Strictly '22 Thread 7 — <cut glass accent> A Centenary Celebration for Auntie

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

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As always, a reminder that this is a SPOILER-FREE THREAD, so please don't comment on the result before the result show.

I thought Matt was lovely in It Takes Two tonight. When they showed his dance clips you could definitely see how he did improve and his scores were, I think, out of order.

He was scored 20 and yet Jayde was scored 31! How was she supposedly that much better?

Me too.
I had completely forgotten Come Dancing but it must have been on an old cassette I recorded because just seeing the title up there transported me back in time. Have added it to my best ever Spotify list. Waterloo Sunset being on it already because it makes my soul sing.

It's a puzzler!
I agree that Matt came across well and that he seemed to enjoy his experience.

SolInvictus

Another one who adores Waterloo Sunset. I have a small painting I found on eBay that conjures up that song whenever I see it. I keep it in a frame near my bed.

The painting soothes my soul. Just like the song.

I thought it was quite clear I was talking about Saturday's BBC centenary theme line-up as 'dreck' (Argentine Tango to Brian Hanrahan's Falkland's news coverage, Charleston to Panorama's Princess Di interview theme tune) not Strictly itself which I love.

Blimey, you're cheerful......🙁

I'd really rather not have sob stories every week or every other week or people's kids or ill grandparents or, or, or ... The thing is we blame the celebrities but I think that might be a little bit unfair because it's obvious that the programme is pushing it too because otherwise it wouldn't have become such a huge fucking thing in the past few years. I love Claudia and she is my TV wife but she pushed it with Jayde's sister. As for the crying and then whooping, I've noticed that a few of them can be pushed over the edge into tears when they come off even without a sob story. It's the adrenaline, I guess, and all the nerves, emotion, and blah. Tony was nearly in tears as well and managed to hold them back.

I get not being a fan of Jayde but I do think that it can get a bit personal and go beyond her dancing (there's been some of that with Kym too). I don't think she stomps around. I agree that her dance was overmarked but there was lightness there. She's definitely not as light on her feet as Hamza if we're comparing large people but then I don't think any of the celebs are as light on their feet as Hamza.

I also think that Craig's score for Matt was way too harsh but he wasn't able to do the kicks and flicks at all which is pretty important in the jive. I agree that it was enjoyable to watch but even if he'd been marked a bit higher by Craig and Jayde hadn't been overmarked I think she'd still have had higher marks than him and not just because of the sob story which only seemed to impact Shirley.

Blah, blah, blah. Just about everyone is improving. Less so at the top but there's no one left who looks like a total dud and none of the three people who've gone were complete duds either. If Tony had gone out in week one he would have been the dud but he's improved beyond all recognition, so no duds.

Moving away from all of that I've wanted to become famous since about season three of Strictly just to get a chance to be on it. The minute I got famous I'd be on the phone to the BBC being all "Pick me! Pick me!"

Obviously, that's never going to happen but a woman can dream.

It must be a tough call regarding other work. Obviously we want them to have plenty of time to devote to the darnce darling but if you complete clear your diary for four months you could end up either looking arrogant or foolish and have a lot of thumb twiddling if you are an early boot so a regular on going commit that leave plenty of training time would be the ideal. Or something lined up that you can step straight into as soon as you get the old heave ho.

I quite like Halloween week so do not mind it staying (29th?) albeit a little early, but given Strictly falls on Bonfire Night this year I would quite like to have had a bonfire night themed week (bonfire heart, firework, counting stars, rocket man, disco inferno, she bangs, light my fire, spinning around, flash, eternal flame, firestarter, great balls of fire etc). With pyrotechnics galore.
I see you all eyerolling!
The Centenary theme is a bit cack but I shall watch as usual. DWTS in the States has done TV themes twice. They did The Brady Bunch, One tree hill, Green acres, Family matters, Game of thrones tits and dragons (copyright Lovejoy!), Go! Diego Go! (eliminated), Married with children, Bewitched, The X files, Duck tales, The walking dead, Taxi and The Muppet Show.
Majority of those shoehorned routines were shite. About four passed muster.
The first time they did it, they used The Golden Girls, Gilligan's island, Mad men, Breaking bad, American bandstand, The Addams family, True Blood, The Jeffersons, Downton Abbey and The Teenage Friggin Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oje or oof as my DD says.
My point is...it could be worse than dreck. It could be this...

2 pros did quite a nice samba here, Tony was like our Tony Beak, but with better Latin! They danced a routine the sleb couldn't do as they got an in-flight blood clot but DWTS make them withdraw, they don't get a bye.

