Strictly Come Dancing: strictly the best

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Strictly Come Dancing: strictly the best

September 26, 2016 - 18:30
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Strictly Come Dancing returned to our screens this weekend to kick off its 14th series, following the official launch programme three weeks ago. In what has now become an annual tradition, die-hard Strictly fans are bitten by the ballroom dancing bug in the first weekend of September, only to have to wait until the end of the month for the competition to begin.

Daisy and Alijaz

By Matthew Gormley

Strictly Come Dancing returned to our screens this weekend to kick off its 14th series, following the official launch programme three weeks ago. In what has now become an annual tradition, die-hard Strictly fans are bitten by the ballroom dancing bug in the first weekend of September, only to have to wait until the end of the month for the competition to begin.

But it’s always worth the wait. The 2016 ballroom battle got underway on Friday night, when the first six couples took to the floor for the very first time. As has come to be expected in recent years, the standard in week one is now so high that you’d be forgiven for thinking we were already halfway through the competition. Laura Whitmore and partner Giovanni Pernice had the nerve-jangling task of opening the show, and the series, on Friday with a perfectly respectable Cha Cha Cha. On Saturday, Louise Redknapp and Kevin Clifton (christened ‘Kevin from Grimsby’ by Brucie when he made his dancing debut in 2013, a name that he has, as yet, failed to shake off) kicked off proceedings, jiving to The Brian Sezter Orchestra’s ‘Jump, Jive an’ Wail’.

The highlight of the opening weekend was, undoubtedly, former Hollyoaks star Danny Mac and new professional Oti Mabuse’s spectacular Cha Cha Cha to the current DNCE hit ‘Cake By The Ocean’. It was a routine that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a semi-final, let alone in the first week. Danny is clearly a natural and I am already rooting for him to go all the way to the final, excited to see how he’ll perform and progress over the coming weeks. However, I can’t help but wonder if he’s had previous dance experience. Having appeared in the West End for four years in the hit musical Wicked, surely he can’t be a complete novice? Every year, the age-old debate about whether celebrities with dance experience should be allowed to take part reappears. I don’t necessarily agree that anybody who has danced before should be banned, but certainly if they have had any form of ballroom dance training then they shouldn’t be on the show, for it gives them an unfair advantage and immediately sets them apart from those who are starting from scratch. Of course, it may be that Danny is just a complete natural and has a flair for the Latin routines in particular. It will be interesting to see how his ballroom compares when he attempts a Waltz or a Foxtrot. Head Judge Len Goodman, who is sadly stepping down from his role at the end of this year’s series, hit the nail on the head when he told Danny and Oti that their routine was too ‘showy’; there was too much showing off and staged dancing rather than traditional Cha Cha Cha.

The judges scoring placed Danny and Oti in second place on the leader board, behind model Daisy Lowe and partner Aljaž Skorjanec. As all couples are given a rite of passage into the second round, the judges scores are carried over to next week, when they’ll be added onto the second set of scores before the public vote takes place. No doubt Danny will win votes from his legions of female fans for his looks alone; it is unfortunate that sometimes dancing ability isn’t considered by the viewing public picking up their phones.

Voting politics and qualms over tradition aside, Strictly Come Dancing is still hands down the most entertaining programme on the box, and unbeatable in its Saturday night slot. The cheesy sketches the producers like to sneak into the training VTs need ditching in favour of actual training footage, and the presenting team of Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman still leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t dislike Claudia, she can be entertaining, but this act of playing dumb is wearing a bit thin at the start of this, her third year on the job. The show is still desperately lacking the presence of Sir Bruce Forsyth, who was the heart and soul of Strictly until he stepped down in 2014.

Luckily, the most important element of the show, the dancing, is still top notch. The group routine which opened Saturday night’s show was sublime, featuring not only the professional dancers but dancers from up and down the country, ranging kiddies to grandparents, all gliding round the floor beautifully to Burt Bacharach’s ‘What The World Needs Now’, which was sung to replicated to perfection by Dave Arch and his wonderful orchestra, who are without a shadow of doubt the best live band on television. It was enough to move even the most detached and was a beautiful reminder of how powerful and emotional dancing can be.

It’s pure escapism, the perfect way to spend a Saturday night – Strictly the best.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday nights until 17 December, with the results show on Sunday.