slaps his bum, which is one way of trying to comfort somebody, I guess. Amy tells us it's his birthday next weekend and she wants to experience Blackpool on his birthday. Seriously, is there anyone connected to the show this series that doesn't have a birthday during its run? Karim says he's really gutted about getting it wrong, even though I'd say a good proportion of the blame is the arm hankies. Scores: six, eight, eight, eight for a total of 30. Karim recognises that those 8s are complete bullshit, but I suppose they don't want to endanger a favourite too much this early on.

Claudia asks Michelle if she's ever been to Blackpool and what she's heard. Michelle says that it's like Heaven - but as Chris points out, the last few visits have not been particularly kind to the pros. Claudia then says when they get to Blackpool, they'll bring Karim back some rock. That's quite hilariously mean given what a mess he and Amy are right now.

We get a preview of what's coming up, and an advert for all of the socials, which look like they have some quite disturbing content on them, not particularly here for it.

Also, we have a very extended trailer for It Takes Two - you can tell that they are still trying to fill the extra time left by having one fewer contestants tonight - the interviews and VTs are going on much longer, the judges seem to be saying more and there is enough filler to safely pack Giovanni's bra with when he eventually does drag.

Chris and Karen

Last week they were super adorable and got a tweet from Dec of 'Ant and' fame, remembering his BBC roots like a good boy, St Jill will be pleased. This week, they are struggling with the intensity of the tango and with Chris trying to get his frame sharp. He says he's never heard of having your elbows sharp and he is finding it difficult to make his face sexy.  He describes the tango position as almost being like squatting and now I will never not see that when I watch tangos on this show. 

They're dancing to 'Survivor' [but not as we know it - Steve] and the stage is full of fire-presumably as a nod to how Karen looks tonight. Seriously, her hair and make-up are absolutely smoking and her black dress with the sparkles on the back looks fantastic with the dramatic lighting. Chris also scrubs up  well in a black suit with a nifty little neck chain thing that I don't know the name of. As you might expect, this is not really his dance, though. He is struggling with his facial expression and creating sharp lines in his body and Karen is doing a good job of distracting us by dancing around him when she can. He looks particularly uncomfortable out of hold, as if he doesn't know what to do, especially with his hands (again). That said, it's by no means a disaster - he keeps going, isn't horribly clumsy or awkward, it's just a little bit ho-hum and average, but this was never going to be his dance and hopefully next week we'll have something that plays a bit more to his strengths when they want to ramp up the entertainment factor for the Blackpool crowd.

Tess tells him he can smile again and he laughs that he is hurting so much and it's good to get out of that shape. Motsi says she felt the energy and the intensity and she thought his movements were much clearer than they have been which gave it an energy upward. She does think that the footwork could have been cleaner and he didn't have the stability you needed for the tango in his feet or fingers, but it was a good effort overall. Shirley says he's a funny character to start with, which they really love, and it's such a difference to go from street commercial that really played to his personality to this week and she really admires his focus to put on his serious face. She said his footwork wasn't bad and his frame, whilst not perfect, is going in the right direction. Bruno calls him 'oh so serious and so masculine' and tells him he appreciated the purpose, intent and content in the dance, but he has to be careful not to make it look like he was just walking it.  Craig says he needs to up his game if he thinks is going to go much further in the competition, especially with ballroom as technically he thought it was a complete DIZ-AHS-STAH, and there weren't any heel leads in there. Chris tells him he looks really sad, and Craig said he did love last week but hated this week. Calm down Craig, I get that you want to deramp him before he becomes a threat but was it really much worse than a) most of his other routines and b) what Karim did?

They bounce up to the Clauditorium, and Karen does that thing with her hands where she says hello to her dogs, which I never even noticed until Steve mentioned it the other week. Chris says it was out of his comfort zone, but he got through it and that if Shirley thought it was decent, he might get it tattooed on him and put it on his CV. [We'll hold you to that Chris, Susan Calman had to do it after all. - Steve] Claudia says 'we can do it in Blackpool'  So she's clearly team Chris rather than Karim, doesn't surprise me, never thought she was one for the woobies. Scores: five, where both Chris and Karen are quite surprised that it wasn't worse, then seven, seven, seven for a total of 26. Chris says he is very happy with that.

