Strictly Come Dancing blog - Mirror.co.uk

Kelly Brook shows what might have been

2008-12-26T10:26:00Z

For me, as brilliant as Jill Halfpenny and Darren Bennett's ridiculously fast American Smooth was last night, Kelly Brook was the real winner.

Their routine was such fun, to a great song and gave a real feel-good party feeling.

Plus she and Brian Fortuna had never danced together before whereas the others were old couples getting back together.

After the mess up with the judges tieing the marks, as Len ranked Alesha, Jill, Rachel and Kelly in that order we were booing the TV.

Alesha's dance was lovely but needed a bit more festive party spirit. Rachel's rumba? I'm so bored of it by now.

I would have loved to see Kelly win it - and had she not had to pull out last year after her father's death, I'm sure she would have run Alesha all the way for the title.

Tom Chambers is Strictly champion - and Camilla is the choreography queen

2008-12-20T23:55:14Z

So after last week's reprieve in the voting cock-up, Tom Chambers is the new Strictly champion.

His dances on the night in the first show were not up to the standard of the girls (though I wish Vincent had cut out the molestation of Rachel's chest and I'm still not too sure about Lisa's cha cha) but once it got to the showdance he was the clear winner.

Erin Boag knows only too well how your efforts in the previous weeks count for nothing if you make a poor judgement on your showdance routine after pairing Colin Jackson with a dummy for their last hurrah.

But Camilla got it absolutely spot on.

While Vincent and Brendan were seduced by last week's showdance demonstration and went for the musclebound option, Camilla and Tom produced a routine that relied on dancing rather than being flung about.

It helped that Tom had a Fred Astaire persona she could work with (and i'm not sure he would have had the guns to do two minutes of lifts even with the waif like Camilla) but the routine was so full of fun, entertainment and the joy of dancing. They were criticised earlier in the series for dancing too much for themselves and not enough for everyone else - this was the opposite.

For all that Lisa (and Austin) has been my favourite dancer through the series, her showdance wouldn't have won it. And watching Brendan trying to body roll her up (or something) was scary and what was all that rolling around on the floor?! And Rachel barely seemed to have anything to show off in her routine either - it was a couple of steps then Vincent throwing her about for a bit more. Launching herself off the stage to leap onto Vincent? Bizarre. Like a three-year-old running to their parents or something. These guys are not like the showdancers from last week's result show and trying to do something that wasn't to their strength (or in Lisa's case, their partner's either) in the final was a bad plan.

Camilla stuck to what she knows, ballroom dancing, and added a twist megamix fun factor which really worked. Congratulations

First Sergeantgate, now a voting scandal - a bad year for Strictly

2008-12-15T11:32:12Z

So they cancelled the voting on Saturday but they're not giving the money back. What? Why? How does that work?

Yes they were right to stop the voting. It would have been better if they had figured out, as my friends quickly did although I didn't twig, that giving the top two just two points instead of three would have solved their problems, but they're not as smart as my mates.

And by the time the thing was underway, they couldn't change the rules part way through. Basically they got themselves into a no win situation.

Except they should give the money back - people were voting to save someone, not for who they thought deserved to win the final.

And if people didn't realise it was impossible to save Tom they would have been voting furiously for him - which could give him an unfair head start for next week.

I'm glad there are going to be three couples in the final, I've already said it makes for a much better spectacle.

Plus it neutralises the fact Vincent and Rachel had a clear advantage by having the Argentine Tango, Vincent's specialist dance. For one thing Vincent was obviously going to be able to do a better teaching job than Brendan, who'd never danced it before. But more importantly he could choreograph his own routine, make it incredibly difficult but believe by the end of the week he could get Rachel through it.

Whereas Camilla and Tom in particular were let down by outside choreographers who did not make their routine complex enough.

So having three in the final is the right result, but the BBC got to it the wrong way.

Now they just need to cough up people's cash...

Lisa Snowdon really is the dance off queen

2008-12-08T22:42:36Z

You knew Austin Healey was scuppered as soon as he ended up in the dance-off. The other three couples each had one dance which was REALLY good - and Austin's were both much of a muchness.

The main surprise to liven up the dance off was Erin shedding her hair extensions throughout...

I've really enjoyed watching him this series, but his performances did feel just slightly flat this week - although following last week's paso was always going to be tough.

