Strictly Come Dancing, Hallowe'en Week: shock as Chris McCausland is bottom of the leaderboard

Yahoo

26-10-2024

Week six on Strictly took us to the dark side for Hallowe'en Week and left us with a completely rejigged leaderboard. Sarah Hadland/Vito Coppola had a shot in the arm after languishing mid-table and joined Jamie Borthwick/Michelle Tsiakkas at the top, both on 38. Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell plummeted to the bottom to tie with Dr Punam Krishan and Gorka Márquez on 26. Who will make it through to next Saturday's new Icons Week?
What a turn-up for the books! Having been flying high last week, Chris and Dianne's death-spot slot has combined with low scores – they tie with Dr Punam and Gorka on 26 for the bottom of the leaderboard.
There's a clutch of dancers on 31 and, at the top, another tie: this time between Sarah and Vito and Jamie and Michelle, both on a stellar 38. As we've seen previously, being mid-table is no guarantee of being safe: my money's on Punam and Gorka, Shayne and Nancy, and JB and Amy in tomorrow night's dance-off.
Here's how the scores stand after Halloween Week:
Sarah and Vito: 38Jamie and Michelle: 38Tasha and Aljaž: 37Montell and Johannes: 35JB and Amy: 32Sam and Nikita: 31Shayne and Nancy: 31Wynne and Katya: 31Pete and Jowita: 31Punam and Gorka: 26Chris and Dianne: 26
The Dreaded Dance-Off will take place on tomorrow night's Results Show on BBC One at 7.20pm, where Lady Blackbird provides the music, and the pro dancers perform dance inspired by the cult movie Beetlejuice. I'll see you next Saturday for the brand new Icons Week – have a lovely time until then, and keep dancing (but only if you want to, obviously, this isn't a dictatorship).
I thought that Sam and Nikita had been given the worst costumes of the night for their jive to the Time Warp until they pulled off the layers to reveal corsets and stockings. What total joy this setting was – the Rocky Horror lips beamed above the stage to match the singers, Sam using her hockey strength to catch Nikita in their final move, and the general flicks and kicks of the jive perfectly matching this iconic song.
'I look like that on a hangover,' grins Sam to Craig. She and Nikita have done so well, and this was a marvellous way to end a mixed bag of a show, but one with plenty of Hallowe'en highs.
I am trying and failing to imagine the intensity of Miranda Hart's screams when she watched Sarah and Vito's vampiric Argentine tango – my brain simply cannot go that high. This was so, so good.
Sarah has survived her production-mandated fortnight in Strictly's bad books after being too good in the opening weeks. She and Vito have been allowed to let loose this week, and this was a truly phenomenal tango. Lifts that bordered on the almost impossibly geometric, Sarah's excellent acting, Vito's magnificent choreography – this was something really special. Wow.
Lord, how the American Smooth has suffered through this series – and who knew how well it would pair with The Addams Family theme song?
It is, admittedly, rather galling for Jamie to be made to dance as Pugsley the gawky teen rather than Gomez, the smooth patriarch – but as he's whirling Michelle (as Wednesday Addams) around, with her in full splits, it feels as though it couldn't have been done any other way.
What Jamie lacks in (apparent) screen charisma he more than makes up with his dancing. He and Michelle are doing brilliantly and the scores take them deservedly to the top of the leaderboard.
The Strictly audience has often been brought to a standstill but this has to be the first time the standstill has been brought to an audience. Shayne and Nancy's paso doble to In the Hall of the Mountain King has the most stylish start of any dance this week – but as it's followed by Shayne largely standing on the spot or shuffling his legs like he's having a tantrum, it doesn't have much dance content to judge. 'You had eight sets of eight before you even took a step,' says Shirley in confusion. Nancy does brilliantly especially considering she appeared to be dropped during a couple of the lifts.
The judges' scores feel insanely high given the lack of dancing – I don't foresee this going down well with the viewers at home.
Tasha and Aljaž's Frankenstein's creature samba to I Like to Move It is another combination that makes no sense on paper, but watching these creatures turn out both a splendid samba and the characterisation of unwieldy monsters works a treat. It gets an 'A-ma-zing!' from Craig, and the judges are in agreement that they've done brilliantly again after what they saw as a stumble last week (hmm).
Last week, JB and Amy were put in the death slot and this week they've been given the Hallowe'en equivalent of Siberia: a costume that has never turned up in the years I've been dishing out sweets to trick-or-treating kids.