Claudia reminds us that we are still apparently only half way and even though there are only four couples, the show's been dragging on for what feels like an eternity. We have a preview of Michelle waxing lyrical about Giovanni, Kelvin doing likewise about Oti, Saffron about AJ and Emma trying to convince us that she really appreciates Anton through gritted teeth.

Michelle and Giovanni

We get a little joke from Tess and Claudia where they are singing along to 'I just want to make love to you', Claudia asks what's the song, called Tess replies, 'I just want to make love to you' and Claudia says the feeling is mutual. All this explicit homoeroticism in a show that's still too scared of regular same-sex dancing, hey?

Giovanni and Michelle's American Smooth training footage involves a moment where she's trying to lift him and she keeps dropping him on the floor-that looks like solid quality content, yes, definitely put that in the dance. Apparently the story of their dance is going to be that she is a housewife who wants her husband to notice her. If she plays it right, the campness of that could work really well, but it could also be a bit of a risk for her to play a character that is very different to her if it isn't danced with enough verve. We see Giovanni telling us a bit about the technique-keeping your bottom together is crucial, apparently.

Lord Almighty, the indignity that wardrobe, hair and makeup have inflicted upon Michelle. She is wearing green - we all know how much she loves that colour - and it's a really ugly synthetic fabric with a flower print that print down the middle. It is not so much the colour and the print as it is the shaping of the top which is clearly being worn without a bra and its shape squashes her breasts so they're halfway down her chest and the material clings uncomfortably to her back and gives her huge back rolls. Michelle Visage is an attractive woman with a great figure - you would not be able to tell it from this dress which is one of the worst outfits I have ever seen on the show and I'm even including the dress she wore for her salsa. Her hair is piled on top, giving her a weird Mohican of curls, and her 'contour' is a huge brown wedge that covers half of her face. Let this be a lesson to anyone who dares cross Vicky or LisaLisa and Cult Jam. I kind of want to know what she did to them to deserve this. She looks such a mess that it's really hard to get over that when you're watching the dance. Yes, there are lovely foxtrot moments as in their Addams Family routine, and some moments of good chemistry, but there are also some really uncomfortable moments where they are trying to play too much for slapstick comedy rather than just heightened camp, which would have worked a lot better. There's also a ridiculously ugly lift and they resort to fall-over-ography at the end. It's not inconsistently bad - some moments do work quite well, but the danger of going back so soon to a similar style you excelled in is that sequels are rarely better.

Shirley says she is anything but a housewife and is definitely the boss and what she loves about the American smooth foxtrot is that you are allowed some sensual swinging movements and side-by-side, and she had a nice little shoulder roll going on. She said it was like a lovely big cream cake - very naughty and nice. Bruno says she won the 'strictly sassy housewife of the year award' (previous holders: Ola Jordan, Holly Vallance and Mrs Susan Calman) and everything she does is very presented, clear and on point with great storytelling and little character touches. Craig calls her the mistress of detail and says he loved it because Craig is never going to not stan for the talented mature lady with a camp sensibility. Motsi says they sell it, and she buys it every time. They bound up to the Clauditorium and Michelle sticks her hand in the air and shimmies showing off a great big sweat patch. I feel like we need a petition to save Michelle from the clutches of the show's styling team.

Scores: nine, nine (which Motsi produces with the flourish normally reserved for a 10), nine, nine for a total of 36. A little over marked, but then so have most things been tonight. Claudia calls the highest-scoring American smooth the series so far - not that there have been very many of those anyway.

Emma and Anton

Tess says this is our first theatre/jazz, and she asks Craig what we are looking for. He says storytelling and because they've got a jazz ballet element, kind of working the plié, but they can be less precise about the footwork and 'pigeon toes are even allowed'. Couple's Choice standards, as clear as always.

Time for our inspirational couple's choice VT of the week. Emma reminds us that she is a massive thooperfan and that she fell in love with it from the time Natasha Kaplinsky was on. I do think it's hilarious that her inspirational backstory is 'THIS SHOW' but also I do feel a bit sorry for her that she doesn't get out more - after all, the friends and family we seem to see are her colleagues from EastEnders. I do hope that there is something in her life, other than work (says the woman whose recap is late because she is working 10-20h plus of unpaid overtime every week right now FML).