He said in the week he would be ready to go, not exactly fighting talk, and he just didn't quite sell his routines well enough for this stage of the competition. The American Smooth wasn't quite showbiz enough and the salsa wasn't quite party enough. A different combination of dances and he could have been OK, but them's the breaks.

As for Lisa, she's a real dance-off pro. Her waltz with Brendan was really beautiful and I'm inclined to agree with Brendan that her jive was better than the scores she got.

Brendan has been doing a superb job with Lisa this series, both in terms of choreography and behaving himself a bit better - though seeing the return of the wall-punching bad boy on Saturday was welcome!

But with Rachel seemingly the darling of the judges, Tom the audience favourite (he's yet to be in the dance-off despite scoring lower than the others), Lisa is going to have to pull out all the stops to stay in again next week.

John Sergeant has wrecked the Strictly final

2008-12-06T13:12:26Z

There are only four dancers left, all of whom would have been in with a chance of winning most of the previous series (though I'm not sure there's any one to match Alesha just yet).

But two more of them will have to be kicked off before they reach the final.

And for the third year running we will be left with a straight run-off between two dancers. You cannot blame Kelly Brook for pulling out last year after the death of her father, or Jimmy Tarbuck withdrawing for health reasons the series before.

What you can have a go at is John Sergeant wandering off mid series and the Beeb failing to come up with a better contingency plan.

A friend who watches America's version of Strictly, Dancing With The Stars, tells me when one of their couples leaves early, then nobody is voted off that week - instead the points are carried over and combined with the following week's scores. That way it ensures they are still dancing for something, but also that couples leave at the right rate of one a week.

The series has now got to the stage where the remaining dancers are so good you want to see what they can all do in every dance - and particularly what they can come up with for a show dance.

And three of those would be way better than two. Zoe Ball missed out to Colin Jackson and Darren Gough but she had already made it to the final - and got to dance this spectacular showdance.

What a shame we're going to miss out on one this year because there was no cunning BBC contingency plan.

Could Christine Bleakley be the new John Sergeant?

2008-11-30T16:28:32Z

After last night's performances the dancer who really should leave is Christine Bleakley.

But she's yet to end up in the dance-off, showing she has a huge amount of popular support, so I fear one of the real dancing stars will end up going out.

Rachel has really stepped up in the last few weeks and her waltz last night was fab, Lisa just oozed glamour all night (couldn't believe she was in the dance-off last week either as for me her quickstep expressed all the joy of dancing), Austin was elegant in the foxtrot then incredible in the paso (I expected it to be a good dance for him, but not that good. Wow) and Tom's waltz was a real classic.

As for Christine, oh dear. It didn't help that the people in hair and make up seemed to have it in for her, making her look like a Black Widow for her tango

and her pink and gold salsa dress looking like someone had been sick on her.

And then there was the music choice for the tango. I've banged on about this before but the music really can make all the difference (Rachel's paso was let dow n by being to The Final Countdown. How does a gipsy skirt fit with that?!). Addicted to Love was just too one paced somehow with not enough flourishes to be truly dramatic.

But she's such a nice girl everyone will probably still have voted for her. Shame.

Away from the Strictly panto, the world of panto is rocked to VERY CORE by John Sergeant's departure

2008-11-20T12:16:00Z

The great and good of celebritydom clamoured to speak to Strictly blogger Jody Thompson yesterday as they plugged the launch of a whole load of pantomimes at London's Finchley Road O2 centre.

They may not all be immediately visible on television because of their hectic rehearsal schedules, but they've certainly been watching Strictly Come Dancing.

And naturally, they all have an opinion on The Strictly Scandal That Has Gripped The Nation™.

Find out what the likes of Police Academy 3: Back In Training/3 Men and a Baby actor Steve Guttenberg, Corrie star Bradley Walsh, Bonnie Langford, Cold Feet's John Thomson and previous SCD contestant Louise Lytton all have to say on the Sarge's departure by clicking on the video below.

Strictly Come Dancing judges have cheated viewers

2008-11-20T11:23:01Z

Blogged by Fiona Phillips:

So the judges have won. With their bully boy tactics, personal swipes and humiliating attacks, they've forced John out.

He's been hurt and the viewers have been cheated.

People spent money voting for John. The last time I checked, the public had a 50 per cent say in who stays and who goes. But the judges think their opinion is the only one that counts.

