IT TAKES TWO
Week 1
Monday
4th October 2010
Don't fix what ain't broke seems to be the message this year on It Takes Two (apart from the new fabric on the purple sofas plus a new grey sofa), with the usual behind the scenes look at the weekend shows kicking off Monday nights programme.
The first guests of the new series were Paul & Ola, with Paul admitting after he danced on Friday night he turned to the judges and had a vision of them as Spitting Image puppets and had to stop himself from laughing.
Next up was a chance for Craig to come in and have a chat about his view of the weekend, giving him the opportunity to give some more comments on Matt & Aliona, Pamela & James, Goldie & Kristina, Ann & Anton, Michelle & Brendan, Peter & Erin and Kara & Artem, as well as admit he looks for the negatives!
A video from Chris Hollins next, giving us his take on this years celebrity squad, mixed in with some extra bits from the footage we've seen from the early days of training.
Back to the studio for the final guests - Ann & Anton. It's Ann's birthday, so some video messages from other MPs wishing her a happy birthday, plus a bit of a chat about their salsa for this week, with Ann revealing they'll be adding some moves that don't belong in the salsa into their routine.
Tuesday
5th October 2010
Goldie & Kristina were the first guests, with cheeky montage of training footage showing Goldie larking around with a movie theme, but have to say when they started talking about foxtrot for this week, Goldie seemed a bit despondent.
Choreograpy Corner (part 1) was next, and in case you didn't know who Karen Hardy was, nice intro (voiced by Craig Revel Horwood) with footage of Karen in her amateur and professional competitive days plus a few shots from Strictly history reminding us of her dancing with Ramps. Good review of all Fridays dances, and excellent banter between her and Claudia. Loving your work, girls.
Next up, Pamela & James talked press-ups (yes, he really is making her do them, albeit under the guise of strengthening her arms for ballroom frame). She seems to be enjoying it so much, and although all the training footage for the salsa didn't include any footwork, she seems to have rhythm and looks good.
Part 2 of Choreography Corner with a review of all the Saturday dances. More chucklesome fun from Karen and Claudia, and like last year, I think this will be one of my favourite features on the show.
Finally, Felicity & Vincent came in and talked about how difficult it was to go first but think they ran out of time before they had a chance to talk about how their training is going for this week.
Wednesday
6th October 2010
The top two boys from the weekend, Matt and Gavin, with Aliona and Katya were the first guests tonight. Aliona had her new sparkly wellies on as she and Matt will be off to a pumpkin festival tomorrow for Matt's day job on Countryfile. Gavin worried his salsa might be embarrassing this weekend, but the whole interview is worth watching just to see Katya's good humoured outrage at Aliona complaining about Matt's ballroom, when it took her a week just to get Gavin's frame right!
The Dance Doctor, Peter Lovatt, was the next guest. I'd actually listen to him interviewed on Claudia's Radio 2 Art Show a few weeks ago, so I'd heard some of this before. Lots of psycho-babble with a dance flavour, more interesting was the training footage - Pamela & James look great in their salsa rehearsals!
Time for the behind the scenes guys to tell us how the set is put together, and all about the new design, followed by the annual visit from Tess Daly. Great to hear that Jimi seems to be loving it the most!
Finally, Michelle & Brendan joined Claudia and discussed whether the judges were too harsh, and set their expectations too high
Claudia has definitely hit her stride now - it's down to her that this show is totally brilliant!
Thursday
7th October 2010
Girls foxtrot training updates to start with Felicity struggling with left and right, Tina suggesting Jared might as well be talking Chinese for all the sense it's making to her, Brendan building Michelle's confidence, and Kara desperately hoping not to fall over this week! Onto the boys and Matt looking great in ballroom hold, Ola hoping their foxtrot will be romantic, Kristina going back to square one with Goldie for the frame and posture and Flavia's pushing Jimi that little bit further!
And Jimi & Flavia were the first guests tonight. Jimi's being having words with himself, telling himself to get a grip, while Flavia thought their cha cha was the best first dance she's had on Strictly in five years. These two obviously "get" It Takes Two which is great for me, as it brings out the best in Claudia too!
Time to meet the new boys, Artem, Robin and Jared. Robin says Strictly is awesome, Jared likes Manchester because it's more spacious than London, and for Artem it's the best experience ever. Robin and Artem are sharing a flat, but don't have a sofa, so Claudia offered them the middle section from the pink sofa. Claudia, meanwhile, just wants Artem to wear the hooded open waistcoat every week.
Onto the salsa training updates, starting with the Pamela & James who are having a bit of a power struggle, Patsy just can't wait to go out and dance it and hopes it won't be a dis-ahhh-ster, Ann wants the psychobabble to stop about what Strictly means to everyone while Anton is excited. For the boys, Gavin hates the salsa as it's not him, Natalie wants Scott to pick up everything quicker, while Peter is going to "give it plenty".
And finally, Peter & Erin came in to chat to Claudia. He realises he didn't give it enough show biz on Saturday, and he thinks he's got it in him although you have to love Erin's look to camera as she says "it's in there ... it's in there somewhere"!
Friday
8th October 2010
Two very quick interviews at the top the show, starting with a brief chat with Scott & Natalie, but no time for any Salsa training footage, but Scott told us it's not coming naturally to him, so it's just a case of drilling the steps into him. They were followed by Tina & Jared, who seem to be find the foxtrot quite tricky, but Tina's decided to keep her mouth shut if she makes any mistakes this week, and try to gloss over them keeping the performance going.
The first Friday panel of the series saw Craig Revel Horwood, singer Chris De Burgh and television presenter Louise Redknapp come in to discuss training. They looked at training footage of Gavin & Katya's salsa, which they'll be dancing to Rihanna's Don't Stop The Music, then Kara & Artem's foxtrot. Kara doesn't want to be the girl who keeps falling over, but if she keeps talking about it, she's going to get a complex about it and probably end up doing it again! They're dancing the foxtrot to From Russia With Love. Next, Ann & Anton's salsa, but the only training footage involved them messing around with no dance at all, however, we did hear their song choice, Dean Martin's Mambo Italiano. An incredibly promising looking foxtrot from Matt & Aliona being danced to She Said by Plan B, followed by some more excellent training footage from Pamela & James with their salsa and they've chosen Doctor Beat by Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine. Michelle & Brendan's foxtrot looks like it might be an improvement on last week, and their song is It Had To Be You by Harry Connick, Jr. Finally, just time to see the training footage of Peter & Erin's salsa, no song details, but the dance looked a bit of a mess, to be honest, but still time to improve.
Time to show a filler video about how the celebrities are all worried about the number of stairs in the new set, both going down them onto the floor, and the climb up to talk to Tess after the dance. Only really needed to give Claudia time to get over to the main studio to catch up with Alan the floor manager for a quick chat about the new set (with James and Artem putting on an impressive show of press ups in the background!) before up to Tess's area where she'll be co-hosting the results show from this year, and a few minutes with Felicity & Vincent who then gave us a quick demo of their foxtrot danced to Somethin' Stupid.