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.

[sheepdog]

Well so much for that couple of hours. Nice opening routine with an orchestral arrangement of I feel love only to be horrified with the sight of Tessbot & Panda being interjected at random moments.

More or less went flat the second the voiceover announced half-heartedly "Here's Adam Peaty...and other people" Have to say this was the worst entrances ever from the loosely defined collective of celebs. Absolutely no showmanship just a little wave here and there. You can hear the owls outside the window tonight.

Nice to see the new pro's immediately thrown into action and good pairings there. We all reckon Judy Love is out week 1. If not, look out for a petition on change.org. The rest, we'll see if they improve.

So I've finally come up with an animal rating to describe the musical guest: a wolf 🐺! As in wolf howl = owl seems  a quite good match. For Drew Barrymore wearing a bin bag taking one or two steps to the left & right and singing in some faux reggae, the wolf howl rating is -5. (minus 10 being a long pronounced howl at the moon, 0 for being adequate).

Highlights: Bill Bailey & Oti reprising Sugarhill Gang and Rose Ayling-Smith's interpreter being far more interesting off-camera than either Tessbot or Panda on-camera.

Lowlights: the group dance atrocity and there's 12 more weeks of this. 

[Cleoriff]

Songs and Dances for Week One

• John Whaite and Johannes Radebe – Tango to Blue Monday by New Order
• Robert Webb and Diane Buswell – Cha Cha to Rasputin by Boney M.
• Tom Fletcher and Amy Dowden – Cha Cha to Earth, Wind and Fire by September
• AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrington – Jive to Gold Dust by DJ Fresh
• Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu – Viennese Waltz to End of the Road by Boys II Men
• Sara Davies and Aljaz Skorjanec – Cha Cha to The Boss by Diana Ross
• Katie McGlynn and Gorka Marquez – Tango to Black Hole by Griff
• Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova – Quickstep to Everybody Needs Somebody to Love by The Blues Brothers
• Tilly Ramsay and Nikita Kuzmin – Waltz to Consequences by Camila Cabello
• Greg Wise and Karen Hauer – American Smooth to That’s Life by Frank Sinatra
• Nina Wadia and Neil Jones – Samba to Mi Gente by J Balvin, Willy William ft Beyonce
• Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice – Jive to Shake it Off by Taylor Swift
• Adam Peaty and Katya Jones – Cha Cha to Beggin’ by Maneskin
• Judi Love and Graziano Di Prima – American Smooth to Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin
• Ugo Monye and Oti Mabuse – Samba to Iko Iko (My Bestie) by Justin Wellington ft Small Jam

[sheepdog]

4 cha-cha's? This is going to be a looooong evening. We won't be getting the 12" version of Blue Monday (which is excellent and a classic) though I'm more interested in the DAO interpretation in under 90seconds. Which is basically the intro....

[Cleoriff]

@sheepdog. Instead of spreading the opening dances over 2 weeks, they all dance tomorrow!

It will be a long night Starts at 7pm, finishes at 9.20pm and nothing on Sunday. No vote off. 😂

[Cleoriff]

So I shall be doing this in two parts as they are all performing tonight!

Great opening number by the professionals.

Tom and Amy  Cha Cha   I thought they did damn well. Might be underscored  at 21

Tilly and Nikita Waltz. Needs a lot of work on her upper body. However scored 21

Ugo and Oti. Samba. I really enjoyed this. The judges didn't.  Scored 18

Rhys and Nancy. Viennese Waltz. Great dance. Scored 27

Sara and Aljaz. Cha Cha  Pretty poor really. Latin is not her forte! Scored 17

Dan and Nadiya. Quickstep Really good first dance. A few errors. Scored 24

Rose and Giovanni. Jive. Good job Needs to work on her footwork Scored 22

Katie and Gorka. Tango. I loved it. Don't care what the judges say! Scored 22

Posting now as no idea how long this forum will wait for a post !

[Cleoriff]

Robert and Dianne. Cha Cha What a stupid outfit Robert. A lot of work needed on that dance. Scored 20 (overmarked by both Craig and Anton!!)

Greg and Karen. American Smooth. Oh dear. Out of time and more than a few mistakes. Scored 24??? (overmarked again by Craig and Anton)

Nina and Neil. Samba. Much better than I thought she would be. Very Good.  Scored  24

John and Johannes. Tango. Wow. Excellent.  Scored a well deserved 30

Judy and Graziano. American Smooth. Mmmm. Very flat footed. Not much technique. Scored 24. Overmarked.

AJ and Kai. Jive. Wow! Damn well done. Excellent jive. Scored 34

Adam Peaty and Katya. Cha Cha. Very well done Really enjoyed it. Scored 30

So that's it for this week. Great show. I found the marking quite erratic, as if they watch the first 3 or 4 then start marking higher?

[sheepdog]

Agree with on the scoring @Cleoriff notably judges praising the celeb then marking them lower. Otherwise, judges pretty much consistent for the most. Missed the opening number as I was otherwise engaged in a cat video. 😹 

Overall, quite a good showing with a few outstanding dances: AJ (Stunning jive for week 1) & Adam Peaty matching. Both top 5 for me if not finalists. Rhys is going to be a contender as will be Dan Walker who will get better. Besides, more Nadiya is always good 😍 Not sure on John and Johannes, the tango suited them but other routines may end up being looking sterile as they are far too similar and may lack a dynamic. 

Katie Mcglynn was totally unexpected especially after the intro video. One to watch. Oti & Ugo safe to say it won't be a third glitterball but he will improve. I like Rose - good routine and she's a worker but oh, what on earth was the DOA doing to Shake it Off? By far the worst ever version I've ever heard and  strangled cats hold a better tune. Plenty of covers on youtube to embarrass the BBC. 

And the ones who need more work: Tilly. I thought it was a nice routine but latin may be her downfall with the speed. Main competition is Sara who I thought did ok with hints at potential but again, latin is looks to be her downfall. Tom Fletcher a bit on the flat side though given it was the opener, I'll wait and see. Robert Webb: first thing I said was his face and it had various styles of gurning throughout so given he had nothing to lose on the 1st show, I hope he's not going to go down the comedy route. 

I'll just say that I liked Judy Love tonight but and its a big but, you can just about get away with walking in the American Smooth and wave your hands around but the judges will be watching the footwork and there wasn't any. Nina is more or less the same. Throwing shapes around doesn't mask your lack of rhythm. 

As for Greg, routine was good and played to his acting strengths though lets see how he progresses in latin. But er, does he have a thing for vests? All I could think of was the Carly Simon song: You're so vain.

As I haven't mentioned Owls yet: a group of Owls is known as a parliament.  

[Cleoriff]

I had no idea Greg was married to Emma Thomson. I agree, he does love himself.

[blissgirl]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58700994 not good news here

[Cleoriff]

Wow, what a shame for Tom and Amy @blissgirl . Thankfully they will be back to dance the week after next.

I did read that 3 Strictly professionals had refused to be vaccinated although they haven't named  them.