Week 4

Well, what a turn up for the book. The two involved in the dance off were Gabby and James and Ian and Penny. The judges were totally flummoxed by this and it was clear they profoundly disagreed with the results. Of course the final two should have been Kenny and Ola and Kate and Anton and there were gasps all round when they got through, not least from the contestants themselves.

Shame Brendon and Kelly got through. Kelly was looking very tense and very relieved when their names were called out. He really is an arrogant prat and should be chucked off the show. He deliberately flouted the rules and put in an extra life just as he did last year and used the excuse he wanted to show 'off this wonderful girl'. The judges, with the exception of Bruno who gave him a ten, were furious and a row between them broke out today with Len asking if this was just a popularity contest why bother having the judges there at all?

But the British public are a funny lot and vote for the underdog and if they take agin someone, that is that. Last year for some reason they took against Emma Bunton and no matter how well she danced she was always in danger of going out. I think Gabby Logan has shown her competitiveness far too much and also showed how taken aback she was at the judge's comments in the first week. She had obviously expected wholesale plaudits and was very disappointed when she did not receive them and don't think this attitude went down well. Last week she did a cartwheel and the splits and more acrobats this week. The British do not like a show off!

So, getting interesting and wonder what is going to happen next week.

Week 3 and hotting up

First week with all the contestants, both male and female up against each other and not so one sided as everyone was predicting.

A bit behind with latest comments as I had to tape the programme and watch later.

So far the emerging talents are obviously Alesha who is simply terrific. Her jive exuded sheer enjoyment as well as brilliant dancing. I have to say that Matthew, her partner, is really rather gorgeous and I have a feeling that they could get through to the final.

Poor Penny had a bad time with her jive which was truly dire. She is such a stunning girl and those legs of hers go on for ever, but as Craig said 'this is not your dance' and he really hoped she did not end up in the bottom two. Have you noticed how much nicer Craig is these days?

Brendan and Kelly were excellent of course, and it was very honest of him to own up to a mistake so that Kelly would not get blamed for it. I have to say that when this programme started I was not prepared to like her, but the more she appears and chats the more she seems to me to be a fun person and very natural. I notice her fiancé, Billy Zane, is there all the time. Keeping an eye on Brendon no doubt.

I don't care for Dom very much. I find his Cheeky Chappie bit too much to take and he thinks he is much better than he really is. Leititia Dean is slowly getting better but she does not seem to have much self belief and she will need to really get this sorted. I am surprised Kenny Logan got through, I find him totally unappealing and lacking in any sort of personality or charisma and find it hard to imagine him on the rugby field. I also have to say that his wife, Gabby, has a competitive personality that I find off putting. Last week she was obviously expecting the judges to fall over her with delight after her quickstep and was very affronted when they didn't. Same thing again this week. I think she is terrific but her personality not that engaging and in this show, that counts with the vagaries of the Great British Public.

Much as I like Willie, I think it was right he should go and John stayed in. He has a natural way of moving that I find very attractive and you can already see the weight dropping off him.

I see that Arlene has latched on to Gethin - didn't think it would take her long to pick out her man!

A great evening all round but I do wish the BBC would restore the results show to Saturday night, dragging it out over to Sunday is just not on and though they deny saying the Sunday show is live, having Bruce and Tess change dresses and make their entrances again as if they had just arrived in the studio is a bit over the top. Who do they think they are fooling?

One other thing I have noted in this series, is just how much fun all the contestants seem to be having and how they support each other and the feeling of camaraderie amongst them all.

Love love love this programme…just in case you hadn't realised.

Week 2

It was the turn of the ladies this week and boy, were they good. Really showed up the men who are going to have to turn something on really quick to shine in any way.

Penny Lancaster and the lovely Ian did a terrific quickstep; Alisha and Matthew looked great together and she was stunning; Letitia Dean and Darren not quite as good as we expected.

Gabby Logan, overly confident I felt, and her face showed her disappointment when she did not get the total praise she was expecting. She has been marked as the bookies favourite and she had done twice as much work as anybody else, was seen on training bossing James around, and I felt this fiercely competitive attitude slightly offputting.

Brendan and Kelly simply sensational and it looks as if Brendan is behaving himself this time and seems to be treating Kelly in a very respectful way. The fact that her Hollywood star fiance, Billy Zane, was in the front row and watching very carefully might just have had something to do with it!

