Strictly '22 #12 — Dig out your relatives from the north west, Blackpool begging has commenced!

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

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SPOILER-FREE THREAD

Strictly has that singer who sounds like a cat trapped in a tin bucket with a helium canister. It's going to be authentic.

Oh I do hope so. I am desperate for her to win!

I'm actually quite intrigued by the Rihanna Paso - it's a very beat driven track and lends itself to drama.

Strictly has that singer who sounds like a cat trapped in a tin bucket with a helium canister. It's going to be authentic

Snort!!

If it's the one that destroyed Chasing Cars, the bucket needs to be dropped down a well.

@Mindthegap725 I think Fleur, Helen and Hamza will be the last three standing, Fleur or Hamza for the win.

Can’t wait!

And I hope Helen can come up with something equivalent to her brilliant jive as she seemed a bit nervous on Saturday. Hamza and Fleur smashed it though!

Not a fan of Will either. In fact when he comes on I go for a toilet break or a cuppa.
Agree that he comes across as being insincere.

Presumably he's used to a world where the little ladies are just arm candy, not athletic genius maniacs leading the way. I don't think Poppy Teacher is a 'little lady' or 'arm candy'. She looks quite fierce in a good way.

I would love Final 4 to be Hamza, Fleur, Molly and Tyler.
That would be the first final where all the finalists were BAME and would finally put paid to GBP are racist which crops up each year.
That said, Jojo and Nancy appear to be popular pros too, to overturn any arguments.
The average scores board does actually have the following order.
Will be interesting how it pans out the next few weeks. Sadly, I think in terms of popularity stakes, there is still more chance of seeing Fleur versus Molly in the DO, instead of Ellie versus Kym or Will versus Helen. Happy to be proven wrong though.

Molly & Carlos 269 8 33.6
Hamza & Jowita 266 8 33.3
Fleur & Vito 262 8 32.8
Tyler & Dianne 255 8 31.9
............................................
Will & Nancy 251 8 31.4
Helen & Gorka 249 8 31.1
Kym & Graziano 244 8 30.5
Ellie T. & Johannes 219 8 27.4

I wonder whether it's just that lower scorers get more votes early on until they are no longer able to avoid a DO with their position on leaderboard.

It's interesting to see that Molly and Carlos are the highest scorers yet they have only had one 10 from Shirley so far and they've been in the DO twice. A bit like Alexandra Burke who was also consistently high scoring and was in the DO twice. However, she still made it to the final, as did Maisie Smith who was in two consecutive dance offs I believe.

Ellie has been lucky to get through a few times as she's had some dodgy dances made worse by awful costumes and then that 3 from Craig saw lots of people voting out of sympathy. I didn't though.

It's hard to tell who else will be in the final at this stage apart from Hamza. He is super popular and is unlikely to be in the DO.

Well, after last year's final which should have been: a deaf contestant, a black contestant and a gay contestant dancing with a black gay professional, I thought the ridiculous accusations of Strictly bias would have been laid to rest, and tbf, apart from a few silly throwaway comments where a poster was irked about Fleur suffering racism but didn't seem to have noticed that Hamza is black it does seem a bit better this year.

That averaging out of votes is interesting too- thanks for working that out! I still imagine (having looked at the Spoiler untechnical reader survey last week which still has Molly near the bottom) she's not going to make the final.

Technically - for me, the best dancers are: Molly, Helen, Tyler and Will. Technically - consistently pretty good. Know how to dance. Probably all knew how to to some degree before they came on. We know Molly is a ringer, but honestly, if you knew you were going on SCD you'd probably start having a bit of a practise well before week 1 in the church hall VT!

I've warmed to all of them now to a greater or lesser degree, which I don't always- Tilly, Sara, Adam, and Robert never "got" me last year. So apart from Hamza whose humility is joyous and who has firmly placed the lovely Jowita as one of my favourite ever pros, I don't mind who else gets through.

V late to the party, but I've only just watched the show.

Tyler was blocky and stompy. No artistry. Dreadful outfit.
I liked Ellie and I liked her dress! That style of dance really suits her. Good choreography. Love her and Johannes' relationship.He seems sweeter and less imperious than he comes across sometimes.
Underwhelmed by Will's. Didn't listen to the dad story but, while I appreciate how much it meant to him, for me the emotion didn't come across in the dance. Good choreo though, and nice tails. And Nancy is a beautiful ballroom dancer.
Kym I didn't think went that badly downhill after the foot mistake. I was actually moved by it; first time I can say that about her. Claudia did sterling work keeping everything on the rails. She is top-notch at what she does.
Helen is just too prim. Salsa needs to be fluid, down and dirty. Gorka was really going for it and it showed her up.
I thought Molly looked weak/soft in her core. Puzzled by the judges' adoration. But hey, what do I know?)
Hamza was a joy. I love him and I love his and Jowita's partnership. Great to see different dance styles, not just embarrassing stage-school contempowaft or 'hip-hop'.
Tony was rubbish. Definitely his time to go, by whatever means. But I love how open and frank he's been in talking about his issues and the wider issue of health and addiction. Always good to see a gruff 'manly man' being emotionally literate. Good on him.
Fleur was EXTRAORDINARY. Harnessed her power and energy and nailed the technique. Blew me away. Vito was so sweet afterwards. Bless em both.

Meant to say: I loved the pro dance, but I didn't quite get why they paid that tribute to the late Queen. I know she served in the war, but it seemed a bit tenuous.
Agree with the pp who said Nikita was mesmerising. I did think Amy danced wonderfully too, but Nikita is one of those dancers who becomes so charismatic when he's dancing. His and Carlos' AT/rumba is still my favourite dance from this series so far, by a long way.

Of all the dances from this series that I'm likely to rewatch, and I rewatch a lot, it's that dance with Nikita and Carlos.

ITT - I may have a small crush on Alfie Boe…

That is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of!

The last message I see here was posted at 18:47 last night. Is that right or is there something wrong with my Mumsnet??!

Yes, that's right.

Having seen the training clips last night, I though they all looked very good, and there are potentially show stopping performances by Fleur, Molly and even Will's samba is looking impressive.

Hamza looks dapper in tails and looks comfortable in this style of dance, so I think he will be high on leaderboard again.

Loved Lauren amd Amy's section on competing in Blackpool when they were younger.

It's been surprisingly quiet! I'm sure that will change tonight though.

I was just surprised as Friday night to Saturday is normally gearing up to the show time!

I agree, Fleur looks like she's going to give us another good one. I thought at the beginning she was going to be great, so maybe it's just taken a while to get everything aligned. I thought she was excellent last week apart from her hands. Small thing, but it can get in the way of enjoying something wholeheartedly.

Fleur's Couple's Choice should definitely play to her strengths. On her day she's absolutely my favourite dancer, she's so exciting and can really sell the dance. Looking forward to pretty much everyone's dance tonight.

Me too! Come on Fleur!

I'm looking forward to tonight.

I did laugh at "Bandstand by Boogie Barry Manilow" on that list, I think he should adopt that as his stage name immediately.

I know Blackpool must be a headache for running the show compared with the studio, but I think the dancers do really get something out of dancing there (unlike Wembley Week!).

To be honest, I don't think I'll watch it tonight. I'm sort of interested in seeing what Hamza does, and I'll pick up the pro dances on YouTube after Sunday, but I can't get enthusiastic about it.