The French are not innocent either!

which makes Dani and Vincent - wig aside - look more normal.

Matt was the weakest and needed to go, but he did come across as rather lost and fragile. Nadiya seemed to be hinting at quite a bit of a backstory. I feel genuinely concerned for him!

I agree with others that Kym is a bit flat. I don't feel like she's not putting the effort into it, though; I feel more like she's a bit unhappy, for whatever reason.

Next week is going to be so toe-curling. Ellie and Nikita have come out of it the best, I think; I love a bit of Prokofiev and I like a paso with traditional music. Looking forward to it. I remember he and Tilly did a good paso last year.

Fleur and Vito will be OK with Waterloo; the band will arrange a good jive version and she'll dance it well.

Kym and Graziano are lucky to get Ballroom Blitz – a glam classic IMO.

The rest I either don't know (Victoria Wood) or are just embarrassing. Who did James and Amy piss off to get a foxtrot to the EastEnders theme?

I always remember DJ Spoony, who quit his job to go on it and then got kicked out in about week one or two!

Matt was the weakest and needed to go

he was one of the weakest but he had potential and had shown definite improvement, unlike others who appear to be currently better but have not improved since the start.

That's always the tension in Strictly, isn't it – the non-dancers who get better but will never be as 'good', vs those with an advantage/experience who are just always the same level of good.

He had improved, yes, and he danced his heart out in the DO and it showed. Overall, though, even if he'd kept improving, I don't think he'd have ever got that good – and IMO Tony, who also started badly, has improved more – so on that basis I'm OK with him leaving.

@DameHelena the ballad of Barry & Freda is better known as "let's do it". - has potential to be a great Charleston

Now just imagine if they'd let Caroline Quentin have a go at that. Hopefully they'll just do a good Charleston and not be too literal with the choreography — it isn't a song about two women in their late thirties...

The Eastenders theme is far too fast for a foxtrot. They'll have to do quite a lot of re-arranging I think.

Neither will Kym.

every year I mentally sort the celebrities into Duffer, Also Ran and Finalist. Rarely does someone get to the final who doesn't deserve to be there so the order the others go out is not important from that point of view. I get no enjoyment from watching Kym (using her as an example as she was in the DO but you could include several others!) but I did get enjoyment from seeing Matt come out of his shell and enjoy the dance and seeing Tony improve. It's a shame when the "steady plodders" get through when the"improvers" don't. There is no real solution to this though and it's just how the competition is - I suppose the only solution is not to actually eliminate anyone and have it as a league instead.

Did you mean 'Neither will Kym improve'? Or that she'll never get that good? I think she will improve at least a bit; and she might even have a 'breakthrough' of the sort people often have where she loses her inhibitions/finds some more confidence and joy. But the voting public might run out of patience with her before that happens.

I also enjoyed seeing Matt come out of his shell and improve; and Tony is just a joy IMO, in both his improvement and his attitude and heart from the beginning.

I agree, there isn't really a solution to the 'unfairness' of who gets through and who doesn't. It's a popularity contest as well as a dance one and that is just how it has to work. I think not eliminating anyone would take a lot of the attraction out of it; much as we all hate to see people we like being booted out, we all keep watching it still

She won't get "that good".

I just think it's a shame when someone finds their feet and goes out immediately when I think they could have benefitted from staying in. The right people tend to end up in the final anyway so it doesn't really matter.

I like to see the ones that are pretty awful the first week (as I would definitely be) improve even if it is slow progress. The ones that just stay on the same level tend to bore me unless, of course, they are good from the beginning.

Tony was so terrible the first week I felt sure he would be the first to go and am so glad he wasn't as I am enjoying watching his progress.

I know though that the show doesn't run long enough for the slow learners to get good enough.

I would have liked Matt to stay a bit longer but he was the worst dancer. He was definitely improving though and I think it was very unfair that he got the same score on Saturday as he did the first week. That is just ridiculous as he had clearly improved.

I know though that the show doesn't run long enough for the slow learners to get good enough.

maybe a series like the "opera star" one where they all learn how to do it over 6 weeks or so and then have a dance off.

I don't know that one. How does the 'opera-off' work – is it all one episode and everyone gets voted off in a oner on a sliding scale of fewest to most votes?

Pop Star to Opera Star may have started with a much longer training session, but after that it moved to a conventional weekly elimination format.

Darius was so lovely in that. He gazed straight down the lens of the camera and right into the nations' collective ovaries. Absolutely shameless, and a lovely baritone.

(However the pretence that they'd achieved professional opera performer standard was completely ludicrous, not one of them could have filled a theatre without a microphone.)