Strictly Come Dancing First Night 2013 – well tonight has brought the opening programme in the new series of Strictly with the first 6 couples on show.

The programme opened as usual with Bruce and Tess action and a small thumbs down for both of them as the normally very hot and stylish looking Tess Daly was dressed in a frankly unflattering yellow dress. Sir Bruce also managed to take the pressure of those waiting to see when he fluffed his lines as the first joke was messed up.

After some introductions for the judges, all 15 dance pairings and the band it is on to the serious business of the night with the first pairing out on the dancefloor.

First on view are Ashley Taylor Dawson from Hollyoaks and the lovely Ola Jordan who is in the interesting position of possibly being the first Strictly dance professional who is better known than her ‘celebrity’ partner. Oh and let’s not forget that Ola has just been shooting her 2014 calendar which features her naked on the beach. Pay attention these two facts may not be unconnected!

Ola and Ashley started off their bid for the 2013 Strictly glitterball with a cha cha to One Direction’s What Makes You Beautiful. Although understandable Ashley seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time staring at Ola Jordan’s bottom. Ola’s husband James probably has nothing to worry about though as Ashley seems to fancy Ashley more than anyone else.

They end up with a very creditable week 1 score of 25 points.

Next up veteran golfer Tony Jacklin and his dance partner Aliona Vilani. Tony looks a little awkward and nervous and Aliona says that she has never seen anyone sweat quite as much as him. We guess she will not be expecting to lift the trophy this year and they end up with a score of 16 for their waltz to Alison Krauss’s What’ll I Do. We will let you guess which one of the judges scored them just 2 points for their week 1 effort.

After Tony and Aliona’s ‘dance disahster’ (Craig R H), we have actor Mark Benton and his partner Iveta Lukoslute. At first sight the couple seem a little ill-matched as he is more than a little heavy and she is one of the thinnest dance professionals we have seen on the show. As often with Strictly though things don’t always turn out as expected and they put in a very good opening performance with a tango to Hernando’s Hideaway that gets a very good score of 24 points.

Next up is the thinking man’s sexy newsreader Susanna Reid who has said in the run up to the show that she is really looking forward to wearing some of the sexy revealing outfits. She is clearly keen to get started early as just a few days ago she managed to flash her knickers to the BBC Breakfast audience while crossing her legs. Not many newsreaders can manage such an early morning wardrobe malfunction so things look get for Susanna securing the viewers votes in the upcoming weeks.

Susanna and her partner, new Strictly professional Kevin Clifton dance a very good jive to Shake A Tailfeather and score an impressive 28 from the judges, including a week one 8 from Len Goodman, who is clearly a fan of the BBC Breakfast show!

Just 2 more couples left tonight with the next pair on the dancefloor Sophie Ellis Bextor and Brendan Cole. Although there is not a lot of chemistry on show between the two at least Brendan doesn’t feel the same about Sophie as he did about either last year’s partner Victoria Pendleton or Lulu.

They dance a waltz to Moon River from the Audrey Hepburn movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It is another good week 1 performance and like Susanna and Kevin before them they get a score of 28 from the judges.

Just one more pair to see tonight and it is Coronation Street’s Natalie Gumede and the ladies favourite professional male dancer, Artem Chigvintsev.

Natalie and Artem dance a cha cha to the very 70′s sounding Rasputin by Boney M. The word leading up to tonight’s show was that Natalie was taking the Strictly thing very seriously indeed and on the strength of tonight’s performance she has clearly put a lot of work, and hours, into her training for the competition.

After what looks more like a performance from week 5 than the opening week Natalie and Artem get a score of 31 points from the judges and she takes a clear lead. Our only comment would be that despite her obvious dancing skills she may not prove as popular with the viewers as she does with the judges. Both Susanna Reid and Sophie Ellis Bextor seemed to get a warmer reception from tonight’s live audience.

So we reach the end of this series opening show with less than 24 hours before we get to see the rest of the Strictly ‘Class of 2013″.

In case you were wondering you didn’t miss anything tonight, the photo of Ola Jordan is from her 2014 calendar as we couldn’t get see a nice shot from tonight’s performance that didn’t have Ashley looking overly pleased with himself or leering at Ola’s bum.

Natalie Gumede Tops Strictly’s Love Week – this week saw love week hit the Strictly Come Dancing studio and former Coronation Street bad girl Natalie Gumede ended up top of the judge’s leaderboard.

There were a number of much improved performances from the celebrities this week with great improvements from Ben Cohen and Rachel Riley. Also getting increased scored from the judges this week were Dragon lady Deborah Meaden and former Bond girl Fiona Fullerton.

Ben seemed a far more relaxed competitor this week and it clearly showed in a very improved dance performance from him. We would guess that many of the men watching tonight were maybe unaware that there was someone out there dancing with Kristina Rihanoff, whose very sexy, revealing outfit showed off her fantastic body.

So delighted was Ben with the judge’s scores and their complimentary remarks that he even went up to the judge’s desk and gave the normally prickly Craig Revel Horwood an impromptu hug.

It was another good week for BBC newsreader Susanna Reid who looked fantastic in a yellow gown as she and dance partner Kevin Clifton performed a very impressive Viennese Waltz. Head Judge Len Goodman even described it as the ‘best performance of the evening’ as the pair received the evening’s 2nd highest total of 34 points.

It was however Natalie Gumede and partner Artem Chigvintsev’s Rumba that took the night’s top spot. The dance is normally one of the more difficult ones for the celebrities to master but Natalie made it look simple. In fact her performance to Rihanna’s Love The Way You Lie has caused some people on Twitter to wonder if she is doing a little too well at this early stage of the competition. Strictly has almost always seen the public favour those celebrities who have gone “on a journey” to improve their performances over the course of the series.

Anyone who remembers how good Denise Van Outen and Austin Healey seemed in the early weeks of the competition and how they lost public support quite early on may well be tempted to look somewhere other than Natalie for this series’ winner despite the fact that she got a full set of 9′s from the judges tonight.

