Strictly Come Dancing made it to Blackpool this week and much to our surprise, we thoroughly enjoyed it! Even though there was a huge disappointment with La Voix not being able to dance, it turned out to be a really fun weekend.
Usually we can’t get excited about Blackpool. Yes, we know there’s a bouncy floor. Yes, we know it’s the home of ballroom. We’ve seen every photo of the judges all dancing there. We know there will be trams and the tower and the pier on the VTs. Yawn!
But this weekend, it actually felt a bit different.
Farewell La Voix
It had been announced earlier in the week that La Voix had injured her foot and couldn’t dance this weekend. But last night, Tess revealed that on medical advice La Voix had withdrawn from the competition altogether.
La Voix was in the audience, looking emotional, as the news broke. And we are pretty sad about it. She was such a good addition to the show – funny and sharp and actually on a proper Strictly (apologies for using this word!) ‘journey’.
Anyway, thanks to La Voix leaving early, plus Stefan Dennis pulling out a few weeks ago, it was announced that no one would be leaving this week, meaning there was no dance-off this weekend!
The contestants were delighted! And actually it took the pressure off the whole show and – dare we say it – made it more fun?
Even Tess and Claudia were fired up for their last Blackpool Strictly.
And there was more!
Add to that the brilliant professionals dancing to a Steps medley, and the appearances by former contestants Jay McGuinness, Ashley Roberts, Layton Williams and Danny Mac, and we had the ingredients for a sparkling Blackpool celebration.
We definitely weren’t expecting that!
Here’s what we thought of everything that happened on the dancefloor as Strictly Come Dancing went to Blackpool!
Strictly Come Dancing Blackpool: The good stuff
Once again former Emmerdale star Lewis Cope wowed the judges. He and partner Katya Jones danced an energetic Charleston to a swing version of I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor. It was – as Craig Revel Horwood said – fab-u-lous.
“Unbelievable,” said Anton du Beke and we have to agree.
Is Lewis now the one to beat for the glitterball trophy? Maybe…
Lewis and Katya got four 10s and topped the leaderboard.
Karen got dramatic
They were closely followed by footballer Karen Carney and her partner Carlos Gu. They danced a super-dramatic Paso Doble.
Karen even managed to turn off her smile and look really fierce during the dance.
They also totally wowed the judges, with Motsi Mabuse even saying she didn’t have a paddle with a number high enough to express how good she thought the dance was!
Craig said it was “dramatic and passionate” but obviously not quite dramatic and passionate enough, because while all three of his fellow judges gave Karen and Carlos 10s, he only scored them 9.
Harsh!
George finally had fun!
And he did the same when George Clarke and Alexis Warr took to the (bouncy) dancefloor to show off their Salsa. It was definitely George’s best dance so far. He’s been a little ‘vanilla’ up until now and often we thought he didn’t want to be there.
But he really looked like he was enjoying himself this week for the first time and it showed in his dance. Craig even called him a “true star” before scoring him 9, while everyone else gave him a 10!
Meanwhile the “comeback queen” Balvinder Sopal danced a great Argentine Tango with her partner Julian Caillon. With no fear of being in the dance-off (again) EastEnders star Bal could really throw herself into the routine and she scooped 33 from the judges. Very respectable.
Too much going on?
One of the many things we don’t like about Blackpool that remained this week is the extra dancers. We find them really distracting and sometimes chaotic and that was certainly true with Bal’s dance. Though the judges disagreed! (But what do they know, eh?)
We also felt it in Amber Davies’s Quickstep. The West End star did her best with the routine – winning four 9s from the judges – but it all felt a bit exhausting to us!
Her partner Nikita Kuzmin was thrilled with the whole thing, though, especially as his parents had come to watch!
Was Alex under-marked?
Then there was Alex Kingston and Johannes Radebe, who danced their Couple’s Choice. We love Alex. We love Jojo. And now we love Alex’s husband – Emmy-winning documentary maker – Jonathan Stamp, too.
Alex talked about her diagnosis with cancer, and said she thought taking part in Strictly was the best way to celebrate being cancer-free.
We totally agree!
Alex’s Couple’s Choice was “stylish and sophisticated” according to Anton. Motsi said it was “slick, sultry and sensational” and Craig said it was “pure theatre”.
The judges awarded Alex 35 points for her dance. Which we actually thought was a bit low.
Sunday’s show sparkled!
And as if that wasn’t enough, the results show didn’t bring any results thanks to there being no dance-off. Which was fine by us.
Instead we got the triumphant returns of Ashley, Jay, Layton and Danny, who danced their little socks off in spectacular fashion.
We got the amazing Lewis Capaldi.
And we got a super-emotional and extremely fabulous send-off for La Voix.
What a weekend!
Are we completely on board with Strictly Come Dancing Blackpool week now? No. But we’re open to persuasion.