We do finally meet her parents. Her mum is super glamorous with a hint of Twiggy about her, and when they are asked if it's always been something Emma has wanted to get on this show, they both sigh yes, which is hilarious. She also had grandparents too, they're dead now, but don't hold that against her, she still loved them, just because she can't run out and kiss them during the middle of the dance. It's not that I'm against learning new things about our cast members in these VTs, but I really wish they would stop with the X Factorisation of this show especially when that show has been a shambling zombie for about eight years now and is no longer any threat.

They are dancing their theatre jazz routine to a Pussycat Doll cover of Herbie Mann's 'Right Now', which I'd never heard. Googling the Pussycat Dolls version of this song did lead me to discover the hideousness of the artwork for the PCD album. 

I mean, what on earth is going on with Nicole in this picture-not only has her whole body been so photoshopped, it looks like it's an arm in a pair of shorts, her actual arms have been completely wiped out and replaced with green gunge. Unless the truth is that she is an alien. Which... might explain a lot.

This dance, far from being Emma's return to form, is just kind of all right. She and Anton are out of sync with one another quite a lot of the time, although who's fault that is, I wouldn't know. There's clearly some sass and attitude in it and it looks like she's mostly enjoying it, which is an improvement on a lot of her routines, but it doesn't scream 'Wow, look at me with my dirty ringah powers activated'. [Particularly not when she takes a step back right at the start of the whole thing and nearly falls. - Steve] Also, whilst I don't mind the way they look in their shop pinstripes and bowler hats per se, Emma's bosom is another one that needs better support and Chris has pointed out the whole thing looks like a Bradford and Bingley tribute and I can't get that image out of my mind. Also, there are bits where Anton is wiggling his hips and touching Emma's arse which: all the noes.  Still, the band sound great and Andrea's vocal is really good on this one.

They both look out of breath as it ends and Emma stares at the sky like she might be touching the divine. A little bit. Calm down love. It's not your Viennese waltz. Tess reminds them that they were bottom of the leaderboard last week, but says a week's a long time on strictly. Bruno says she looks great and it was a good dance for her. He says it can look deceptively simple, but you have to be quite exact and while she mostly did it well, at times they were out of sync with each other when they needed to be a mirror image. Craig says it was 'understated, stylised, and her dance'. I kinda feel like Craig was just reading from his pre-written script rather than responding to that dance itself. [I feel like that's a thing that's been happening quite a lot this year? - Steve] Motsi says she loved the subtle movements and the alertness in her eyes - that's caffeine and not having slept for two months, Motsi. Shirley says they needed to stay synchronised, but she did appreciate the use of the music and some of the small details and considers it one of her better dances. We get repeated cuts to Emma's parents, grinning, and these grins get more exasperated as the judging goes on, oops.

In the Clauditorium, Claudia says Emma could not hide her joy and Emma says it's definitely been her best week and she was putting her fingers in her ears during the VT to avoid it making her cry. Scores: eight, nine, eight, eight for a total of 33 and the absolute 'what the frark?' faces they both give at Motsi's nine are quite joyous. In the background, Janette is craning her head at an unusual angle and staring down the camera lens for an inordinately long amount of time. Has she been taking Uncanny Valley training from AJ?

Speaking of… 

Saffron and AJ

Tess tells us that Saffron's journey has gone from a high during her foxtrot to doing less well over the last few weeks, but will waltz be her re-breakthrough? That's right, kids, for only the third time this series, we are seeing a classic waltz on the show. In week 8. Their VT sees Saffron struggling with the spinning, but she loves dancing, ballroom, and AJ talks about how he's going to have lots of beautiful pivots in the routine and bangs on about technique, while Saffron says if she gets to Blackpool she'll be proud because every great dancer's danced there - yes, Ed Balls, Ann Widdecombe, Judge Rinder, Anton Du Beke, all the stars. [Not Jeremy Vine though, hahahahahahahaha - Steve]

They are waltzing to the Ellie Goulding version of 'Your Song' and the schmaltz in this of the music combined with their setting - twinkly lights and trees, and a good old Strictly Romantic Bench - works quite well for this routine, which is unashamedly sentimental. Saffron is wearing a tan dress with red flowers on that looks fantastic from the bottom and pretty ugly on top - fortunately she is in hold a lot, so you don't always see the top half that much. This is actually a really solid waltz - they are in time throughout, her footwork looks really good, there isn't too much gapping, and they look like they're in control. Also: they don't seem to be shouting at each other throughout, so extra marks for that as far as I'm concerned.