Before signing off we should also make mention of Hairy Biker Dave Myers rendition of the Paso Doble tonight. Dave is already seen as one of the most entertaining, if not technically correct, dancers. His performance of the Paso was as over the top as we might have expected having seen his first 2 attempts on the dancefloor. It seems that he is popular with the public despite, or perhaps because of, a lack of dance talent, and he is clearly having a great time. Although Len described Dave as the ‘people’s champion’ he only managed a total of 16 points from the judges leaving him firmly at the bottom of the leaderboard.

As always you can check out which 2 celebrities will be facing the dreaded ‘dance-off’ tomorrow night and which pair will be having their final dance together on BBC1 at 7.20 pm.

By the way we should also say that it was good to see a return to fashion form for Strictly host Tess Daly who looked great tonight in a tight-fitting gown with a very interesting nude section that showed off her impressive cleavage. Certainly got a good score from this judge!

Strictly’s Natalie In Battle To Appear This Saturday – Natalie Gumede may now be the bookie’s favourite to lift the title this series but she is in a fitness battle to be ready for this weekend’s show.

She has been consistently good in all her appearances so far and has pulled off the biggest points total of the series so far with straight 9′s from all 4 judges last weekend. It looks like the heavy training regime may be taking its toll on the body of the former Coronation Street bad girl though.

Natalie was seen leaving the offices of a London doctor yesterday and has had physiotherapy and steroid injections to help her deal with the pain she has been suffering in training this week.

A Strictly spokesperson has confirmed that Natalie is suffering from a compressed disc in her spine as well as sciatica. Neither of these conditions are usually helped by vigorous movement and so far Natalie and Artem have had to miss out on a day’s training to help her recover. The Strictly spokesperson said that Natalie is determined to appear on this Saturday’s live show however they finished their comment off with the expression ‘we shall see.’

Natalie was aid by partner Artem Chigvintsev to have had a slight fall in training on Tuesday and the fear is that this may have aggravated an old injury. As well as the physio and steroid injections Natalie also had an MRI scan earlier this week to assess the scale of her problem.

As so often seems to happen on Strictly when a dancer does well in the early shows People have been searching Natalie’s earlier career looking for evidence that she is not a complete dance amateur. This all seems a little like last year’s criticism of Denise Van Outen and her earlier dance experiences and we will wait to see if this all affects the outcome of the competition.

First of all we will have to wait to see if Natalie’s injury will actually let her compete in this week’s programme at all.

Strictly Week 6, Is Natalie Pulling Away? – as the series hits its 6th week one celebrity looks to be pulling away from the rest of the pack.

This week was a special Halloween themed show and amongst all the pumpkins, vampires, werewolves and cobwebs were some very good performances this week. And there was also Hairy Biker Dave Myers!

The stand out performance as far as the judges were concerned was Natalie Gumede and Artem’s  Viennese Waltz which they danced to Natalie Duncan’s beautiful track Devil In Me. They looked fluent and like they had been dancing together for years rather than weeks and their dance got the first sighting of the 10 paddle from the judges. With both Bruno and Darcey scoring the dance maximum points their total of 38 was not only their highest score and the highest score of the week but also the best of the series so far.

Other celebrities also achieved their top scores with Ben Cohen, Rachel Riley and Patrick Hamilton pulling out their best dances so far in the series.

Patrick Hamilton was first on this week, dancing the Quickstep to Man With The Hex by Atomic Fireballs and despite still being troubled by an injury to his wrist he managed to score a total of 34 points from the judges with Len even awarding the dance a 9.

Ben Cohen and Kristina Rihanoff pulled out the big guns this week as both showed off plenty of their very impressive bodies with a lot of chest on view from Kristina and all of Ben’s on view as he performed the Paso Doble without a top. They were dancing to Supermassive Black Hole by Muse and all of the judges agreed that it was a very masculine and powerful performance from Ben with Len describing their dance as an explosion. There was no talk of a lack of chemistry between this pair and if you look at the photo of Ben and Kristina you can see why!

Their score of 32 points was also their highest of the series so far and should hopefully leave them in little danger of being in tomorrow’s dance off.

The other celebrity who will feel well pleased with tonight’s score is Countdown’s Rachel Riley who was dancing an American Smooth (Waltz variation) to I Put A Spell On You, Rachel looked far more confident this week and  her experience on the dance off the other week seems to have given her an incentive to work harder in training. Rachel said after the dance that she had a wardrobe malfunction but nothing seemed to pop into view on our screens. Perhaps we need a bigger tv screen?

Their score of 30 points included her first 8s of the series and was easily her best score to date.

Abbey Clancy and Aljaz had a good night scoring 34 points for their Rumba to Shakespeare’s Sister’s Stay. They looked a very attractive couple in their skimpy Halloween outfits and were another pairing that seem to have no trouble on the chemistry front. In the after dance interview Abbey described Aljaz as being like her brother, from the look of tonight’s dance and their interaction she must have had a strange upbringing!

At the other end of the scale it was a poor evening for Hairy Biker Dave Myers who was meant to be dancing a jive to Monster Mash. So far although he has shown no dance ability whatsoever he has always been entertaining in his performances, tonight still no proper dancing but sadly no entertainment either.

If there is any justice it is probably now time to say goodbye to Dave as otherwise much better dancers will be eliminated each week.

Also having a poor week was host Bruce Forsyth who fluffed more jokes than usual and had to remind us many many times that if it wasn’t a live show ‘they could cut that bit out.’ He also had a major malfunction when he referred to the lovely Darcey Bussell as Dave!

On the plus side it was another good week for Tess Daly who wore a lovely dark dress this week that almost let us recover fully from the dress disaster that was her yellow gown in one of the early weeks.

As always tomorrow night sees the results show where we will find out which celebrity has reached the end of their particular Strictly experience.

Strictly Week 7, The Pussy, The Catsuit, The Sailor and The Kilt – we have now reached Week 7 and with a week to go before the yearly pilgrimage to the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool things have got even more intense for the remaining celebrities and their professional partners.

After Rachel Riley’s exit last week and Abbey’s appearance in the dance-off, it seems all bets are off as to who the public are voting for. Certainly it looks more and more like a John Sergeant factor is coming in to play for Dave Myers as with every comment the judges make about the public needing to remember that it is a dance competition it seems more people ring up to keep him in the competition.

