Strictly series 11 premiere

[shallowness]

I was glad when they moved to the actual studio after all the quick cuts, which did my head in. Even if there was a lot of hoariness, part of Strictly’s appeal is its staples. But thank goodness one of them is Craig.

I’d seen the celeb line-up before watching this, but realised while watching that I knew who more of them were than I thought. Still, I was more interested in the pros: pleased that Artem and Pasha can continue their choreographic one-upmanship and that Iveta’s got a proper chance, but gutted about Natalie being injured. So, Erin, Flavia and Vincent have been dropped, the first isn’t entirely surprising, but I’m relieved that it sounds like the latter two will come back for an Argentine Tango demonstration. Seeing Flavia and Louis dance showed how nervy practically all the others were.

I was pretty good at guessing the first four pairings – height and how well the producers think they’ll get on are dependable indicator, but then I got worse. However, Ola has a contender while James has someone the producers want him to have fights with (or join in an united force against Craig with). Heh.

I don’t want to read too much into what we saw in the group dance, because who the camera ‘happens’ to alight on is misleading, though Vanessa wasn't the only on depending on mugging. However, a few of the couples look like they’ll be a lot of fun and some pros left the studio happier than others.