Strictly 2021

[sheepdog]

So Strictly come Dancing is back this autumn with a new old judge (Anton du Beke), a new old presenter for It takes Two (Jenette Manrara), four new pro's who won't be involved and obviously even less money than ever before!

First three of the bottom of the barrel scrapings are:

Tom Fletcher - ex boyband member now writing children's books

Robert Webb - slightly creepy comedian looking for work

AJ Odudu - obligatory "Who's that, never heard of her"

Also there are 15 people defined as celebs this year. I'm half expecting Kathryn Ryan to be involved as she seems to be on every other program for no reason. Also no Blackpool week either. 

Sadly, looks like were stuck with the un-dynamic duo of Daly & Winkleman.

[Cleoriff]

Songs and Dances Week Two

Here is the full list of songs and dances for week two:

• AJ and Kai are dancing the Foxtrot to Tears Dry On Their Own by Amy Winehouse
• Judi and Graziano are dancing the Samba to Get Busy by Sean Paul
• Katie and Gorka are dancing the Jive to Good 4 U by Olivia Rodrigo
• Nina and Neil are dancing the Tango to Would I Lie To You? by Eurythmics
• Rose and Giovanni are dancing the Salsa to Cuba by The Gibson Brothers
• Sara and Aljaz are dancing the Foxtrot to Dream A Little Dream Of Me by Cass Elliot
• Tilly and Nikita are dancing the Charleston to Yes Sir! That’s My Baby by Firehouse Five Plus Two
• Adam and Katya are dancing the Quickstep to Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet
• Dan and Nadiya are dancing the Paso Doble to Giant by Calvin Harris
• Greg and Karen are dancing a Couple’s Choice routine to If You Could Read My Mind by Ultra Naté
• John and Johannes are dancing the Cha Cha to Starstruck by Years & Years
• Rhys and Nancy are dancing the Cha Cha to Reach Out I’ll Be There by ​​Human Nature
• Robert and Dianne are dancing the Tango to La Cumparsita by Machiko Ozawa
• Ugo and Oti are dancing the Quickstep to Bring Me Sunshine by The Jive Aces

[Cleoriff]

The judges were back to normal with scoring this week!!

Rhys and Nancy. Cha Cha. Pretty damn good. Scored 30

Nina and Neil. Tango Quite poor really, (the band were terrible on this number) Nina's shaping poor Score 18

Adam  and Katya. Quickstep A few mistakes and gapping Scored 19

Kate and Gorka. Jive. Oh dear. A poor jive really, Mistakes made Scored 21.

Greg and Karen. Couples Choice. Good in parts. An emotional story. Scored 23

John and Johannes. Cha Cha. Excellent dance. Judges liked it. Scored 31

AJ and Kai. Foxtrot.  Very well done. Lovely dance Scored 31

Judy and Graziano. Samba. More twerking than samba but everyone (except me) seemed to like it Scored 25

Posting again in two parts...Not sure of this forum .

[Cleoriff]

Robert and Dianne. Tango. Damn well done. Really excellent. Scored 27 (undermarked)

Rose and Giovanni. Salsa. Very brave with lifts. Danced pretty well I though. Scored 26.

Sara and Alijaz. Foxtrot. Excellent dance. Vast improvement. Scored 34

Dan and Nadiya.  Paso Doble I enjoyed it. It seems Craig was the only judge who understood the gladiator concept. Scored 26.

Ugo and Oti. Quickstep. A great dance by them. Craig's marks didn't match his comments. He gave a 5 and worth more than that! Scored 25

Tilly and Nikita. Charleston. Really excellent interpretation. Her Dad Gordon was in tears, Lol Scored 34.

A great show tonight. Improvement by everyone.

[sheepdog]

Most did improve tonight considering I was expecting a pretty disaster. Maybe it won't be such a bad series after all. 

So looks like BBC cutbacks have forced Tess & Claudia to share the same YTS trainee for wardrobe. Nice to see Claudia in red though the less said about the dress style the better. 

Do you think Motsi took her hair style from er, Crystal Tipps & Alistair:

Nina: if she gets through, expect the same routine for the paso doble. Or was it a paso I have no idea it was that bad. Also: Sam Attwater looks a contender for next year and if I'm correct, the first time a DOI contestant has appeared on Strictly and not the other way round? Oh that would be fun: past DOI winners doing Strictly. 

Rhys/AJ are the strongest two out there by far. This will be tight though AJ needs auto volume control and Rhys needs less body popping. Dan & Rose are going to be up there though I will say I was a bit disappointed not see Rose do ballroom but hey, the Salsa was great for a week 2. 

Glad Robert Webb pulled that dance off instead of a comedy routine. His face did remind me of sucking a mint at times. Tilly: wow. Sara: what a way to save yourself! Can they keep it up is another question. Both safe this week.

Ugo: in danger and needs a lot more work if he makes it to week 3. Probably in danger next week and every week! Adam, well I blame Katya for the gapping but again week 2 and he's definitely one who will go far. 

As for Judy, perverse performance but top marks for effort and entertainment which er, I smiled throughout at. May be enough for this week but like Ugo, she's a dance-off contender every single week. Greg played the Gran card far too early and for 15 seconds, the routine looked like it was going to be good. The first 15 seconds that is. Rest of it, sort of reminded me of last weeks routine so unless there is marked  improvement in my eyes, he may be above Judy on the scoreboard. 