The big news from the show this week is that Natalie Gumede is unable to perform in the live show as she fainted twice during today’s rehearsals and quite rightly she is being checked out at the hospital to make sure she is alright. She has been a consistent performer and been at or near the top of the leaderboard every week so far so we can’t see that there is much for anyone to argue about when it is announced that she will get a bye straight to next week’s live show in Blackpool.

Just in case anyone thinks that a special case is being made for Natalie due to her great dancing this is actually not the first time a celebrity has been given a week’s grace due to sickness. Back in Season 8 in 2010 Tina O’Brien, another former Coronation Street actress, missed Week 3 of the competition as she was diagnosed with chicken pox.

This week we had Ben Cohen covering up with a rather childish looking sailor outfit. The general feeling was that more of an Officer and Gentleman look would have scored him more than his Little Lord Fauntleroy meets Popeye outfit. He did win some brownie points from the judges with his opening backflip and we are sure that Kristina’s usual cleavage-showing outfit will have made most people forget that she had a foot injury and was wearing the wrong shoes.

When the judges scores were given out for their jive it became clear that Craig’s recent post operation scores may have been due to some strong painkilling drugs as he awarded a paltry 4 points to Ben and Kristina, a long way from the scores the rest of the judging panel thought the dance deserved.His total of 26 points could place him in danger this week unless he gets strong public support.

Fiona and Anton were performing the Paso Doble this week and after an ok performance to Blur’s Song 2 they emerged with 26 points, the same as Ben and Kristina. Some timing issues with their dance but as the judges were delighted to point out this week is was professional Anton who was to blame not Fiona.

Next up were Abbey and Aljaz, who this week were dancing a Charleston to Cabaret. As Craig was delighted to point out Aljaz ensured that the routine got the full Bob Fosse treatment and to help enter into the spirit of things Abbey wore a brunette wig and a bowler hat. It was a great comeback after her appearance in last week’s dance-off and got a full set of 9s for a total of 36 points from the judges.

Pussy time next with Mark Benton playing the part of a Bond villain, with a bald wig and stroking a white cat. We must say that the look did remind us more of a bigger Dr Evil from Austin Powers. However the white pussy was far too hairy to look like Mr Bigglesworth and certainly his evil sidekick Iveta Lukosiute looked nothing like Mini.Me in her skintight catsuit. It was Iveta who did all the work tonight and there was far too little movement from Mark with the performance scoring just 23 points and we guess the cat and Iveta’s catsuit were responsible for most of those. Another pair looking in trouble at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Susanna Reid from BBC Breakfast was next on the dancefloor and after receiving a bit of negative press from fellow BBC news presenter Jeremy Paxman she must have been feeling a bit of extra pressure. If she was this did not show in her dancing as she and partner Kevin pulled off their best performance so far in the competition. Their waltz to You Light Up My Life was excellent with Susanna showing a much improved frame and exhibiting some great lines throughout the dance. The judges agreed and with straight 9s again they looked more than pleased with their total of 36 points.

Sadly next up was Dave Myers wearing a kilt and things went downhill dancewise. Another stompy performance and Len noted in his comments that with Dave’s kilt flying about he could see why he was called a Hairy Biker. Ket’s hope there is nobody who watches this section back in slo-mo!

As we have all come to expect the judges are also not big Dave fans when it comes to scoring his dances although Len did comment that he found his performances unmissable. A total of 20 points with Craig very strangely scoring Dave 4 just as he did for Ben’s earlier dance, perhaps he had a fresh painkilling injection administered halfway through tonight’s show?

Ashley and Ola were performing a Quickstep to Lust For Life this week and Ashley seems to have raised his game. With a much improved posture, after many earlier comments from the judges, he scores a very decent 35 points.

Next it is time for Sophie and Brendan who are performing the first Argentine Tango of the series to Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics. The pressure may be slightly eased as this year there are no amazing Flavia and Vincent performances to make everyone feel inadequate. There is clever use of a chair as a prop and after a very solid showing the judges award the routine 32 points which Brendan says he is disappointed with.

This week has seen Patrick celebrate his 50th birthday and he continues his good week with his best performance yet as he echoes the golden age of Hollywood in his American Smooth. Looking stylish as ever he is wearing tails and his wrist is free of the cast he has had to wear for the previous 2 weeks. A great American Smooth that goes a little wrong just on the last lift and the judges score it 37 points,with Darcey pulling out a maximum 10, a strange score as everyone can see there was at least one major error in the performance. Nevertheless enough to take Patrick and his partner Anya to the top of the pile tonight.

There was no Bruce Forsyth this week as he was having one of his pre-arranged breaks from Saturday’s live show. Just as on Sunday’s result show it was Claudia Winkleman who took over the empty spot and she and Tess Daly had a great night together. The talk of who will replace Bruce when he finally retires may now change after this series as there is a strong case for this pairing of Tess and Claudia to carry on together.

As always we will find out on Sunday’s results show which unlucky pair end up in the dance-off and whose run is finally over.

Strictly Week 8, Plenty Of 10s And A Wardrobe Malfunction – this week saw the Strictly team hit the famous Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, described throughout the show as ‘the home of ballroom.’

It is traditionally a big week for Strictly and signals a stage when most of the less impressive dancers have left the competition. Although there are no doubt some fans who would have loved to see Hairy Biker Dave Myers here at the Tower Ballroom it is probably right that last week saw him leave the competition.

Tonight we were treated to a number of really great dance performances with the stand-out moments coming during the last 2 dances of the night.

The show started off with a spectacular group dance number that also featured lots of extra dancers of all ages and apparently had nearly everyone in Kevin Clifton’s family on camera.

After his planned mid-series week off it was Bruce Forsyth who returned to host the show with Tess Daly who was wearing a particularly glam dress tonight that had slits high up both legs as well as a cut-out section to show off her cleavage.

First celebrity on the dancefloor was Sophie Ellis-Bextor who was dancing the Quickstep to the classic Rodgers and Hart track The Lady Is A Tramp. A good performance from Sophie that had more of the personality and acting that the judges have been asking her for over the last few weeks. The judges were pleased with what they saw and Sophie ended up with a total of 34 points, comprising a 7 from Craig and 9s from the others.

