Can you believe we’re almost at the finale of this series of Strictly Come Dancing? I’ve had such a fun time recapping it for you all every weekend. There’s been so many brilliant, funny, shocking and ridiculous moments this series. So ahead of the finale this Saturday (20th December) I wanted to bring you one last look back.
So, here are my ten favourite moments of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Strictly has been Vicky’s show
When I was making a huge initial list of my fave parts of the series, I had at least five Vicky moments. To be honest with you, every single thing that came out of her mouth was absolute gold.
From her telling Claudia, “I hate standing and lying down is me favourite”. To her taking one look at Kai after the Charleston and exclaiming “You’re dripping like an egg sandwich!” She turned to jelly for Kai’s Anton impression and wanted nothing more than to make the northeast proud.
However, my absolute favourite thing Vicky did was mount Kai when she got an even remotely high score. This started when she got three 7s and by the time she was getting properly high scores, she was mounting Kai, Claudia, and even Karen Carney.
The week of the table dances
It’s going to become increasingly clear just how few of my favourite moments are the actual dancing in this dancing competition. Though this one sort of includes dancing. Every week during the results show, Claudia asks some of the pros what they’ll be dancing to next week, it usually involves a little sing-along.
Except in week six, they all decided to start dancing around the table. This started with Katya, then the chaos ensued with them all trying to one-up each other. I thought we’d peaked when Kai kneed a table, then it was Nikita’s turn.
Never one to be outdone, Nikita leapt onto the table, went onto his knees and… well, he practically shagged the table, didn’t he? The best part of it all though was Claudia and the other contestants’ reactions. Especially Kai, who seemed to be the only one who realised someone had essentially banged a table on BBC primetime.
La Voix pitching for Tess and Claudia’s jobs
In week five, we had the sad shock announcement that Tess and Claudia had decided to leave the show. However, one contestant saw the opportunity before them. At every opportunity, La Voix pitched for their jobs.
From asking Tess where one could send CVs to taking over Claudia’s job several times. There was also the brilliant time she ended up in charge of the gallery. The best was in week eight when she told Tess she’d had an “MBE and P45 in one month” and then upstairs told Claudia:
She’s getting an MBE, you’ve only got a storm named after you, it’s going terribly wrong for you!
Balvinder’s couple’s choice
See, I was paying attention to the dancing too! For their couple’s choice, Bal and Julian chose to dance a commercial bhangra Bollywood dance. This was not only in honour of her mum, who died last year, but also her family, heritage, and community.
This was one of those absolutely gorgeous moments that showcases a dance style you wouldn’t expect to see when the media is dominated with hatred for anything “different”. One of the things Strictly does so well is spotlight this incredible variety of dances and narrative authentically, making so many people feel seen. It proves that despite all the gammons, we are a diverse nation.
This is what Strictly is all about. And yes, I did sob my face off, thank you very much
Harry’s muscles
Listen, if you’ve read the column for the last 12 weeks, you will know that perving on the dancers is one of my favourite parts of the show. Harry, also known as Nitro from Gladiators, was particularly enjoyable to watch. From the time he did a press up with Karen STOOD on him to the time he just went fully topless. I threatened to cancel my TV license after he went home. You ungrateful sods didn’t deserve his dancing pecs.
Nadiya is glad she can be thrown around, finally
So many of these moments are from the Clauditorium, but this is one I’ve absolutely howled at every time I’ve remembered it. In week four, Nadiya and boring Chris danced to a salsa. It was, as expected, just boring – although he did almost drop her. However, upstairs in the Clauditorium, Nadiya was full of praise for him going for the lifts and made the most incredibly sly comment:
Well Claudia, let me tell you, I’m a tall girl so, no offence, but with the pro boys sometimes it’s difficult to lift me.
What made this truly fucking hilarious was that she said it almost directly to pro dancer, Kai, who was stood behind Claudia. For context, Kai also just happens to be Nadiya’s ex-boyfriend. Pro Neil loudly protested, but Kai just stood, giving her a look that screamed “well, you never complained before”. Fucking excellent stuff.
Alex dedicates a very bizarre dance to her village
On Halloween week, Alex paid homage to the village which welcomed her in and made her one of them. As part of this, she dedicated the dance to the village. What’s fucking hilarious here, though, is that the song she’s dancing to is Horny by Mousse T.
So she does this absolutely stunning, sexy number for her village. It was also, of course, absolutely batshit too, because she and Johannes were dressed as devils. I was already hysterical when she blew a kiss to the camera and told the village, “That was for you”. What sort of village is this??
Kai and Vicky’s Taylor Swift tango
Look, it’s no secret that I’m an absolutely HUMONGOUS Swiftie. It’s also absolutely no secret that I’ve got a particular fondness for Kai. And I bloody love a tango so put all those together and I’m in fucking heaven lads. What makes an incredible Kai tango, however, is that he trains the female dancers so well on their lines that he practically penetrates them.
And this was a very very good tango. Clean lines, not a step wrong, and filled with filth. It scored them 39 and put them top of the leaderboard. This was the point for me where they stopped being the dark horses of the competition and became the front runners. It’s a shame they then went out the next week.
Instant dance chaos
They love a batshit challenge on Strictly, and this year’s Instant Dance brought new levels of what the fuck-ery. The couples were given a dance style and song, and then on the spot had to choose costumes. This part was “assisted” by Claudia, who basically just threw random pieces of clothes at them. They then had just 10 seconds to make a plan and had to take to the floor for 40 seconds.
The best part of this by far was Claudia trying to corral the pairs backstage and Nikita vamping while Amber took her time. He sarcastically told Claudia “this is great I love live television” and she responded “I’m never speaking to you again”. In amongst the chaos the judges randomly swapped seats and Motsi and Shirley forgot to take their booster cushions so you see just how short they are.
The dancing itself is the most ridiculous 5 minutes of television ever. George almost drops Alexis, Lewis and Katya almost definitely cheat. Julian nearly beheads Bal with a knee slide, and Nikita ends up on top of Amber. The best part though, is the fact that all of this was worth a maximum of six points.
Strictly Pros make Chicago pre-watershed
There’s been so many great pro dances this series, from the Wicked dance to Halloween week’s devilish dinner party. But the best by far was the Chicago-inspired dance on Musical’s week to Cell Block Tango. Alongside it being a ridiculously sexy dance, it was also unintentionally hilarious.
This was because not only did the pros voice their own sections, but because it aired at 8pm their confessions had to be completely PG. So this song about how women murdered their husbands became about them smashing pictures on the bed and cutting men out of their life. But definitely not by killing them.
While it has by all accounts been a weird and drab series of Strictly, there’s been so many fantastic highlights. I’ve bloody loved recapping it for you all every week and I can’t wait til the finale on Saturday
Featured image via the Canary
From Canary via This RSS Feed.
You must log in or # to comment.