Of course, Kate Garroway was pretty hopeless and Anton more or less carried her around the floor, but I felt the judges were overly unkind, with the exception of Len of course, and Arlene made a snide comment about the hapless Fiona in the last series who is also on the same TV show as Kate and got a few boos. Yes, her performance was poor but as she was on crutches until the beginning of this week, I felt a little bit more rope could have been given. She had had hardly any time at all to practice.

Stephanie and Vincent I found vaguely boring and this Hollywood Diva thing a tad irritating. She certainly lives up to it.

The dance off was not, as we had all expected, between Kate and Letitia but Stephanie and Letitia. The audiene shrieked with delight when Kate got through as once again the British sense of fair play kept her in for another week so she could have a proper crack at it. She and Anton were obviously expecting to have to dance again and were thrilled to be through.

Stephanie certainly seemed to be delighted to be voted out and kept saying Thankyou to the judges, and it would appear that she found the whole thing pretty horrendous and was glad it was all over. She certainly did it with style.

I am now off to set my video for Take Two on Monday. Got home on Friday night to watch my tape and found to my utter horror I had programmed the wrong numbers in and I had recorded a gardening programme with the unspeakably awful Alan Titchmarsh. Imagine my feelings...

So, next week ladies and men together - I think that Mr Logan will be out next week. He seems to have no discernible sense of dance or talent at all, but I could be surprised....

Male Contestants

The male contestants are a mixed bunch as ever. No immediate charismatic sexy one as with Mark Ramprakash last year though Gethin from Blue Peter is pretty fit, He is dancing with Camilla and they look fabulous together.

I found Kenny Logan to have the personality of a newt I have to say, Dom, a presenter who I have never heard of, overdoing the cheeky cockney bit just a little more than is necessary, the young guy from Eastenders, whose names escapes me, OK but a bit callow, John Barnes ex-footballer big and beaming and I think has great potential, but I loved Willie Thorne ex snooker champion. Big man, but like Schmeical last year, very light on his feet and did a lovely waltz. But I fear as with the aforementioned Schmeical, he may come to grief with the Latin American. We shall see.

So no instant sock it to them personality yet.

However, the girls are looking pretty sensational. I have my thoughts about them as well but they will wait for another day. In the meantime I am in full video Strictly Come Dancing Two mode, so that when I eat my supper after arriving home I can watch that each night.

I am in dancing bliss...

Week One

Well week one down and rest assured, while I was loving every minute of The Magic Flute, I had made darn sure I had the video programmed before I left for the day, so that I did not miss Week One of my favourite glitzy, camp programme. So this afternoon, I settled down and watched my tape and loved every minute of it. I am now watching the results programme which has been switched to a Sunday and waiting to see who will be involved in the dance off. I personally feel that Richard Cabon, an actor famed for his part as a psycho killer in Coronation Street, will go as he was pretty poor, but we shall see. I will let you know if I am right.
Incidentally, it was all the men dancing tonight - ladies turn next week. The ladies did a group dance and they were sensational, simply sensational. So I think it will be ladies turn this year to win something.
SO glad it is back - cheesiness - glitz - glamour and total FUN all the way.

LATER - Yep I was right. Shame as his partner is Karen who won last year. Bonus was that she and Mark 'snake hips' Ramprakash did a guest dance of their salsa which was wonderful and brought the house down.
I think I am going to see if I can set up another page or blog or whatever so that I can rabbit on about this and those of you who are not interested over the next 14 weeks can ignore it. I shall have to check typepad and see how I do it. Does anybody out there know...?
Quotes of the show:
Craig Revel Horwood (Judge) to Willi Thorne who is rather large ; 'I do like a man with some meat on him'
Bruno Tonelli (Judge) to same Willi Thorne: 'I think I am going to all you Big Willie for this series'
What can one say.......?

New Series - New Blog

I am so blase now about setting up a blog.......must not get a big head
This is the blog to visit for anyone who is interested in Strictly Come Dancing and to avoid for everyone else.

This programme is now in its fifth year and just gets better and better. I simply love it and tend to go totally over the top each week and dance and sing around the living room. Not a pretty sight I can assure you. Rod Stewart was there watching his new wife Penny Lancaster dancing and I was hoping he might to a spot, but no such luck. Perhaps he will later.

I am going to copy over the post I have just written over on Random Jottings (http://randomjottings.typepad.com) to set the ball rolling and redirect traffic here and then, off we go on this brand new Strictly Strictly blog spot.