Next on was the ever stylish Patrick Robinson who seems to have been making a serious bid for the title in the last couple of weeks. He and partner Anya Garnis were dancing a Samba to Barry Manilow’s Copacabana and unfortunately the routine has a shaky start as Anya has a Strictly wardrobe malfunction early on, getting one of her heels caught up in the feathers of her outfit. They both recover well and apart from a small stumble from Patrick later on in the dance they cope very well with the wardrobe malfunction which could easily have made a less competent dancer than Patrick fall apart.

The judges are mostly impressed by their Samba (apart from Craig) and they emerge with a score of 35 points, maybe a little generous but probably reflecting how well Patrick coped with Anya’s outfit problem.

Ben Cohen up next together with his Russian dance partner Kristina Rihanoff. Ben and Kristina are dancing the American Smooth this week to Alicia Keys’ Fallin’ and the American Smooth gives Kristina a chance to choreograph in plenty of lifts to show of Ben’s strength and power.

Scores of 8s from all 4 judges (Craig finally in agreement with his fellow judges) sees Ben and Kristina achieve a total of 32 points which equals their best score so far in the series and seems to rightly please both of them.

Ashley Taylor-Dawson and danced a rather unusual cowboy-themed Paso Doble to Bon Jovi’s You Give Love A Bad Name. The cowboy theme received a mixed reception from the judges with Len also loving the timing or what he called the ‘whip it and wait’ but Craig, although confessing a liking for the bizarre, found the theme not to his taste.

A total of 35 points for Ashley and Ola which put them level with Patrick.

Fiona Fullerton was on the floor next with partner Anton du Beke wearing an airline pilot’s uniform for their American Smooth to Frank Sinatra’s Come Fly With Me. Now we know why Anton is wearing the pilot’s uniform!

A competent but not very exciting performance leaves the audience and the judges a little underwhelmed and they finish with a total of 29 points. Could be in danger this week we feel.

Abbey Clancy and Aljaz were next with a Quickstep to Dancing On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. A nice fast and accurate performance from Abbey and most of the judges are full of compliments for her. Craig however goes on about gapping and several other minor problems which seems to upset Bruno who tells him loudly enough to caught on the microphone to ‘cut the crap’. This earns Bruno the equivalent of a Strictly yellow card from Tess as she quickly issues an on air apology for the ‘language.’

37 points from the judges for Abbey’s Quickstep takes her and Aljaz to the top of the leaderboard.

Mark Benton was then performing the Jive with his partner Iveta Lukosiute. Iveta seems to have quickly settled into her new role as a Strictly professional and has already won herself a solid fanbase. They danced to You Can’t Stop The Beat from the musical Hairspray. If the performance was a real winner this might cause some Denise Van Outen style complaints as Mark actually toured as part of the Hairspray tour from February this year until Strictly began in September.

Sadly for Mark his Jive was not that great although he was much more entertaining than he has been for the past 2 weeks. The judges seemed relatively pleased with the return to entertaining form and he escaped with what we thought was a rather generous 29 points his best score yet. Not enough however to lift him off the joint bottom place with Fiona Fullerton.

Things then picked up dramatically as one of the competitions dark horses took to the dancefloor. Apart from her winning smile and personality presenter and newscaster Susanna Reid has really impressed the public and the judges as Strictly has progressed this year.

She and her partner Kevin danced a traditional Paso Doble to Bizet’s Los Toreadors from Carmen. As well as the traditional music both Susanna and Kevin wore traditional Paso outfits and their performance was superb. There were no gimmicks just some fantastic dancing.

The crowd ended up on their feet as Susanna stayed on the floor unable to move for a few moments seemingly overwhelmed by the whole thing. Like the audience the judges were also most impressed and Susanna received 3 19s and a 9 from Craig which gave her a 39 points total, the highest score of the series so far from any dancer.

Final dancers of the night were Natalie Gumede and her partner Artem Chigvintsev. Natalie did of course miss last week’s programme after being taken ill during rehearsals but was declared fit to take part this week. She and Artem produced a great Charleston to Will.i.am’s Bang Bang and although we thought it not as good as Susanna’s dance (and no great audience reaction) the judges disagreed and they also awarded her a total of 39 points leaving her joint top with Susanna.

As always tomorrow night sees the Results Show, which surely must contain either Fiona or Mark, or both, in the dance-off.

Strictly Come Dancing Week 9, The Judges Are Getting Tougher – as the series hit Week 9 and the post-Blackpool euphoria died away it seems the judges have decided to get tougher with the remaining celebrity dancers.

After last week’s flurry of maximum scores there was just one solitary sighting of a 10 this week, and ironically this came after a dance to the song ‘Where Have You Been”, a sentiment no doubt echoed by the celebrities and their professional dance partners.

As in many of the earlier weeks it was former Coronation Street actress Natalie Gumede who topped the leaderboard, and unsurprisingly received that only 10 of the night from Bruno Tonioli.

In fact none of the dancers managed to produce a performance that received a higher score this week than their performance last week at Blackpool. It was only Ashley and Ola who managed to equal their previous week’s score with the 35 points they received for their Waltz, danced to Whitney Houston’s I Will Alway’s Love You. On the basis of the judges scoring tonight we would conservatively reckon that last week that same dance would have got them at least an extra 3 or 4 points.

Although the judges may have been asked to start getting a little stricter with their marking truth to tell this week’s show lacked a little sparkle compared to last week’s Blackpool spectacular. When the show goes all out like it did last week perhaps it is unfair to expect that same level every week.

Last week’s ‘belle of the ball’ was thought by most observers to be news presenter Susanna Reid with her partner the catchily named ‘Kevin from Grimsby.’ This week it was Susanna’s turn to open the show and they were the first pair to see that the judges were in a very different mood to last week. If the scores were down on last week’s then the level of criticism coming from the judges was even greater by comparison. If you had tuned in and just listened to the judge’s comments on Susanna’s performance tonight you might have thought you missed the Strictly version of a car crash.

In truth although Susanna’s dance tonight lacked the power and emotion of last week she is still one of the show’s best dancers. In fact if you look at the current odds a number of bookmakers have Susanna as the favourite to lift the glitterball trophy this year. Apart from her most die-hard fans most would agree that Susanna is probably not the best overall dancer which is and has consistently been Natalie, however it is Susanna’s personality and natural warmth which may well give her the edge with the public.

