Strictly Come Dancing: Week Two

Sorry I'm a bit later with this, we had a friend up for the weekend. Luckily they were also a Strictly fan so we settled in happily on Saturday night, with Strictly and Chinese takeaway, as is rapidly becoming a habit.

Jessie and Darrren
Well, she was much better than I thought it would be - she didn't deserve the bottom, at least not alone.

Matthew and Christine
I love Matthew. He is so sweet, and he loved Alesha and he bought Carol flowers and he was just lovely. I don't actually remember much of this dance, except that it looked quite flowing and stuff, and that Matthew sang along to the song and I couldn't concentrate on anything else except the adorableness of that.

Lisa and Brendan
Oh God, I can't believe they keep Brendan. I can't believe he's just allowed to be awful and make people cry and be all over them *shudders* and still be in the show. I hate that they are pretending he has changed this year, which they do every year and then he will get to about week five, and his partner won't be able to do something and he'll be awful, and they come on ITT and be all, 'oh no, it's fine, hoho' and AHHHH.

Anyway. Lisa didn't look brilliant, she looked quite uncomfortable in the dance. She's in the dangerzone, points wise, so perhaps she will go home.

Jodie and Ian
She's taller than him in heels. That's not good. But she was remarkably graceful. I think latin might break her, which is sad, because I love Ian. They need to stop finding him taller and taller people now.

Heather and Brian
Brian proved he could choregraph - I really liked his routine. Heather was quite good when she relaxed, but did vary between that and looking utterly terrified. Hopefully now she's been through it once, she can start going for it. She did a half-flare (I recognised a step!) which earnt some points from me, because I always get confused on those.

Gillian and Anton
Well, she was okay. Perhaps my theory that Anton has forgotten how to teach is wrong. Maybe. She wasn't very flowing and graceful, and she did cling to Anton a bit, but she managed to keep up with him, and seemed to remember the routine.

Rachel and Vincent
She was quite good, complicated hand moves and things but... it seems really mean to compare salsas and foxtrots. Foxtrots are impossibly technical and awful. And I hate to sound like Len (Oh so much!) but for women, once you've learnt the salsa rhythm, the basic steps and how to let the man lead -which is quite tricky, I admit; it's knowing when she keep your arms tense, and how and when to relax them so the man can lead you through stuff- BUT once you've over come those hurdles, all that twisty arm stuff requires very little concentration. You can just sort of go with it and let the man lead you around, if your basic footwork is good. Compared with Heather and Brian, who did alot of work seperately, it's not so impressive.

Cheri and James
Cheri was magnificant. Beautiful. The bright green was a bit... well. But she was graceful and elegant and all of that stuff that is good in a foxtrot.

To be honest, it was all bit meh, really. My comments on each dance are quite short. I would probably ranked them as follows:

Quite Good: Cheri, Christine
Goodish: Rachel, Heather
Sort-of-okay: Lisa, Jessie, Gillian, Jodie

I want Lisa to go home. Or maybe Jodie. Mostly Lisa. It will probably be Jessie, although presumably the Eastenders and the Darren fans will unite to keep them out of the bottom two, given that they are in bottom place. But who knows?

The Boys' Dance

Oh, they can choreograph a meregue! Remember last years weirdness? This was a thousand times better.

-Bless John Sergant! He did quite well, I thought, they we did start looking at Don&Lilia a bit too early, presumably his solo bit went a bit wrong?
-Gary Rhodes looked marginally better. He just looks so uncontrolled... if he made his steps slightly smaller it would look a thousand times better.
-I really don't think Andrew Castle can dance. He looks incredibly stiff and awkward.
-I love Erin, even in her silly cheerleader outfit with her funny hair. It looks like Austin might just manage latin, though possibly not as good as his ballroom. We'll see.

Some Random Comments

SHUT UP LEN. Stop talking over the other judges to object to their opinions. THEIR OPINION COUNTS AS MUCH AS YOURS. Stop courting public favour. Blahblahblah.

SHUT UP BRUCE. Really, he needs someone else to write his jokes. Or he just needs to stop talking to us inbetween bits. And stop telling us which bits where funny WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING? Don't beg for laughs, it is just annoying. (Also, the comment about Nancy's was inappropriate and awful.)

Tess's dress was sort of normal! Huh. Also, the foxtrot dresses were not as ugly as I expected! Admittedly Cheri was dressed in bright glowing green and Gillian had some weird enormous flower on the front of her dress, but Christine looked brilliant and I don't remember what Jodie wore, so it can't have been too awful. How are we supposed to recognise foxtrots if the dresses are normal?! The world is mad.

Jill Halfpenny was in the audience! I'm so glad she's going to dance. :)

The nice chinese place are still doing thick noodles not thin ones. I AM SO SAD.