SCD 2024 #12 It’s Blackpool Baby! NO SPOILERS

[CaveMum]

New thread and we’re mid-way through Blackpool Night.

Video thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5172178-scd-2024-the-one-with-all-the-videos?reply=139506952

Spoiler thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5154780-the-strictly-come-dancing-spoilers-thread-2024

Far too many comedy/ entertainment dances this time imo

Bring back sequence dancing

I completely forgot about MoJo in my horror.
Didn't like Jamie, really overacted.
Tasha was good as expected but a bit dull, agreed more drama in her and the music.
JB again good but a bit meh.
Singing awful and poor music choices/arrangements.
Weirdly, I like the PSB more now than I did in the 80's
You can't go to Blackpool and not have Funny Girls on, Claude was rude!

I couldn't work out what was wrong with Montell last night. Was she flat footed? Lack of hip action? It didn't look right/easy to me. I would love her to get further through the competition, she's our favourite.

I'm not a fan of CC but, by god, am I going to be watching Vito in that dance for many a year. I've watched it four times now and still have barely noticed poor Sarah.

It's interesting that quite a few of the celebs this year have mentioned preferring ballroom and that Chris has said having proper music made it feel like proper dancing and made a big difference to the rehearsals and the feel of the dance. It kind of makes you wonder if there's a lot of secret frustration behind the scenes when the couples are handed silly dances to inappropriate music. Paul Merson hinted at this too. I know a few of the celebs and pros in the past have voiced a bit of disgruntlement at the creative decisions they were given but they have to go on ITT and sell being 'happy, happy, happy.'

To me it looked very frantic and like she was always rushing to get into the next move rather than actually dancing.

Even the basic forward and back looked somehow clumpy to my inexpert eye.

As for the whole drag queen thing, it really annoys me that we've imported this American idea that drag is only recently acceptable and that everyone in the past was outraged by it. My mother was born in 1930s rural Ireland and loved working with two gay guys who did a drag act in their spare time back in the 60s and 70s. None of her colleagues batted an eyelid and the general feeling was 'good luck to them.' I knew a wardrobe mistress who worked with loads of drag acts in her career, going back to the 50s and 60s, and who especially loved working for Hinge and Bracket and Danny la Rue. Acts like Danny la Rue and Hinge and Bracket were mainstream entertainment before I was even born. Danny la Rue used to do the Royal Variety Performance back in the 60s.

I think a lot of drag acts in the past came from men who'd grown up surrounded by women and had a lot of affection for them but quite a bit of modern drag comes from a place of misogyny. I know Paul O'Grady said he didn't like Drag Race because it was all about the dressing up and not about having actual talent. People like Danny la Rue or Paul O'Grady could succeed as light entertainers without all the trappings but a lot of modern drag is entirely dependent on the costumes.

Danny La Rue used to come to our Sunday catholic mass whenever he was performing nearby. Never attended in drag, but always dressed to the nines. He GLEAMED.

But yes, drag back then (I was in church as a kid, so 80's) was perfectly acceptable. I think it was from the 90's that it took a nasty turn. I remember a local club where the resident drag queen was absolutely vile towards some of the female customers. Really really personal and misogynistic. It put me off drag for life.

I felt exactly the same. I like Montell but the dance just didn't seem to groove to the music last night. Mind you a lot of them fell flat in that respect - I wonder if there was something technical in the live Blackpool TV feed and the ballroom acoustics that led to the sound being infinitesimally delayed: just enough that you could clock subconsciously that something was wrong.

Chris and Diane were spot on though.

Wrong shoes in my opinion, heels are better for a Latin routine. Someone wore flat shoes in a previous series and it was the same problem, flat footed, I think it might have been Fleur East.

Jamie was really picked apart for what I thought was a good jive, he could do no wrong at the start of the series!!

Yes, having a slight heel on a shoe helps with many dance styles and the soles of proper dance shoes are really soft and smooth. Trainers create too much friction to dance in easily.

Re Montell, we said the same about her looking flat footed and clompy and realised it was probably those awful lumpy trainers.

I've seen the pro females do brilliant salsas in trainers though.

I guess they are good enough to maintain correct footwork without a heal.
They might also doctor trainers soles to give them the right slippiness.
Even with the right footwork just the size/shape of trainers always makes a dance look a bit heavy footed to me.

Nobody stamps their feet that the winner of bake off has a mother who owned a bakery. Or spent Sunday afternoons learning to bake with their grandmother who was a head chef.

No, but I'm pretty sure no one who has earned a living from baking is eligible to take part.

Yes, just checked the rules: Rules of Entry | The Great British Bake Off Series 16

You must not have any NVQ, BTEC and/or any equivalent professional qualification in baking, cooking, food production, food preparation or catering, unless acquired over 10 years ago.
You are not employed by a commercial organisation as a baker, cook or chef.
Your livelihood does not derive from commercial baking or cooking in a professional environment (restaurant, hotel, canteen, bakery, shop etc.)

So the equivalents of Tasha and Layton wouldn't be allowed. Probably not quite a few others too.

I dont want to see 15 people lumbering around like Wynne or displaying their todgers like Pete, so I hope people like Layton and Tasha are still allowed!

No one had a problem with Dame Edna either. Her and Lily Savage would have made a great double act!

Do you think Vicky and her team realised how awful those trousers would look? Or were they watching the monitor, mouths agape, like the rest of us? Not just in terms of the cock'n'balls department, but how they looked like they clung to his legs by the end.

I wonder. There was an issue with Nadija’s outfit in week 2, when it looked as if she was naked from the waist down. I really hope that this stuff isn’t cynical and deliberate in order to get viewers talking. But the alternative is that the BBC’s well-paid wardrobe experts are inept…

I don't dislike Tasha as a ringer or as a person, I'm just not excited by her.
I was excited by some of Layton's and I liked Ashley and Pasha's chemistry.
I just don't see it with her and Aljaz.

Tasha
cha cha 30 espresso
VW 35 misty blue
Rumba 34 barbie
Cowgirl selfie-stick Charleston 39
Tango 34 Florence and the machine
Frankenstein stiff samba 37
Bullying contempowaft 39
QS 37 fantasy
Paso 39 instrumental

They're all competent but none of them have had the X-factor for me, I really can't explain it. It might be I haven't loved any of the costumes or the music chosen, or Aljaz this year but it feels like something's missing. Not unhappy she's still in but nor does she have me rooting for her.