Strictly Come Dancing was back this weekend with its legendary Halloween week! Forget Blackpool, we know it’s Halloween most of the celebs want to reach, with the amazing costumes and makeup, and dances that it brings.
And it definitely didn’t disappoint!
We saw an amazing Couple’s Choice from Lewis Cope that won him four 10s from the judges! Plus Alex Kingston danced the most hilarious salsa, and Karen Carney wowed with her Peaky Blinders-inspired Argentine Tango.
But there was bad news for a fan favourite as their first time in the dance-off saw the judges choose to eliminate them from the competition.
There’s a lot to talk about! Here’s everything we thought of Strictly Come Dancing Halloween week.
There was a lot of good stuff in Strictly Come Dancing Halloween week!
Halloween week always feels packed with energy as the celebs, pros and judges throw themselves into the fun. And that was definitely true this week with some amazing costumes and dances filled with brilliant choreography.
Vicky Pattison and her partner Kai Widdrington opened the show with a bang. They danced an American Smooth to the Bonnie Tyler classic Total Eclipse of the Heart.
It was so good that Motsi Mabuse declared Vicky to be a “contender for the final”! Amazing. They were given 31 points from the impressed judges. And they set the bar very high for the rest of the competition.
La Voix was queen of the dancefloor!
La Voix and Aljaz Škorjanec danced a paso doble inspired by the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland. And it really was a wonderland for La Voix who perdormed a “personal best” according to notoriously hard-to-impress judge Craig Revel Horwood. La Voix – who got a 2 from Craig just a fortnight ago – got 35 from the judges!
It may not have been very Halloween-y, but Brummie Karen Carney and her partner Johannes Radebe danced an impressive Argentine Tango to the Peaky Blinders theme, dressed in flat caps and waistcoats just like the characters in the show.
“I loved, loved, loved that dance,” gushed Craig. OMG. Karen got two 10s – from Motis and Anton – and two 9s for her fabulous dance.
Lewis and Katya stole the show
But it was Emmerdale star Lewis Cope and his partner Katya Jones who stole the show. Lewis took Katya back to Hartlepool this week to meet his enormous family.
We were introduced us to Nana Dot and his impossibly glamorous mum Dee. And if we were distracted by the sheer logistics of a family with 14 children, FOURTEEN! it was only for a second because Lewis’s dance started well and just got better.
We admit we rolled our eyes a bit when Lewis was announced as a Strictly contestant. Of course, we knew he was a performer. And we knew he’d been in the West End and that he had the confidence to hit that dancefloor running, as it were.
When he’s done well up until now, we’ve been impressed obviously, but we’ve also been a little dismissive, claiming his dance background was helping him.
And we also have to admit that we are not fans of the Couple’s Choice dances – with a few exceptions. The wafty, bare-footed tear jerkers just don’t do it for us.
But we take all that back. We were wrong about all of it.
Because Lewis’s Couple’s Choice was a JOY. It was fun, energetic, brilliantly danced, cleverly choreographed… it had everything.
And the judges agreed. Motsi said it would become a ‘moment’ – one of the Strictly dances we all remember for years. While Anton Du Beke said the dance wasn’t just the best dance of this series but was in fact “as good as anything we’ve seen on any series”.
And Craig simply declared it: “Spooktacular!”
Lewis got the first 40 of the series, and he thoroughly deserved it.
The dark side of Strictly Come Dancing Halloween week
It wasn’t all good, though. Gladiator Harry Aikines-Aryeetey – AKA Nitro – made a mistake in his American Smooth, and apologised to partner Karen Hauer afterwards. George Clarke’s cha-cha to Apple by Charli XCX felt a bit flat and uninspired.
We tipped them for the dance-off. But we were wrong about that, too (frankly we’re questioning our status as Strictly super-fans at this point).
In fact it was poor Balvinder Sopal and her partner Julian Caillon who were in the dance-off AGAIN, this time facing fan fave Ellie Goldstein and Vito Coppola.
The judges chose to save EastEnders star Balvinder and so Ellie was eliminated from the competition.
We’re sad to see her go.
Read more: Strictly Come Dancing’s Harry admits ‘romance has gone’ with pro Karen
