I ♥ Strictly

Well, that is me glued to my television screen every Saturday from here to Christmas.

I ♥ Strictly Come Dancing. I really do. I’ve been two years without it and it is finally here again!

Yes, in America they did have Dancing With The Stars but it was completely different. Ok, no. It was all too similar for my liking. The theme music was exactly the same. They even had two of the same judges, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli. But it just wasn’t Strictly. It was a poor imitation and I just could not get into it. I didn’t really want to get into it. It was just a little too painful to listen to that wonderful theme tune and not have Brucey and Tess waiting for me at the end of it. They only had three judges and Craig Revel Horwood wasn’t one of them. He is definitely my favourite. I did not like their third judge Carrie Ann Inaba.

And talking of pointless judges, there is definitely something different about Strictly this year. Arlene has been ousted and replaced by Alesha Dixon. Yes, ‘pop star’ Alesha Dixon, not ‘professional dancer and therefore qualified to judge other people on their ballroom and latin skills’ Alesha Dixon. Fine, she won Strictly in 2008 but so what? She didn’t reassure me by her judging performance tonight either. It is a dancing competition. I don’t think she talked about dancing at all. Useless. At least Mr Revel Horwood was on top form. I really think he is mint.
Actually the first show of this series was last night (Friday) and I couldn’t watch it because I was at the Darlington Civic Theatre watching the Soweto Gospel Choir. So I watched it on BBC iPlayer this morning whilst still in bed. I also ate a gigantic crispy cake for breakfast. Yes, I’m disgusting.

I really enjoyed the show (apart from Alesha Dixon. Don’t get me started on her duck chuckle. And it thought Bruno Tonioli was irritating).
Well, I complained about Alesha Dixon not talking about the dancing in her critique so I suppose

I’d better write a little about it. But I don’t pretend to be a dancing expert….

My favourite is Chris Hollins. I just love his sports presenting. He was my pick of all the celebs before the show even started.

Chris came second in the judges’ scoring last night. Good for him. He did really well. His dancing looked good to me. I wasn’t blown away but somehow I didn’t expect that on the first show!! His face during the Tango was so funny. He has to work on that a bit.

I also think Linda Bellingham did brilliantly. She looked terrific on the dance floor. It wasn’t the most exciting Tango (should that be capitalised? I feel like I’m talking about an orange fizzy drink!) but I think she did what she did very well.

Of course Ali Bastian stands out. Her waltz was beautiful. I’ll be really interested to see how she with the Latin dance tonight. *Yay! Strictly two days in a row! Hurrah*

My favourite professional dancer, Anton du Beke, was in the group dance. He is partnered by Laila Rouass this year. I’m a little sad about that cos I’m not her biggest fan. I would love Anton to win it though. He is constantly cheery. It is so infectious. I smile back at him through the TV or computer screen. I can’t wait to see how they do in the individual dances next week.

Oh Strictly! All the glitz, glam, sequins, satin, feathers, fake tan….. hapless celebs. What a great mix!
I guess you all know where I’ll be tonight at 7.25pm!