Strictly Come Dancing Second Live Show – well tonight’s celebrities, and their professional partners, must have been nervous after the high standard set by last night’s first 6 dance pairs.
First pair on tonight were former England rugby star Ben Cohen and his partner sexy Russian Kristina Rihanoff. They danced a cha cha to Love Me Again and although they scored 19 points if the judges reviewed their scores at the end of the programme then we think he would get a higher score.
Next up was former Bond girl Fiona Fullerton and the ever reliable Anton Du Beke. Many Strictly followers will be surprised that it is Fiona and not Vanessa Feltz or Deborah Meaden that is the oldest lady in this year’s series at the age of 56.
Anton is clearly enjoying having a partner this year that is not only enthusiastic but can also dance and they put together a good opening performance with their tango to Bond movie theme A View To A Kill that gets them a creditable 24 points from the judges. Both Anton and Fiona look delighted with their full set of 7′s from the judges.
After Fiona’s classy, nicely flowing tango we get to see something altogether different with Hairy Biker Dave Myers producing a performance more worthy of the title ‘dad dancing’ than anything else in Strictly history. He also pulls off a move that is an almost exact replica of John Sergeant’s 2008 ‘teddy bear drag.’ Dave’s partner Karen Myers clearly struggled to find any choreography that she could make him look serious with and had to go for the comic vote. For once Craig didn’t have to try to hard to look genuinely horrified as he watched the dancing. We shall quickly move on after saying that they were dancing their cha cha to Moves Like Jagger. As someone said tonight on Twitter it was more like Moobs Like Jagger.
Looking altogether more stylish although a little nervous was Rachel Riley from Countdown. Rachel has an amazing figure so we hope that she will make it well into the later stages of the competition to see her in some of those great Latin outfits. Tonight’s opening dance was a waltz to When I Need You and it was very good in its way although as Len pointed out it was “a little safe.’ Still Rachel and Pasha got a score of 27 and with Craig describing Rachel’s rise and fall as gorgeous they should be safe for several weeks at least.
Next up was possibly an even more embarrassing performance that Dave Myers as the very camp Julien Macdonald danced quite awkwardly to Madonna’s Vogue before being very loud and shouty and giving the impression that he had taken something before he took to the dancefloor. He and dance partner Janette Manrara get a score of 20 which looks grossly unfair to Ben Cohen when you view both performances back.
Another overmarked dance pair up next with Deborah Meaden from Dragons Den and Robin Windsor getting 24 points for their tango to Abba’s Money Money Money.
A possible male finalist up next with Casualty’s Patrick Robinson looking very good with his opening jive to Bruno Mars’ Runaway Baby. Although the intro slot showed Patrick struggling with a dodgy knee he showed bags of energy and both he and dance partner Anya Gamis seemed to be having great fun out there. Another set of 7′s from the judges brought them a very respectable 28 points.
Next up was the ‘interesting’ pairing of Vanessa Feltz with James Jordan. Their cha cha to Shania Twain’s That Don’t Impress Me Much scored 19 points the same as Ben Cohen. The main reason to see Vanessa continue is to watch her boss James Jordan about in training and also to see him try to lift her in one of the later dances.
Just like last night’s first show the stand out performance of the show came with the final pair’s dance. Abbey Crouch had been talking to the media before this week about how she felt awkward on the dancefloor and despite being a model could not relax. She looked like a different person tonight as she and partner Alijaz Skorjanec produced a very impressive and elegant waltz to Des’ree’s Kissing You that scored 32 points from the judges, making it the top dance across both opening nights.
Strictly is back next Saturday with the first eliminations although you can get your usual midweek Strictly fix on BBC2 with Zoe Ball’s Strictly It Takes Two which is on at 6.30 from Monday to Friday.