Which leaves me with John. Can't fault him but its seemed like Johannes told him to stand over there and copy his moves as nobody will notice they won't be in hold  that much. Oh almost forgot Katie's disappointing jive. Doesn't look good for latin does it? Borderline dance-off contestant. 

This week's fun Owl fact you probably never knew which is Strictly linked and its a good one: Owls have zygodactyl feet, which means two toes point forward and two toes point backward.

[Cleoriff]

@sheepdog 

Nina, did in fact, 'dance' the Tango. Yes I know. It was poor and not helped by the godawful music. Not really sure about Neil as a choreographer if I'm honest. He's recently been moved up to be one of the main professionals with a partner. Don't know how long they will last.

As for John and Johannes, something I forgot to mention yesterday. We can expect Craig, for obvious reasons to be waving his 8 paddle at these two every week, until he moves up to a 9.

Really weird marking again from the judges (well everyone except Anton) Craig who 'got' the gladiator concept of  Dan's Paso and enjoyed it, gave him a 5.

Shirley waving her 9 paddle about far too early methinks!

Funniest part of the night was watching Big Bad Gordon Ramsey in tears at Tilly's superb performance

Thanks for the owl fact @sheepdog. I did know how their talons were shaped but no idea it was called Zygodactyl. Could almost apply that to Katie for her terrible jive. 😂

[sheepdog]

Marking is not matching the comments. 9 definitely not justified this early on but the judges are pretty much picking out their favourites already. Overall though, Anton is providing quite good remarks and consistent scoring though he will have his favourites.

[Cleoriff]

Liked the opening dance, although the singer whoever he was can go and join the demented owls. Just awful!!

What about the 2nd singer (Griff?) ....She can join the first one.. Looked a bit stupid in the long frock standing on a box. I pride myself on loving new singers (despite my age) but Aunty Beeb are scraping the barrel tonight! I didn't watch the professional couple if honest. 😂

The couples in the dance off are

Nina and Neil.

Katie and Gorka

Definitely the best of the two were Katie and Gorka, so Nina and Neil are eliminated.

Next week it's movie week.

[sheepdog]

Double wolf howl of  minus 10 for both er, singers whoever they are: 🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺 No idea what tune they have in their head either but it must sound as bad as it does to us. Or they're tone deaf like their fans. Actually have another howls and owls: 🐺🦉🐺🦉🐺🦉🐺🦉🐺🦉🐺🦉

Really unsure who was the better in the dance-off but I'd have favoured Katie because it was technically more involved than Nadia's tango. 

Movie week next week so more tenuous dances linked to movies. I worry for Robert Webb after what Diane said they were doing dressed as Miss Piggy and Kermit. Did she not learn from Marge & Homer dance? Guess they still have a lot of leftover green makeup from Pascha doing Shrek back in 2011 (actually looking at the celeb list for that year, only Dan Lobb still deserves a 10 owl🦉). Saying that, Sara is doing a samba so prime candidate for exit. 

[Cleoriff]

Week 3 MOVIE WEEK (Songs and dances)

Adam and Katya: Rumba to I See You by Leona Lewis, from Avatar

AJ and Kai: American Smooth to I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston, from The Bodyguard

Dan and Nadiya: Foxtrot to Once Upon a Dream by Seth MacFarlane, from Sleeping Beauty

Greg and Karen: Paso Doble to The James Bond Theme by Monty Norman, from James Bond

John and Johannes: Paso Doble to He's a Pirate by Klaus Badelt, from Pirates of the Caribbean

Judi and Graziano: Charleston to When You're Good to Mama by Queen Latifah and Taye Diggs, from Chicago

Katie and Gorka: American Smooth to Cruella De Vil by Mel Leven (Dr John version), from Cruella

Rhys and Nancy: Couple's Choice to Spiderman Main Theme by P. Webster and J. Harris, from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Robert and Dianne: Quickstep to The Muppet Show Theme by The Muppets, from The Muppets Movie

Rose and Giovanni: Foxtrot to Rose's Theme by James Horner, from Titanic

Sara and Aljaž: Samba to Best Years of Our Lives by Modern Romance, from Shrek

Tilly and Nikita: Jive to Nicest Kids in Town by James Marsden, from Hairspray

Tom and Amy: Jive to Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry, from Back To The Future

Ugo and Oti: Couple's Choice to You're Welcome by Dwayne Johnson, from Moana

Oh crikey!! I see John and Johannes are dancing one of my favourite dances, with music from my favourite film franchise!

[Cleoriff]

Opening number was ok...that's all I can say.

Judy and Graziano. Charleston. Very little charleston in that dance. I agree with Craig  Scored 24

Dan and Nadiya. Foxtrot. Doing so well and then made a mistake. Shame Scored 21

Sara and Aljaz.  Samba. Surprisingly good. Much improved. Scored 28

AJ and Kai. Amercan Smooth. What an absolutely stunning dance. Just WOW!! Scored 35

Robert and Dianne. Quickstep. Made a few mistakes which was a shame. Scored 25

Greg and Karen Paso Doble. Loved the music. Good costumes. OK dance Scored 26

Tilly and Nikita. Jive. A few mistakes but picked it up and I enjoyed the dance Scored 27.

Posting now...