Strictly Week 10, Abbey’s Maximum, Natalie’s Wardrobe Malfunction and are the Jordan’s Leaving? – it is week 10, the theme for this week’s show was Musicals and there was plenty of drama on and off the dancefloor.
There seems to have been plenty of excitement about this week’s Musicals theme in the build up to tonight’s show but we have been thinking that some of the shows chosen by the dancers (or possibly the show’s production team) are just a little bit too safe and a bit too wet if we’re honest
Now if Ben and Kristina were still in the competition the thought of the Russian dancer dresses up as Maria from the Sound of Music might revive our interest in Austrian convent related musicals but sadly she and Ben are no longer on view.
First visual impressions were not great with Mark Benton dressed as a lion and on the presentation side of the show Tess Daly was wearing a strange and very unflattering Boudica style outfit that managed to make her boobs look like they were making a move in a southerly direction. If the same person chose this outfit as was responsible for the hideous canary yellow number she wore in one of the earlier shows then it really is time to ‘sack the stylist.’
Things improved quickly once the main business of the evening began and Patrick and Anya produced a very good Charleston to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They scored an impressive 38 points from the judges although we did feel that this was perhaps a tad generous with some of Patrick’s moves lacking snap and precision.
Next on it was Natalie and Artem who danced an American Smooth to the powerful ”And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’ from the musical Dreamgirls. It was a superb performance from Natalie who had tried to get some pre-lift practice in this week by training on a trapeze with some circus performers. Strangely, this manages to score 36 points from the judges, 2 points less than Patrick’s Charleston.
Earlier in the day Natalie had shared a photo with her Twitter followers showing a wardrobe malfunction when she was having her picture taken with Susanna Reid, Abbey Clancy, Sophie Eliis Bextor and dance professional Iveta Lukesiute. The photo appeared to show Natalie revealing an outsize nipple through her dress but as she explained it was actually just a microphone pack.
“@D8Iveta: @OfficialClancy @SophieEB @susannareid100 @bbcstrictly pic.twitter.com/k3JjH2GYeA” that’s a mic pack on my boob not a massive nip!’
Next on tonight’s show were Iveta in a slinky gold outfit accompanied by Mark in that rather dodgy lion costume. As it turned out a pretty good showing with their Samba danced to ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ from the Lion King. Probably Mark’s best dance so far and he scored 29 points but despite liking both him and Iveta it is really now time for them to go.
After last week’s loud disagreement with the judge’s over the whole ‘sexy or romantic’ Rumba thing it was time for Brendan and Sophie to try to impress the judges with their Viennese Waltz. Dancing to ‘My Favourite Things’ from The Sound of Music they managed to score 36 points from the judges, the same as that brilliant Charleston from week 2. We wonder if that Charleston had come out in week 9 or 10 if it would have seen at least of couple of 10s from the judges?
Next up it was Abbey and Aljaz who bravely took on that disco classic ‘You Should Be Dancing’ from Saturday Night Fever. We saw Aljaz actually pulling off the iconic John Travolta white suit look, whilst Abbey wore ‘big hair’ matched with a bright red disco outfit straight from the 1970s. Their energetic routine received unanimous praise from all 4 judges so if was no great surprise when Craig finally dusted off that 10 paddle and Abbey and Aljaz ended up with a perfect score of 40 points, the first maximum of the series.
After such a great score it was down to Ashley and Ola to come out and try to impress the judges with their Rumba which they danced to ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin. A strange magic carpet start featuring Ashley flying through the air and a revealing sexy genie outfit from Ola saw them escape with a score of 35 points, the same as the previous 2 weeks. With no seeming improvement and similar criticisms coming for Ashley we wonder if his Strictly story might be nearing an end in the next couple of weeks?
Last up this week were Susanna and Kevin who were dancing a Quickstep to ‘Good Morning’ from that classic dance musical Singin’ In The Rain. As it turned out it was a less precise performance form Susanna this week although she still showed her characteristic high energy levels throughout the routine. The judges were clearly not that impressed and they scored only 33 points which placed them second from bottom on tonight’s leaderboard.
Off the dancefloor this week there were 2 main Strictly topics with the aftermath of Rachel Riley’s split from her husband prompting talk of her close friendship with dance partner Pasha Kovalev during her time on the show.
There was also the news that neither Ola Jordan nor husband James would be part of the next Strictly Live Tour starting next year. James quickly took to Twitter to express his disgust and also raised the question as to whether this might also mean their places in next year’s main Strictly show could be in doubt?
James has been outspoken in his criticism of the judges and his remarks on Twitter that if people want to see a proper Latin show they should watch out for his, will not have done much to endear the SCD production team to Team Jordan.
Tune in to BBC1 tomorrow to catch the results show where we predict it will finally be the end of the road for Mark and Iveta.