Strictly Come Dancing is a Saturday night entertainment show. It's not, as the judges seem to think, a serious dancing competition.

If the worst dancer got voted off every week, where would the excitement, drama and suspense come from?

The viewers kept John in because he injected a bit of fun into the proceedings. And for that he was slated.

The judges - Arlene Phillips in particular - have been out in force this week urging people not to vote for him. Their behaviour is quite reprehensible. He's been dubbed the Dancing Pig. He's been called lazy and been mocked because of his looks and weight. If he'd stayed this weekend, no doubt they would have ripped him to shreds in a character assassination live on TV this Saturday night.

I don't blame him for bowing out - he's got bigger fish to fry.

But I feel sorry for the viewers, who were clearly enjoying his performances and who have now effectively been told their votes are irrelevant.

They've spent their cash and invested their emotions and all, ultimately, for nothing.

What used to be a light-hearted, feel-good show now has a cloud of nastiness hanging over it.

Arlene claims the voting should be based on the dancing alone. What double standards!

Her vile comments this week and last certainly haven't been about the dancing.

They've been personal and cruel and made uncomfortable reading.

The judges have form here.

When I was on, they laid into me week after week. I was the runt of the litter, the useless one that the viewers kept voting back in, to the judges' horror.

No one likes a bully. In this country we stick up for the underdog. The judges might have got their way, but they've damaged the show.

Far from John making a mockery of Strictly Come Dancing, Arlene and her gang have done it all by themselves.

John Sergeant: Bye bye smug guy

2008-11-20T08:30:56Z

Thank God John Sergeant has put us all out of our misery.

The furore over whether he should have stayed in this competition has been the most irritating TV debate since, ooh, Daniel was still in The X Factor.

Strictly Come Dancing is meant to be about ballroom dancing, about people trying something different. To learn a discipline that is, as Simon Cowell likes to say: "Out of their comfort zone."

Well not totally. Personally I prefer it when the celebrities are hilariously hopeless - such as Gary Rhodes, who danced like a vulture having electric shock treatment - or get dragged round the dancefloor like shop window mannequins by their professional partners.

But John's performances were neither good enough to be impressive nor bad enough to be entertaining.

His aura of smug self-satisfaction - illustrated by his "the public will always save me" attitude - was simply galling.

I have no sympathy for the voracious ambitions of Little Miss Perfects such as Natasha Kaplinsky, but John made virtually no effort to improve.

The type of contestant the public like to see are men such as Mark Ramprakash or Darren Gough. Not idle self-publicists such as John Sergeant.

Strictly Shows Its Ugly Side

2008-11-19T18:02:01Z

Today Strictly proved that it is not the fluffy, likeable member of the Reality TV family. There was I, thinking that X Factor was the boisterous, trouble making sibling that everyone's slightly ashamed of, when all the while Strictly was just a wolf in sheep's clothing. And a very spiteful wolf at that (Arlene Phillips).

Under pressure from increasingly rude judges (Arlene Phillips) John Sergeant has decided to pull out of the contest. Admittedly it was all getting a bit embarrassing, but surely this goes against the whole premise of the show? If the judges don't like the public's decision they should either shut up or find a different outlet for their nastiness (Arlene Phillips).

This rather unsavoury little affair has undermined the show's credibility and, I suspect, lost a few fans too.

John Sergeant: Get over yourself

2008-11-19T13:23:54Z

Ridiculous.

John Sergeant would never have won, so why has he walked?

By the time of the final it would have come down to the choice of John or not John, and enough people would have wanted the dancer to win the show – look what happened with Chris Parker and Natasha Kaplinsky in series 1.

John Sergeant has pulled out of Strictly Come Dancing

2008-11-19T11:57:14Z

Veteran broadcaster John Sergeant has pulled out of Strictly Come Dancing.

What a shame the Strictly spoilsport snobs have got their way.

Sergeant said in a statement: "The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far."

BBC1 controller Jay Hunt added: "We are very sad to see him go."

Fork-tongued critics are yet to comment.

Did anyone clear up on the tasty tickle of 25/1 offered by Skybet that John would walk?

Could John Sergeant foxtrot off before he's forced to take his final bow?

2008-11-18T15:30:52Z

Following all the hoo-haa after Arlene Philips’ gobbing off at Strictly sensation John Sergeant, Sky Bet have drawn up odds of 25/1 that he'll do a quick two-step out of the spotlight before the end of the series.