As we have said before it is not normally the best dancer who takes the Strictly title but it is quite often the dancer who has improved the most or in Strictly-speak has had the biggest ‘journey.’

In a  week where the programme has moved up a gear in what it expects from those taking part it is Ben and Mark who find themselves struggling at the bottom of the pack.

Ben and Kristina’s Charleston to Blackstreet’s No Diggity scored just 27 points with Craig awarding Ben just 6 points which is clearly not good enough for Week 9. Good looks and muscles may have got the former England  rugby star to the home of ballroom but they are looking unlikely to take him all the way to the final on current form.

After all those years of sharing a changing room with a load of hairy rugby players we wonder if Ben is still not able to believe his luck at his current dance partner. You can see in the look on his face in this still from tonight’s show that 2 things seem to be puzzling Ben!

Likewise Mark and Iveta’s Foxtrot to Michael Buble’s It’s A Beautiful Day eared them just 1 more point with a total of 28 from the judges. Again Craig thought it only worth 6 poInts but Darcey’s score of 8 was enough to give Mark a slender lead over Ben.

Our guess is like last week the public are likely to vote in a similar way to the judges and we will see Mark in the dance-off for the 2nd week running and he is likely to be joined by Ben. The decision as to who is to stay is likely to be a very close one and unlike many other weeks the judges are unlikely to know who they will pick until both celebrities have danced for a 2nd time.

As usual the Strictly Results Show is presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on BBC1 with a start time this week of 7.20 p.m.

Strictly Week 10, Abbey’s Maximum, Natalie’s Wardrobe Malfunction and are the Jordan’s Leaving? – it is week 10, the theme for this week’s show was Musicals and there was plenty of drama on and off the dancefloor.

There seems to have been plenty of excitement about this week’s Musicals theme in the build up to tonight’s show but we have been thinking that some of the shows chosen by the dancers (or possibly the show’s production team) are just a little bit too safe and a bit too wet if we’re honest

Now if Ben and Kristina were still in the competition the thought of the Russian dancer dresses up as Maria from the Sound of Music might revive our interest in Austrian convent related musicals but sadly she and Ben are no longer on view.

First visual impressions were not great with Mark Benton dressed as a lion and on the presentation side of the show Tess Daly was wearing a strange and very unflattering Boudica style outfit that managed to make her boobs look like they were making a move in a southerly direction. If the same person chose this outfit as was responsible for the hideous canary yellow number she wore in one of the earlier shows then it really is time to ‘sack the stylist.’

Things improved quickly once the main business of the evening began and Patrick and Anya produced a very good Charleston to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They scored an impressive 38 points from the judges although we did feel that this was perhaps a tad generous with some of Patrick’s moves lacking snap and precision.

Next on it was Natalie and Artem who danced an American Smooth to the powerful  ”And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’ from the musical Dreamgirls. It was a superb performance from Natalie who had tried to get some pre-lift practice in this week by training on a trapeze with some circus performers. Strangely, this manages to score 36 points from the judges, 2 points less than Patrick’s Charleston.

Earlier in the day Natalie had shared a photo with her Twitter followers showing a wardrobe malfunction when she was having her picture taken with Susanna Reid, Abbey Clancy, Sophie Eliis Bextor and dance professional Iveta Lukesiute. The photo appeared to show Natalie revealing an outsize nipple through her dress but as she explained it was actually just a microphone pack.

“@D8Iveta: @OfficialClancy @SophieEB @susannareid100 @bbcstrictly pic.twitter.com/k3JjH2GYeA” that’s a mic pack on my boob not a massive nip!’

Next on tonight’s show were Iveta in a slinky gold outfit accompanied by Mark in that rather dodgy lion costume. As it turned out a pretty good showing with their Samba danced to ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ from the Lion King. Probably Mark’s best dance so far and he scored 29 points but despite liking both him and Iveta it is really now time for them to go.

After last week’s loud disagreement with the judge’s over the whole ‘sexy or romantic’ Rumba thing it was time for Brendan and Sophie to try to impress the judges with their Viennese Waltz. Dancing to ‘My Favourite Things’ from The Sound of Music they managed to score 36 points from the judges, the same as that brilliant Charleston from week 2. We wonder if that Charleston had come out in week 9 or 10 if it would have seen at least of couple of 10s from the judges?

Next up it was Abbey and Aljaz who bravely took on that disco classic ‘You Should Be Dancing’ from Saturday Night Fever. We saw Aljaz actually pulling off the iconic John Travolta white suit look, whilst Abbey wore ‘big hair’ matched with a bright red disco outfit straight from the 1970s. Their energetic routine received unanimous praise from all 4 judges so if was no great surprise when Craig finally dusted off that 10 paddle and Abbey and Aljaz ended up with a perfect score of 40 points, the first maximum of the series.

After such a great score it was down to Ashley and Ola to come out and try to impress the judges with their Rumba which they danced to ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin. A strange magic carpet start featuring Ashley flying through the air and a revealing sexy genie outfit from Ola saw them escape with a score of 35 points, the same as the previous 2 weeks. With no seeming improvement and similar criticisms coming for Ashley we wonder if his Strictly story might be nearing an end in the next couple of weeks?

Last up this week were Susanna and Kevin who were dancing a Quickstep to ‘Good Morning’ from that classic dance musical Singin’ In The Rain. As it turned out it was a less precise performance form Susanna this week although she still showed her characteristic high energy levels throughout the routine. The judges were clearly not that impressed and they scored only 33 points which placed them second from bottom on tonight’s leaderboard.

Off the dancefloor this week there were 2 main Strictly topics with the aftermath of Rachel Riley’s split from her husband prompting talk of her close friendship with dance partner Pasha Kovalev during her time on the show.

There was also the news that neither Ola Jordan nor husband James would be part of the next Strictly Live Tour starting next year. James quickly took to Twitter to express his disgust and also raised the question as to whether this might also mean their places in next year’s main Strictly show could be in doubt?

James has been outspoken in his criticism of the judges and his remarks on Twitter that if people want to see a proper Latin show they should watch out for his, will not have done much to endear the SCD production team to Team Jordan.

