Strictly: A winking Aston, a spinning Susan and a stumbling Ruth

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Strictly: A winking Aston, a spinning Susan and a stumbling Ruth

September 24, 2017 - 16:48
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 I did it, did you?  Did you make it through to the end of the two hours and twenty minutes of week one of 'Strictly Come Dancing 2017', which at times felt more like two and a half weeks?  Bravo my friends if you did and give yourselves a Len Goodman SSEEEVVVEEENNNN, if you managed it without a 'comfort break' as they call it at Wimbledon (aka watering the pansies).

Ruth Langsford

By Andy Lloyd @ScarfmanAndy

I did it, did you? Did you make it through to the end of the two hours and twenty minutes of week one of 'Strictly Come Dancing 2017', which at times felt more like two and a half weeks? Bravo my friends if you did and give yourselves a Len Goodman SSEEEVVVEEENNNN, if you managed it without a 'comfort break' as they call it at Wimbledon (aka watering the pansies).

Admittedly, it's very formulaic but if 'Strictly' is your thing then you will have fully lapped up last nights show. It had everything you would want from a 'Strictly' first week. It had glitz and glamour, it had some OK-ish dancing and it also had some utterly woeful dancing from some of the celebrities. It was good to see 'Strictly' back on our screens once again. In this current era of niche broadcasting, 'Strictly' is one of those rare programmes that is fit for all of the family to see. Therefore, it is a programme that should be forever cherished by the critics.

Comedy is a vital component in the early weeks of 'Strictly' and so for this reason alone I could have just watched funny celebrities Brian Conley and Susan Calman dancing all night. Brian is full of amusing one-liners and comedienne Susan makes me smile every time that she appears on screen. It was funny by the producers to have this well-known lesbian in Susan, doing the Viennese waltz to the song 'Mad About the Boy'. She reminds me of Jimmy Krankie doing 'Strictly' such is her lack of femininity, but I mean this in a really endearing way. She is totally out of her comfort zone it's untrue, so this makes me want to instantly root for her. For my enjoyment alone I need Susan to be this years Ed Balls, i.e. 'the comedy act' that goes along way in the competition. Last night she did a brilliant dance with 'Kevin from Grimsby', scoring twenty marks from the judges.

If I reviewed every celebrity from last night then I really would be here til Christmas, so I'll now do a quick summing up instead. Aston(from JLS), as expected was the best dancer of the night as he scored thirty-one from doing a rather over-confident foxtrot. I just hope that he isn't going to wink his way through every routine like he did here. The two surprises of the night for me were how good breakfast TV's Charlotte Hawkins and 'Holby's' Joe McFadden were. Charlotte did a really graceful foxtrot scoring twenty-two, whereas Joe with his partner Katya Jones, did a brilliant jive routine scoring twenty-nine.

Look away now from reading this next bit if you love presenter Ruth Langsford from 'This Morning' and 'Loose Women'. Poor old Anton has got the booby prize once again because Ruth is to ballroom dancing to what Gordon Ramsay is to vegetarianism, i.e. not great. I like Ruth and I want her to do well but going off the first week of dances, then I fear she or celebrity chef Simon Rimmer, will be the first one for the 'Strictly' chop next weekend. Ruth did the waltz but did more stumbling about than actual dancing I'm afraid and so scored just sixteen.

I enjoyed the return of 'Strictly' that much that for about the first time ever, I even found myself laughing at the usually excruciating comedy sketch/joke, that they insist on Claudia doing halfway through every show with Tess. However, I am sure I will be back to grimacing rather than laughing at this aspect of 'Strictly' pretty soon though.

All-in-all, a triumphant first week for 'Strictly'. Yes, it went on for far too long as expected, but at the same time it didn't drag on for as much as I feared it might at the start. I look forward to week two and seeing more of Brian and Susan, we need to keep them in it for as long as possible! 4/5.