The audience go wild for this one, and Shirley and Motsi give it a standing ovation.

Craig calls AJ 'a clever cherub' and says it was absolutely gorgeous. Motsi says that this is the best dance she's seen on this series so far. Maybe regretting all those early 10s are we? Shirley calls AJ a miracle worker and says it had everything-sensitivity of touch, superb footwork, beautiful close unnatural turns and that they ticked boxes and made everything look easy. She says when you start with a good technical base, everything becomes easier on the eye and she congratulates them. Bruno says he's starry eyed and was swept away in a ballroom dream and it was a dance of the highest quality.

In the Clauditorium, they're very excited. Scores: nine, 10, 10, 10, for a total of 39 and the joint highest score of the series. Still don't see any other outcome than AJ going out in the semifinals, but mainly just because I think the show can't resist that running gag.

Kelvin and Oti

So the story of their VT is that he and a friend of his won some unspecified type of car racing trophy and Kelvin hasn't seen the trophy yet, so they're going to drive a fast car? Oti's face when she sees that they're going to be driving a fast car is quite the picture, this series she, like Johannes, is living her best life. Then after hours at the track - so much that it goes from light to dark, Kelvin's friend appears with the trophy and yes, Kelvin's got a big trophy indeed.

They are dancing the salsa to 'Let's Hear it for the Boy' and, much like Michelle, it's a case of trying to repeat previous magic and coming up a little short. Whilst he still is very talented in Latin, this lacks the impact of his samba and Rumba, not only because we've seen that he can do hips already, but because this particular routine seems to be relying too much on that rather than focusing on the fine details-there are knee-slides aplenty, ugly lifts ahoy and Oti's legs akimbo, and both of them with their mouths going 10 to the dozen all the time. It's not by any means bad - were this his first Latin routine. I think it would feel pretty awe-inspiring - it's just a shame it isn't. One of the lifts has Oti wrapping her legs around his head and spinning sideways and whilst Janette can do this because she's tiny enough to hold her own core easily without needing the man to do anything but pray, Oti is a bit too tall to pull off the same trick and it just looks like someone is going to get injured. Still, a lot of effort has been put into the costuming and staging with people creating logos for the backdrop and his shirt with logos referencing the show and his name and they look pretty good, points for effort.

So-that's all of Kelvin's party Latin used up - enjoy the battering of ballroom we still have to come.

Motsi praises the body movements, speed, his leading of Oti, the change of pace, and says that the energy was there and he put on his Kelvin smile and sold it to her. And yes, Motsi has taken to calling him Kelvin finally, that's the true Strictly journey story I was invested in reaching its climax before we've even gone up the tower. Shirley says Oti was brave to allow him to throw her around all over the place and she says we're going to miss his musical hips, but there were a few timing issues in places. Bruno says it was a salsa in Top Gear (available on BBC iPlayer, etc) and then says hips about 50,000 times. Craig says he couldn't really enjoy it because Motsi was screeching the whole way through, and Oti bursts out laughing. 

In the auditorium, Karim kisses Oti and then moves into trying to kiss Kelvin and is completely snubbed. He's really not having the best night, is he?

Scores: eight, nine, nine, nine for a total of 35.

Leaderboard:

1. Saffron and AJ - 39

2. Michelle and Giovanni - 36

3. Kelvin and Oti - 35

4. Emma and Anton - 33

5. Alex and Neil - 31

6. Karim and Amy - 30

7. Chris and Karen - 26

8. Mike and Katya - 25

That's an interesting set of results, isn't it? I can't see anything stopping Mike and Katya hitting another dance off and it's going to be interesting to see if Chris's public vote is strong enough to survive that big old leaderboard plunge - but I think Karim and Emma are probably in the most danger here as this is a big test for both of them in terms of how popular they still are.

So who's going to make it to Blackpool? Join me tomorrow to find out!