Tune in to BBC1 tomorrow to catch the results show where we predict it will finally be the end of the road for Mark and Iveta.

British Soap Awards Winners and Red Carpet Fashions – tonight saw the annual awards show for British soaps and as usual there was plenty of flesh on show on the red carpet.

The awards came from Media City UK in Salford, Manchester and were presented by Phillip Schofield. Apart from those up for awards tonight there were plenty of actresses who seemed keen to make a name for themselves by showing off plenty of skin on the red carpet.

One of the evenings most talked about outfits came from 29-year old Jennifer Metcalfe who plays Mercedes in Hollyoaks. She wore an open front white jacket with nothing underneath and was in danger of both breasts escaping at one point when she bent over in front of photographers. It seems that she needed a little “Dutch courage” to wear her revealing outfit as she tweeted on the way to the awards that she was already on her 3rd cocktail of the evening.

Another of the evenings most revealing outfits came courtesy of one of Jennifer’s friends, 28-year old Gemma Merna, who wore a see-through lace gown which seemed to show that she was naked underneath. Gemma, who plays Carmel Valentine in Hollyoaks, is very body confident these days having had a breast enlargement op at the age of 21 that took her from a size 30B to a 30F and gave her the boost she needed to enter the world of glamour modelling.

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Dannii Minogue was yet another Hollyoaks actress, Jorgie Porter who plays Theresa McQueen in the Liverpool based soap. Jorgie chose a stylish Grecian goddess style outfit for the evening and was nominated for the Sexiest Female award.

Like many awards the Sexiest Female went in the direction of long-running soap Coronation Street. As far as this award goes that meant the winner was Michelle Keegan who took home the prize for her performance as Tina McIntyre.

Coronation Street was undoubtedly the night’s big winner in the annual battle of the soaps taking home the awards for Villain of the Year (Natalie Gumede as Kirsty Soames), Best Actor (Alan Halsall as Tyrone Dobbs), Best Exit (Nigel Havers as Lewis Archer), Best Comedy Performance (Patti Clare as Mary Taylor), Best Dramatic Performance (Natalie Gumede again for Kirsty Soames), Best Storyline (Kirsty’s abuse of Tyrone) and the night’s top award of Best British Soap.

You can check out all the fashions and hear what the winners and losers had to say by tuning into ITV1 tomorrow night at 8pm.

Strictly Come Dancing Week 11, The Quarter FInals Stage – tonight saw this year’s Strictly series go into an even more serious mode and it must be said that the show was not necessarily the better for it.

Standards overall did not hit the levels of the last couple of weeks and the pressure looked like it was starting to tell on some of the celebrities. In some of the earlier series there were a number of celebrities who were struggling with injuries at this stage of the competition but this year it looks like most of the injury problems have hit the pairs during the earlier rounds of the show.

As far as tonight’s main dance went the winners in the studio this week were Abbey Clancy and her partner Aljaz who scored a total of 37 points from the judges for their Viennese Waltz, which they danced to Tom Jones’ Delilah.

For the normally flawless Natalie Gumede it was more of a mixed week as she received some critical comments from the judging panel who noticed that as well as a small slip in her routine she also lacked a little contact between her and partner Artem in their Paso Doble. Dancing to the classic Paso track El Gato Montes Natalie and Artem their routine scored 35 points from the judges and it was the first time since their Samba way back in Week 5 that they failed to see a 10 paddle from any of the judges.

Someone who had a much better week than normal was Patrick Robinson whose Rumba with partner Anya scored a total of 36 points. Dancing to When I was Your Man by Bruno Mars they received some good comments from the judges for a dance that is always considered something for a minefield for the male celebrities.

The most disappointed pair fo the week are almost certainly newsreader Susanna Reid and her dance partner Kevin Clifton whose Argentine Tango failed to raise any of the judge’s pulses tonight. After mounting a strong challenge in previous weeks Susanna only managed a total of 32 points for tonight’s routine, which they danced to Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal.

Adding to her woes after her poor Argentine Tango score Susanna was the first celebrity to be ejected from the floor during tonight’s Swingathon section. This meant that she was left languishing at the bottom of the leaderboard tonight and is in desperate need of the public vote to get her to next week’s semi-final stage.

On the plus side for Susanna her sexy black Argentine Tango top which gave the illusion of being see-through was one of the evening’s best looking outfits. Sadly for her and Kevin the judges do not hand out points for the celebrities outfits.

The Swingathon competition was won by Natalie and Artem and as we pointed out in an earlier article both winners of the previous Swingathon competitions went on to win the main competition that year. What odds on a Natalie win after tonight?

Sophie and Ashley both had fairly middling sorts of performances as far as the judges went although Ashley and Ola kicked the show off with a pretty high energy Salsa which did look to be their best dance so far in the competition.

As always tomorrow night will see the Sunday Strictly results show with the dance-off likely to be a very tense affair indeed at this stage of the contest. Although she clearly had a poor week by her usual standards, we would not be surprised if Susanna’s large public support saves her from the dance-off. As we have often seen in Strictly it may actually be safer to end up at the bottom of Saturday’s leaderboard than languishing mid-table.

Strictly Semi Final, Abbey and Natalie Looking Good For a Place in the Final – often on these sort of nights the hype dictates that the script will say this is the best semi final we have ever seen in this show, tonight that was actually true.

There would be little disagreement from many of the Strictly fans that between them and the judges the best 5 celebrities have made their way through to the semi final stage of series 11 of the dance competition.

Nerves looked to be running high tonight even before the couples took to the dance floor and Abbey, who is always on edge anyway, looked to be almost too nervous to come out at one stage. However if, as several sources reported before tonight’s semi, Abbey was indeed ‘terrified’ then she used that anxiety of hers to pull off her best performances of the series so far.

First on the floor tonight though was Natalie Gumede who it has to be said has not looked overawed by the show in the least. This might however go a little way to explain why she is not perhaps so popular with the public as her performances should have made her. The Strictly fans always like a few stumbles early on from their celebrities and enjoy the whole ‘journey’ from having 2 left feet to being a very good dancer.

