Re-opening night

Week 7: Top 6 Perform (Musicals Week) - 5 December 2020

So if you were wondering why Andrew Lloyd Webber turned up for the Friday panel on It Takes Two this week only to barely get two sentences out because he was on the same episode as Tom Allen, the beginning of tonight's episode helps to contextualise things a little more: in honour of Musicals Week, we get a special VT fronted by Lord Eyebags himself, sombrely reminding us that the 'rona has been devastating for the theatre and live music industries. Although personally I would argue that Love Never Dies alone did far more damage to musical theatre than COVID-19 ever could. (Yes, I saw Love Never Dies. In fact, I am one of the very few people who went to see Love Never Dies despite having never seen The Phantom Of The Opera. I had my reasons.) 

This week on It Takes Two, we have learnt...

Monday

- The response to her elimination has reaffirmed Clara's faith in the goodness of humankind.

- Clara realised she was going wrong during the kicks section.

- Aljaž is never going to leave. By 2084 it'll just be him, Anton and the cockroaches, dancing abominable sambas forever.

- Aljaž wants HRVY to win because he's with Janette.

- Luba doesn't think a woman will win the fleckerl pro challenge.

- Luba managed 15 fleckerls with zero disqualifications, putting her currently in second place.

- We have a new segment where Ian and Gethin look at classic dances from the archive.

- It is jarringly weird to see the old judges' desk with them all crammed together.

- Ian thinks Abbey did the best lady waltz ever on the show.

- Gethin is still a bit bitter that he didn't win the Christmas special.

- And he seems to think getting 40 at Christmas counts, bless him.

- Ian is very clear that it does not, however.

- Gethin loves Nancy Dell'Olio's waltz.  

- Gethin thinks Fiona Phillips loved doing this show, despite all evidence to the contrary.

- Ranvir finds it weird that you don't really get a chance to speak to your partner after you've done the dance to find out if they were happy with it or not.

- Giovanni basically confirmed that their lifts were low-key because things were going wrong in rehearsal.

- Ranvir screams a lot.

- Ranvir has never been a waitress. Zoe has, and she made good tips doing it.

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]

A Sky Full of 24s

Week 6: Top 7 Perform - 28 November 2020

Last week! A weird collective delusion that if you say BLACKPOOL enough times, you’ll actually be there, and an equally weird set of marks, plus another addition to the canon of weird Aljaž sambas.

Tonight! (Not)BLACKPOOL hangover week, always a highlight of any Strictly year (and always my turn to recap for some reason). [I swear I don't do this to you on purpose. - Steve] Plus! The return of Motsi!

Cue credits! Honestly, I think the main problem with Caroline was that she never quite lived up to the camp promise of that amazing credits pose.

This week on It Takes Two, we have learnt...

 Monday

- Friend of the blog Ariadne Griffin was featured for her hilarious tweet, hooray!

- Caroline enjoyed the neatness of the feet and the "ludicrous extravagance" of the arms in the cha cha cha.

- The arm-licking was not part of the original choreography but it came out during the dress rehearsal and got the seal of approval from compliance.

- Zoe is trying to make the curse of Johannes' cha cha cha a thing, but nothing can be as cursed as Aljaž's samba.

- Next week Caroline and Johannes are going to do the Argentine tango, just for Zoe, in her living room.

- Caroline and Johannes' biggest fan was a tiny child who burst into tears when they got eliminated. Awww.

- Joe Sugg is doing Movember. It is Quite A Look.

- Joe and Dianne still have some of their dance outfits at home and they occasionally reprise some of the dances.

- Today is Zoe's 50th birthday. Happy birthday Zoe!

- Common consensus among the pros is that Anton is the funniest pro, and Dianne is the messiest.

- Zoe thinks a Blackpool quickstep for JJ and Amy was a recipe for success. Er, it was? (Also: they. were. not. in. Blackpool.)

- There was a lot of love for Amy's quickstep dress on the internet over the weekend.

- JJ's eight-year-old nephew Rory is adorable.

- This week JJ and Amy have the Viennese waltz.

Surrender, Dorothy

 Week 5: Top 8 Results - 22 November 2020

We open on a pro dance to 'Chasing Cars', led by Giovanni and Dianne and set in some sort of flower garden and involving a lot of dancing indoors with umbrellas up, which must be very bad luck, surely? Maybe this is what provoked that 'rona outbreak that did for Nicola and Katya? Still, it's a very sweet and charming and only slightly syrupy number that's quite reassuring after a lot of the previous evening's excess.

Black(pool) Mirror

Week 5: Top 8 Perform (NotBlackpool Week) - 21 November 2020

We begin with a VT in which JJ explains that normally at this point they'd be packing up the set and heading to Blackpool. Well, yes, but normally at this point it wouldn't only be week five, so this whole Ersatz Blackpool Week feels misplaced to me already. Jamie explains that Blackpool Week is the most "iconic" week in the Strictly calendar and the week that everyone wants to get to (except Jonnie Peacock, who just wanted to get to Halloween Week so he could dress up as a pirate, so pure <3). Clara says that there is "nothing normal about 2020" and Ranvir says it "really hurts" not to be going (okay, I think we're getting a little out of perspective here?) but they're going to create Blackpool in the studio. You know who I bet is not at all bothered about not going to Blackpool? Gorka. I bet he thought his luck had come right in this year. JJ says he's gutted that he won't get a chance to experience the bouncing dancefloor of Blackpool and that at least I understand, particularly as there are some routines tonight that really would have benefited from it. Maisie says she's been training so hard this week, and Jamie vows to give it everything. Caroline says there are some very strong dancers this year and she's feeling the heat. JJ says he doesn't see where the cracks are forming and he doesn't know who could go home next. Spoiler: I think he might have more of an inkling once he's seen this week's leaderboard. HRVY says it's going to be iconic, Maisie says they are going to make this the best show yet, Bill says he couldn't be more excited to take part, and Ranvir says they are going to do Blackpool proud. Blackpool, sensing what lies ahead, retains the services of an expensive PR company to distance itself from all of this.