Cla-ra, chuck!

Week 6: Top 7 Results - 29 November 2020

Last night! (Not)Blackpool Hangover week lived up to its reputation with mistakes, weird scoring and a general feeling of ‘will this do’ hanging over wardrobe.

We open with a pro dance to ‘Blinding Lights’ in which Graziano is sucked into a pinball machine where he has to battle with all the other pros, er, holding neon rods and stuff because pinball? and all the women have terrible hair. It doesn’t scream ‘pinball’ to me as much as ‘leisure centre arcade’ with everyone in neon athletics wear, and the dancing is a weird mix of street, contemporary, Latin and knee slides, but I like the electro vibe of the whole thing as well as Nancy being a boss bitch because I’m always here for unravelling more of the enigma that is Nancy. [I was crying out for some jive in the choreography, surely that song was made for a jive? - Steve]

Tess and Claudia enter. Daly dresswatch: an ivory blouse with the inverse neckline to Claudia’s last night and white trousers; What Winkleman’s Wearing: A black blouse over a black dress. They both look nice, with Tess's outfit a definite upgrade from last night. The judges enter, with Shirley in an ugly pink sequinned dress, Motsi in an emerald green glittery dress getting her Christmas on early, and Craig in a black suit. Again.

Bruno’s recap of last night in which we see Jamie, Bill and Ranvir shown as having jurnees but needing to work on things; Clara getting a slightly more positive edit than she could have given the issues; JJ being gawjuss; HRVY being the greatest of all time; and Bruno’s sole contribution being to shout ‘Maisie, Maisie, Maisie!’.

As for our first set of results, safe are: Maisie and Gorka (to a huge cheer); JJ and Amy and HRVY and Janette. The first dance-off pair? Jamie and Karen. Can’t say I’m too surprised given the pile up in second-to-bottom, and a limited amount of space left for jurnee contestant, but they got a couple of my votes this week because I was expecting it. Jamie says it’s alright, they’ve been here before and someone has to do it, and he’s happy to have got this far. Motsi says to focus on being alert and present, to listen to the music and awaken his inner killer instinct.

With the chatterpillar now, Maisie is overwhelmed to be safe and says she just tried to let go and have a good time and is glad that it paid off. HRVY is pleased to have done so well and we learn that next week they have more lifts, and he’s developed some GUNZ. We don’t learn what their lift-including dance is, though. JJ says he’s shocked to still be here and next week they have a Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang themed Charleston which sounds like it will be terrible, sorry JJ. Claudia says it’s mainly for Hayley and I'm surprised, as I thought she was more of a goth-type, but then Claud clarifies she means JJ’s daughter, rather than the singer.

We have a special guest performance from Michael and Jowita, the winners of The Greatest Dancer, which is a thing I forgot still existed. [Well, technically it doesn't any more, I suppose. - Steve] They promise a dance comprised of everything including cha-cha and, hooray, rumba. They perform to ‘Spectrum (Say My Name)’ and are dressed a bit like a magician and assistant. It’s a good routine for the most part, dynamic and exciting, but there’s a weird bit where she hangs on a string from his neck and spins around for ages which is impressive but also really ugly and makes me worried she's going to throttle him.

Dance debrief time, and video Bruno praises Jamie and Karen for their performance level and says he’s surprised Jamie’s in the bottom two even though he (along with Bill and Ranvir) was put there by the judges. Shirley says Ranvir has worked hard on her footwork and we see her nice ‘lady frame’. [Honestly that sounds more and more like a euphemism every time I hear it. - Steve] Motsi explains that JJ’s ‘aura’ means that he comes across well: calm and kind. We then cover HRVY and Craig says he loved it so much he put his pen down and watched. They also go on about it being the first perfect week 6 score and we covered that last night. We also see HRVY’s family AGAIN reacting. I’m sure they're lovely people but I’ve now seen more of them this series than waltzes, rumbas and charlestons combined.

Back with Tess and the cue cards of doom, we see Ranvir and Giovanni called safe, leaving Bill and Oti and Clara and Aljaž. But the couple in the dance-off will be, unsurprisingly, Clara and Aljaž. Tess says it’s a chance for her to put it right, and Clara says ‘yeah, big wheels keep on turning. Even though it’s not ‘Proud Mary’’. Hee. Craig says to consider ‘Saturday night’ as a warm-up and that he loves her dancing, and the dance suits her temperament so she should go out and dance like she’s never done before. The defeat in Clara’s face suggests that might be hard, bless her.

In the chatterpillar, Bill thanks his wife for cooking for them each week and we learn that next week they have the Argentine Tango to Phantom of the Opera. Not what I’d expected they’d be doing, but sure, let's run with that. [Also it did not go well for Davood a couple of years ago, so good luck Bill. - Steve] Ranvir and Giovanni are pleased to be through but we don’t get to find out if they’re doing a rumba or not which is all I care about from these two now.

Then it’s our next superspecial guest performance (two in one night, how honoured I feel), from noted tax dodger and dour funsponge Gary Barlow. Nadiya and Luba dance a bit, then Graziano comes on and Luba goes away again. Also the song is Gary Barlow trying to be a Latin sensation and it’s hilariously inauthentic. Then Luba and Johannes come on and dance a bit, not sure what happened to Neil and Nancy this week, though I’ll never complain about more Luba or Johannes because they both dance so beautifully.

We then get a promo for musicals week, with the judges throwing around ‘glitz’, ‘glamour’, ‘razzle dazzle’ and all the other cliches. They also note it’s a tribute to theatre whilst the industry is closed. Somewhere, Caroline Quentin is chewing a piece of scenery in a rage.

In the dance-off, Clara still seems quite hesitant and her footwork is a bit leaden, but there are far fewer mistakes and I’m really pleased for her that even if she does go out, it will be on a better note. Jamie does a good job, too, with no huge mistakes and honestly, I don’t want either of these two couples to go, so whoever it is will break my heart a little bit.

Craig says it’s a difficult one because both couples were incredible and danced with a lot of passion and love, but he’s saving Clara and Aljaž. Motsi says it’s one of the toughest decisions, but based on the dance-off only she saw one couple dance well and another making a mistake, so she saves Jamie and Karen. This means Shirley has the deciding vote and she says it’s a very difficult series and both couples lifted their game, but one just convinced her with more conviction in the performance and she’s saving Jamie and Karen.

Clara collapses into Aljaž in tears and Karen and Jamie look sad for them and it’s awkward that they can’t give them a sympathy hug. We see their best bits, including her geeking out as a thoopafan, giving awesome face, looking gorgeous for Halloween and topping the leaderboard with a great charleston. She says she’s had an awesome time and thanks Aljaž. He says he’s glad he got to do Lady Marmalade and a ‘Claraston’ but she laughs he left out the Amfosamba. Aww. I do wish they’d had a lovely waltz instead of either the samba or jive, but I enjoyed these two and will miss them. It also means there are only two celeb women left in the competition, which is sad in its own way.

They dance out to ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ and we’re done! Join Steve next week for MUSICALS week!