Natalie and Artem started the show off with a brilliant Salsa to Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ which was full of great moves and was so slick and exciting that even Craig had to bring out that dusty old 10 paddle of his. As is nearly always the case when you spot a 10 from Craig you can be fairly sure that the rest of the judges will be joining him and so it was tonight and Natalie and Artem started the semi final off with a brilliant maximum 40 points.

Somewhat surprisingly Artem revealed this was actually his first 40 point score in his 4 years on the show. Although he won Series 8 of Strictly in 2010, his first time on the show, he and partner Kara Tointon only ever managed a score of 39 points.

The next 2 couples danced very well but after such a strong start from Natalie and Artem they looked to be a little way off the standard that had been set. Patrick and Anya scored 36 points for their Waltz to Unchained Melody and Sophie and Brendan scored 35 points for their Paso Doble danced to Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulets ( perhaps better known to many BBC viewers as the theme from The Apprentice).

Next up was the celebrity who was the pre-show bookie’s favourite to lift that glitterball trophy, newsreader and presenter Susanna and her dance partner Kevin. They danced a Foxtrot to Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You that was a hit with both the audience and the judges and scored 38 points.

Finally finishing off the first half of the show tonight Abbey and Aljaz danced a Samba to George Michael’s Faith. It was a great performance and the model has never looked better on the dance floor as she showed off plenty of cleavage and her long shapely legs with a sizzling routine. In fact Bruno Tonioli appeared even more animated than usual and was raving about her performance calling the model ‘sex on legs’ and ‘like a young Brigitte Bardot.’ Craig even accused his fellow judge of being on the turn!

Abbey and Aljaz score 39 points for their Samba and are looking on course to take a place in the final.

The second set of dances tonight saw another great dance from Natalie and Artem who scored 38 points for their Argentine Tango danced to Montserrat by Bajofondo. Judges comments ranged from ‘sensual’ to a criticism that Natalie took the lead instead of Artem.

Patrick and Anya then danced a Paso Doble to Because The Night that may well prove to be their undoing. Patrick seemed ill at ease during the routine and mostly watched Anya twirl around him. The judges were not impressed and a score of 33 points looks to be sending them to tomorrow’s dance-off.

Next up it was Sophie and Brendan who danced a stylish American Smooth to The Can’t Take That Away From Me. Sophie looked poised but Brendan had the stand out move from the dance when he slid all the way down the bannister, pretty brave on a live show.Mixed comments from the judges and a total of 36 points.

Susanna and Kevin then danced a rather disappointing and messy Salsa to Move Your Feet that was a long way from her best performance. The judges agreed and her score of 32 points would surely mean an appearance in the dance-off without those loyal voting supporters of theirs. In fact it is being quoted that Susanna is actually receiving twice as many votes from the public as any of the other celebrities so we would be surprised to see her feature in tomorrow night’s dance-off.

The semi final was finished off by Abbey and Aljaz scoring another 39 points for a beautiful American Smooth danced to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. Her total of 78 points from both of tonight’s dances put Abbey in joint 1st place on the leaderboard with Natalie. However unlike Susanna there is some talk that the stunning looking model has not been taken to the public’s heart and she may still be in danger of making an appearance in the dance-off. We would say on the evidence of tonight’s showing though that there is little doubt she would be put through by the judges if this happens.

So we would predict that as many people thought a few weeks ago we are likely to see an all female Strictly final this year. As always the results show is on BBC1 tomorrow evening as will be hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.

Susanna Reid 2013 Strictly look

Susanna Reid Is Favourite To Win This Year’s Strictly Final – the 43-year old BBC Breakfast presenter and mother of three is currently the bookie’s favourite to lift this year’s Strictly glitterball trophy.

Susanna is ahead of her 3 fellow female finalists according to the latest odds from both Paddy Power and Coral Bookmakers. Paddy Power quotes her as current favourite at odds of 6/5 and Coral is currently quoting 5/4. An insider has actually suggested that as much as 90% of all the bets placed in the last few days have gone on Susanna so this might make things fairly hard for the other 3 finalists as the winner is chosen by public votes and  the judges’ votes tomorrow are only for guidance.

Despite this many people see tomorrow night’s final as being likely to be one of the closest in Strictly history. At this stage all of the dancers are capable of pulling off series-winning performance on the night and it is genuinely all to play for on Saturday evening.

Unlike many of the recent series of Strictly the pairings have been brilliantly worked out and without exception all of the celebrities have been thrilled with the dance professional they were paired with. Likewise the professionals this year have been able to relax without having to endure many of the prima donna antics inflicted on them by celebrities in previous years.

In particular Brendan Cole seems to have been a very different man this year and has loved his time working with Sophie Ellis-Bextor. She has not only been very hard-working but has caused him none of the problems some of his more temperamental partners have in other years.

All of this good-natured feeling has also taken in place in what is quite possibly the first year that there has been no big Strictly romance between a celebrity and their professional dance partner. However we may have spoken too soon on that score as there may yet be a surprise announced after this series of Strictly has ended!

All of the 4 women left have earned their place in tomorrow night’s Strictly final and it was clear from their appearances on tonight’s Strictly It Takes Two with Zoe Ball that the only sad thing for all 4 is not if they don’t win the title but the fact that whatever happens tomorrow it will be the end of the road for all of them in terms of their time on Strictly.

Susanna Reid at 2012 Oscars

Actually that is not strictly true! In fact 3 of the girls are going to be part of the Strictly Live Tour 2014 which starts in January next year. Natalie Gumede, Abbey Clancy and Susanna Reid are all part of the Strictly Live Tour and will all be dancing with the same professional partners that have taken them all the way to this year’s final.

Natalie, Abbey and Susanna are going to be joined on the Strictly Live Tour by fellow 2013 Strictly celebrities Deborah Meaden, Mark Benton and Ben Cohen and will also be joined by Nicky Byrne from Westlife who danced with partner Karen Hauer back in Series 10 of Strictly.

The Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour 2014 starts in Birmingham on 17 January and is presently due to finish at London’s O2 Arena on 9 February. However due to the show’s phenomenal success this year we would not be surprised to see a couple more dates added to the current schedule if the celebrities can find any more room in their crowded schedules.

