The nights are longer, the air is crisper, and our Saturday nights are once again deluged with enough cheese to feed a fondue festival. It can only mean one thing – Strictly is back.
And what a return it made over the weekend, with a double-whammy: two nights of glitter-suited celebrities shaking their tail feathers around the dancefloor, most with surprising levels of competence and, dare I say, talent. Apart from Ed Balls, of course.
The Jewish contestants among them made pretty spectacular debuts.
First up, we had criminal barrister Robert Rinder, otherwise known as daytime TV’s Judge Rinder, who, in my opinion, stole the show with his impossibly energetic cha-cha routine to Mercy by Duffy.
If you ever watched the Looney Tunes, you’ll have recognised his chaînés turns, as they could only be compared to the Tasmanian Devil’s motorised spins in speed and energy. The lawyer almost disappeared in front of our eyes in a tornado whirl of spangles.
The rest of his routine didn’t disappoint – for his facial contortions alone. As his dance partner Oksana Platero whipped off his judge robes to reveal a freshly-tanned chest, Mr Rinder grinned and gurned in equal parts as he stomped the ballroom.
The hard-to-please judge Craig Revel Horwood pointed out as much, commenting: “It certainly was frenetic, darling. And the facial expressions, my love. It looked like you’d had excessive collagen procedures done. The open mouth trout pout, darling – you need to look at that.”
Mr Rinder returned the compliment: “He brings experience to bear on that comment.”
The duo won 25 points, placing them in the middle of the pack for the first week. But then, their routine also became the show’s most popular clip in Strictly history, racking up 2.5 million views in record time. So they are certainly ones to watch.
Lesley Joseph made another memorable first impression, as she waltzed around the dancefloor to “What’ll I do?” – the theme song to her much-loved TV series Birds of a Feather.
Judges praised her “sophistication”, but pointed out a few unfortunate mis-steps, while Darcy Bussell commented: “Great control throughout, just don’t get lost in Anton’s chest” – an important directive for life, if not for dance.
But perhaps the most touching part of Ms Joseph’s routine came away from the dancefloor. As the couple concluded their routine, the camera cut to Linda Robson, her former Birds of a Feather co-star, who applauded the moment with tears in her eyes. Yet it still wasn’t quite enough to snag a high score – they ended up with 23 marks, placing them on the lower end of the judges’ leaderboard.
Finally, we had Daisy Lowe’s waltz, an understated and well-poised routine performed to Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable. Before taking to the dancefloor, the model had dedicated the dance to her late grandfather, who sadly passed away earlier this month.
It certainly drew high approval from the judges, with head judge Len Goodman announcing: “I don’t think I’ve seen a dance better than that for week one, ever!” Ms Lowe and her dance partner Aljaz Skorjanec then proceeded to top the leaderboard, winning 32 points in total.
All this goes to show that, this year, we have some prime movers and shakers in the competition. An apology, one hopes, for the year that Vanessa Feltz was this community’s ambassador.
By Charlotte Oliver
