Sparkly hotpants, a stiff-as-a-board cha cha and a set malfunction involving a sparkly pink carousel horse. There’s only one show where you’ll see all of these things together: Strictly Come Dancing.
For many at home, the glitz, sequins and spray-tanned shimmying is a welcome distraction from the nights starting to draw in and the temperature dropping lower. For the second year running though, Strictly has started with a cloud hovering above it thanks to numerous controversies and unexpected exits.
To briefly recap, we’ve already seen two stars forced to pull out, scrutiny over Thomas Skinner’s place on the show, raised eyebrows over which pros are sitting on the sidelines, and the obligatory furore over who has already had dance training.
It’s not exactly the smooth start bosses will have been hoping for. But you wouldn’t have known it from the first live show. Strictly has always delivered escapism and week one showed that no matter what is going on behind-the-scenes, the Strictly cast and crew know the drill.
As is so often the case, it wasn’t the most talked-about celebs who delivered the most notable moments of the night. The best performances were the two jives: the first an energetic routine from Emmerdale actor Lewis Cope and Katya Jones. It seemed unbeatable until ex-England star Karen Carney and her partner Carlos Gu closed the show with a performance as close to flawless as you’ll ever see in week one.
At the other end of the scale, showbiz journalist Ross King delivered in entertainment (though not exactly skill) with a homage to Hollywood complete with a gigantic fur coat and Katy Perry soundtrack. Ever the diplomat, Motsi Mabuse summed it up as she reached for a metaphor to soften the blow: “There’s stairs to climb and we’ll climb them with you.” He wound up bottom of the leaderboard with a dismal 10.
One of the loveliest moments came as Gladiators tough guy Harry Aikines-Aryeetey – aka Nitro – delivered the gear change of the decade when he went from doing press-ups with his partner stood on his back to crying as he explained how much it means to take part in the show.
An honorable mention also has to go to La Voix, the RuPaul’s Drag Race queen who is surely the first Strictly contestant to be more camp than the show itself. In both the VT and the studio, every line she uttered was a perfectly-timed quip. After a malfunction meant her carousel horse couldn’t descend from the sky, she told Tess Daly: “I’m quite pleased though, when they said I was going to be suspended, I thought, ‘What have I said now?’.”
Another dose of camp came from the Aussie contingent, as Stefan Dennis – aka Paul Robinson from Neighbours – and his pro partner Dianne Buswell performed a foxtrot to the show’s iconic theme tune.
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So what about this year’s most “controversial” star? Tom “Bosh!” Skinner has undoubtedly had the most press for a wide variety of reasons. On the night, his paso doble essentially consisted of stern marching and Amy Dowden doing her absolute most to keep things on track. While they ended up second from bottom, he wasn’t quite dreadful enough to go down in Strictly history alongside the likes of Anne Widdecombe or Jon Sergeant.
The only real issue is that with so many couples dancing, these first few live weeks can feel like a slog.
But Saturday night’s marathon episode was a reminder of something the BBC knows about its flagship programme: no matter how salacious the headlines, no Strictly star is bigger than the show. And isn’t it great to have it back?