It is a certainty that whoever wins tomorrow night all 4 finalists have added greatly to their bankability by the time they have spent on the show. In particular Susanna Reid has been a revelation and is apparently the current subject of a bidding war between the BBC and rival channels ITV and Channel 5. Don’t be surprised if Susanna stays at the BBC though as she has always spoken of a very strong connection with the network, although we would suggest her greatly increased fanbase is sure to mean a fairly generous increase in her benefits package if she does decide to stay.

Another finalist who will find a great deal more money in the bank next year is model Abbey Clancy who has just been named as the new face and body for Ultimo lingerie. A rumoured £250k deal will first see her fronting the lingerie company’s Spring/Summer 2014 collection.

Whoever wins tomorrow night’s Strictly 2013 final we are sure to see one of the best evening’s entertainment the show has ever served up to Strictly fans. The Strictly Come Dancing 2013 final is on BBC1 tomorrow night with the first of 2 live programmes starting at 6.30pm.

Abbey Wins The 2013 Strictly Come Dancing Final - after what was acknowledged as the highest quality competition in Strictly history Abbey Clancy was tonight crowned the 2013 Strictly Come Dancing champion.

In a very good-natured final it was for once true that all 4 girls were so delighted to have made it so far in the competition that they really did not seem to mind who out of them got to lift the glitterball trophy.

Just as we all expected the standard of dancing this evening was very high and right from the start it was clear that whoever was going to win was going to have to pull out something very special indeed.

The opening dance from each couple was a choice from the judges and Abbey and Aljaz scored a maximum 40 points for their waltz to Kissing You by Des’ree. Coming just a point behind Abbey was Natalie and Artem’s Cha Cha Cha to Boney M’s Rasputin’, which gave Artem a chance to get his pecs out again.

Rounding off the first section of the final Sophie and Brendan scored 30 points for their Viennese Waltz to My Favourite Things and Susanna and Kevin scored the least points from the judges for their Quickstep danced to Good Morning from Singin In The Rain.

Next was the popular showdance section which saw Natalie score a maximum 40 points for her routine to Fred Astaire’s classic track Steppin’ Out With My Baby. Scores of 38 for Abbey, 35 for Sophie and 36 for Susanna left Susanna at the bottom of the judges scorecards at the end of the first live show but as we were told throughout the judges scores were only for guidance tonight.

As we have expected Susanna was indeed saved by her loyal fans and it was Sophie Ellis Bextor and Brendan Cole who were the couple not destined to make it through to the second section of tonight’s final. Sadly this meant we lost the chance to see their wonderful Charleston from week 2 of the competition being performed again.

The final dances of the evening were the couples own choices of their favourite dance from the whole series. Susanna as expected picked her emotional Paso Doble and indeed it was an even more emotional performance this time than the last time they performed the dance.

Abbey picked her Quickstep danced to the ever popular Walkin’ On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. It was another great performance and brought the house down.

Finally it was Natalie’s turn and her American Smooth to And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going from Dreamgirls was quite possibly the most superb dance ever seen on Strictly.

It has drama, style, superb choreography from Artem and was quite simply a breathtaking performance. The judges were similarly impressed and scored it the full 40 points. You would have to say though that it was way ahead of many of the dances that achieved a maximum in this and other series and if they were able to you feel they would have given the routine an extra star rating.

With Abbey scoring 38 points and Susanna 39 points it was then down to the great British public to see if they agreed with the judges. The answer was a no as we had perhaps expected all along. It seems that the show likes a journey more than it is looking to reward the best overall dancer if that person started off too good to begin with.

That said few would disagree with Abbey Clancy getting to lift the trophy as she has grown consistently throughout this series and her performance last week had such sexual chemistry it even seemed to have Bruno Tonioli on the turn!

Abbey’s husband, Stoke footballer Peter Crouch, was there to see her last dance and win the title but missed the first 2 dances as he had to drive down from Stoke after today’s match finished at 5pm.

After this year’s incredibly high standard of dancing we think the BBC production team are going to have their work cut out over the next few months in trying to get a new group of celebrities that not only dance that well but also that get along together so well. With the high ratings that this season of Strictly has got you can bet they will be trying however.

Inside Soap Awards 2013, Winners and Red Carpet Fashions – last night was the annual Inside Soap Awards and although the 3 main UK soaps all ended up with 4 awards apiece it is Emmerdale that had the best night.

The ITV soap, which is set in a fictional farming village in the Yorkshire Dales, has been on the air since 1972 when it was originally known as Emmerdale farm and has steadily grown in popularity over recent years. This has now culminated in the soap taking home the coveted Best Soap Award for the first time in it’s history.

Each year there has been the usual battle between the BBC’s Eastenders and ITV’s Coronation Street to see which of them will be crowned best soap but from now on it looks like it may be a 3 horse race.

As well as the evening’s top award Emmerdale also took home 3 more awards for Best Bad Boy (Dominic Power playing Cameron Murray), Best Storyline (Cameron’s killer cover up) and the outstanding Achievement Award for the show’s special 40th Anniversary live episode which aired on 17 October last year.

Coronation Street’s 4 awards were for Best Actor ( David Neilson playing Roy Cropper), Sexiest Female (Michelle Keegan playing Tina McIntyre), Funniest Male (Simon Gregson playing Steve McDonald) and the Best Bitch Award went to current Strictly frontrunner Natalie Gumede for playing Kirsty Soames.

Eastenders’ 4 awards were for Best Actress (Jacqueline Jossa playing Lauren Branning), Funniest Female (Tameka Empson playing Kim Fox), Best Young Actor (Maisie Smith playing Tiffany Butcher) and Best Newcomer (Khali Best playing Dexter Hartman).

The red carpet saw the usual selection of revealing outfits from young female soap stars with the evening’s Most Revealing Dress Award going to Hollyoakes actress Gemma Merna, who plays Carmel Valentine in the show. Gemma wore a not very subtle but attention grabbing bright yellow pvc dress that had a zip running the complete length of the front and had a very open cleavage baring top.

Looking much classier on the red carpet in their classic black outfits were Emmerdale actresses Charley Webb and Michelle Hardwick who play the roles of Debbie Dingle and Vanessa Woodfield in the soap.

Also looking just right for the big night was Eastenders actress Jacqueline Jossa who won the evening’s Best Actress Award and wore a nude and sequin covered black top for her big night out at Ministry of Sound.