Surely not? Give the people what they want, Johnny boy. Even if it is this sequinny tripe that pales in comparison to The X Factor....

Or will the bilious Arlene take her leave instead? Sky Bet has her at 40/1 to quit the show at the end of the series if JS makes it to the last dance.

All right Arlene, settle down...

2008-11-18T11:39:04Z

Arlene Phillips has lambasted John Sergeant yet again, this time for being 'lazy' and 'not making much effort'.

Really, all this John-bashing has got to stop. Apart from it being undignified, it's just not fair. Objectively, it's even more unfair than Cherie Lunghi being voted off on Sunday.

Let's consider the nature of reality TV. It is not fair. It is subjective. 50% of the vote lies with the public, the vast majority of whom are not dancing experts.

In the absence of any real ballroom knowledge, most of us will vote for the person we like most or, in my case, who is wearing the prettiest dress. This is the danger of allowing people like myself to influence the outcome.

The judges seem to have completely forgotten this.

Yes, Cherie really did not deserve to go. Based on dancing alone, John really did. Even he knew this, and looked fairly embarrased when he was kept in by the underdog-loving British public yet again. But it's not up to him! Short of falling on his knees and begging the public NOT to vote for him again, I'm not sure what else he's supposed to do except get on with it.

As for being lazy - the man's 64 Arlene! Give him some credit! He's also lost two stone - that'd have to be some pretty frantic newspaper reading!

If you're going to get cross with anyone, get cross with the public. But don't take it out on John - and whatever you do, don't labour under the misapprehension that reality TV is fair. Good God - how would anyone make any money out of it, if it were so?

John Sergeant controversy goes on.. and on.. and on..

2008-11-17T13:33:58Z

A few points of order, people.

1) If you took John Sergeant out of the equation, choosing between any two of the other couples would be difficult and unfair because they all bring something different to the party. So even if John was already no longer in the competition, one of the best dancers would still be getting kicked off. That's what happens when we get to this stage of the competition - a lot of it comes down to the luck of which dance you get which week.

2) Yes it is a competition. But at the same time it is not. The competition comes in trying to impress the judges and the people at home - not necessarily to produce the most technically proficient dance. And my personal pet hate at the moment is all the serious po-faced comments from the likes of Cherie and Rachel that they gave it their all, will take the criticism on board and come back better next week. They sound like a bunch of Premier League footballers offering platitudes rather than showing their human side a lot of the time.

James Jordan had a strop after being voted off calling on people to see it as a dance competition and vote for the person who they thought danced best. James has previous for getting the chop when Len complains at having to get rid of one of the two best dancers, not the worst (remember Gabby Logan's departure when Kate Garraway stayed in?) so you can understand his frustration. But at the same time, get real. If you want a genuine pure competition go back on the professional circuit.

The whole fun of the show is people like different things. If we all voted for the best dance each week, only Austin, Tom and Rachel would have got any votes this time around. They were a class apart. But viewer voting is a bit more complex than that: we vote on improvement, people we want to see more of, people who we think need a bit of help (I'm enjoying watching Lisa and Brendan but they had a tough dance this week so I picked up the phone - not that it did much good), people we think danced well or people who made us laugh - whatever our reasons, we vote for them.

And I can't imagine James would be encouraging Cherie's friends, family and nearest and dearest to make sure they vote for the person who danced best. That's why Strictly Come Dancing is both a competition and a popularity contest. And that's why it's fun.

3) John Sergeant actually danced very well on Saturday.

Admittedly he is not at the same standard as the remaining dancers, but that does not have to matter. After the disaster that was the cha cha cha - and even his biggest fans surely cannot say they want to watch that one again - he bounced back well with an American Smooth routine full of charm and elegance which he executed very respectably. His score was better than Andrew Castle's for the same dance, matched Don Warrington's and was his best of the series.

4) This show is purely about entertainment. Making money for charity as well of course. But its purpose is entertainment. So provided we are enjoying watching John, why not keep him in? There has been almighty controversy over the X Factor - but that is where they (and the rest of us) are really going to have to live with the consequences of voting for the wrong person. They will inflict their music on us for the foreseeable future (or try at any rate) before disappearing into oblivion. I can't see John making us watch his dancing when he does a quick politics update. So just enjoy it while it lasts.

5) This still doesn't mean I want him to win. Unless he improves...