shallowness

Outfits: Tess’s was fine, Claudia’s was fine, Darcey wore a far more dramatic version of Tess’s dress, and Shirley’s was fine.

I liked the self-awareness over the whole mentioning Blackpool thing, and although it looked as though Claudia was going to get distracted from her job by the running joke, she didn’t.

Red suits Susan, like it does most people. I thought her height told against her for the tango, but she did well, even if the dramatic bits out of hold didn’t work for me, which suggests something about the bits in hold.

Slot o’doom for Joe – maybe suggesting the producers don’t think he’s the best male celeb left standing. Okay, ‘rumba is hard for a man’, but from what I saw on ITT, I was looking forward to it, and I was rewarded. Well choreographed, well executed – I think Katya has got the measure of her student.

The top of Ruth’s dress was lush, but the different things going on with the skirt were a little bit too much. At the beginning of the routine, she was handling the hat badly, and then the dance proper started and it was skippy and they obviously weren’t in sync. It went worse than she thought it did, as the judges pointed out, and though it wasn’t nice to see her upset, I don’t think they were overly harsh.

Davood kept up the improvement! Although, for me, the fact that he was long-limbed told against him slightly – I preferred Joe’s Charleston last week. So, I thought him good, but not 10 good, which put him right at the top. (My cynical side is wondering if there’s a bit of scrambling to fill the Aston-shaped hole.)

Gemma’s lack of acting skills meant the opening of their routing had no impact. It was decent enough, but I was thinking that with the ribbon, her dress could have done without the fringing. Alijaz choreographed a wow ending, although it didn’t quite win the judges over. Obviously, there was the shoe issue, but they were right about performance, and certainly it helps if we feel she’s enjoying the dance.

And then the dance I was looking forward to the most. Alexandra looked great. First, it was so nice to see a competitive routine using so much of the set. She showed off her flexibility (note to Debbie…). There were so many excellent little details I enjoyed about it, and the intensity and chemistry were givens anyway. (Vincent in da house). That’s laid down a high, high standard for the AT.

Mollie has had a horrid fortnight, but was in a great dress. The beginning with the curtains wasn’t as impactful as it should have been, and though she went for her paso, it was a bit elbowy and lacking in fluidity. The show is pretending that her being in the bottom two has been about her dancing and that she can dance her way back up, when we all know it’s a popularity contest too. Well, I did feel she was a bit undermarked and that her thanks to AJ might have come over well, but even though I felt sorry for her, I didn’t feel sorry enough to vote for her.

Jonnie continues to be this year’s Greg. There were a few bits where he was hunched over, and although he was trying to partner Oti, I didn’t connect to the dance. His shirt was offputting as was the fact that Oti’s dress would have been much nicer without the ruffle, or with a more restrained one.

Too right that Debbie got the final slot. Her salsa, while being miles better than most salsas we’ve seen (even including the lifts) was relatively ragged. She also got a red dress with some sauciness at the back.

I thought Brendan, Neil and Susan made a sterling effort to put Claudia off at the end.

Er, maybe Ruth (by which I mean Anton’s choreography) hasn’t done enough to get her through. Last week, I was convinced they’d be saved for us to see them do something crazy at Blackpool and then get the boot. Jonnie is, I think, still popular enough to make it through and I think Mollie is likelier to be in the dance-off than Gemma. There are various complicating factors – a feeling that the judges were sometimes harsh, although Shirley’s scoring method is making a little more sense to me now than it did.

I voted for Joe because I really did like that rumba, and Alexandra because I thought she was the best of the night and shouldn’t have been tied with Davood. Apparently I am voting twice at this stage already!