Their foxtrot to Dancing in the Moonlight was crying out for werewolves or vampires, so where these Raggedy Anne scarecrows in a pumpkin patch came from is anyone's guess. JB and Amy have been given consecutive tricks by Strictly: the judges give them a score of treats to make this the highest-scoring foxtrot of the series. Can this keep them from this week's dance-off?
All the effort expended in the judges' costumes means very little left for – well, Wynne and Katya, apparently, who are in sparkly versions of the basic pound-shop devils' costumes as they dance to Canned Heat by Jamiroquai. This is a tenuous connection, even by Strictly's standards.
Their salsa is filled with impressive lifts but Wynne, understandably bracing himself, looks like a workman hefting a ladder. This doesn't feel like a very salsa-y salsa, but, as ever, the judges love it and him. Mystifyingly.
Dr Punam was undermarked last week, and the audience could tell – she was clear of the dance-off, but this may not be the case this time.
The tango is arguably the most demanding in terms of dancer focus, and Dr Punam brings the drama. She's always done well when she's had to concentrate rather than let her body go 'full vibes'. But this wasn't her best work and, at times, she looked quite disconnected from Gorka – Craig mentions that it looks as though Gorka was dragging her around the floor.
Motsi and Shirley both praise her for moving a step up from her previous dance but Shirley's gentle point that she is improving at her own pace shows again how much the quality has stepped up in recent weeks. She's still tremendous to watch and has charisma in spades.
Montell and Johannes sold their cha cha to Love Potion No 9 and we bought it in spades – another great week for them.
The real magic has to be in Montell's legs which are simply astonishing. If only there were a potion to achieve those – rather than, eg, being an Olympian, a Gladiator, and working really hard. So unfair!
Whatever Johannes has been doing to motivate Montell's confidence has continued beautifully into this week. They both shone in their characters and showed off the exacting requirements of this dance. She continues to look like she's having the best time, and this was another terrific score for them both.
A Viennese waltz to That's Life, as sung by Frank Sinatra, doesn't sound remotely frightening, but Pete and Jowita's chemistry could convince me of anything and they bring elegance and glee to their roles as the Joker and Harley Quinn. Weird choice not to choose a duet from the film's sequel, which featured Quinn, but that's a nerd's quibble.
Pete has never been the strongest dancer, but he has always given his all to his routines and trusted Jowita implicitly – and that comes across in spades tonight. Craig describes Pete's characterisation as 'formidable', which is almost as good to hear as his constant referral to Anton as 'my beautiful sister'.
Hallowe'en Week opened with possibly the biggest shock I've ever had on Strictly: a genuinely funny opening VT. Well done, Craig!
The surprises kept coming with new camp heights from the makeup and costume departments: Craig and Anton dressed as the twins from The Shining, and Shirley as Bette Midler's part from Hocus Pocus, Winifred Sanderson. Camp, camp, camp! (We shall not speak of Motsi's bizarre Cruella-slash-dalmation drag.)
In his Strictly Diary, Chris mentioned being worried about dancing the samba, as it had killed off two of his fellow celebrities. He should be more worried about being put in the death slot – opening the show! (They've been doing very well, so it was evidently time for the producers to mix up their story – but the idea of losing Chris and Dianne is extremely painful.)
They kept the camp coming with their samba to Stayin' Alive, which opened with them rising from their graves as zombies in sparkly jackets. The opening slot nearly killed off JB and Amy last week but it's unlikely this will happen to Chris and Dianne, who have enormous audience goodwill and charisma coming out of every zombified, sequinned limb. Chris gets lightly roasted for bouncing too much, but the real roast came in the scores which saw him dropping a few points from their by now usual position in the 30s.
We're go for week six of Strictly, also known as Hallowe'en Week. I'm giving it two minutes until a VT has made me cringe, and not in a spooky way, but I've been sufficiently indoctrinated by this show over the years that I can't wait.
Share your thoughts – and your favourite moments from Strictly Hallowe'en Weeks passim – in the comments. Who's going home tomorrow? Who's going all the way to the final?
Hallowe'en Week always sees a good mix of spooky and reasonably regular songs done with an all-out theme. I can only assume that JB and Amy will be decked out either as vampires or werewolves for their foxtrot to Dancing in the Moonlight, but the costume department are really going to be grasping at straws to find a theme for Ready or Not by Fugees, and That's Life by Frank Sinatra.
The American Smooth has been much-tortured this year but the Addams Family Theme feels vaguely appropriate for Jamie and Michelle. After last week's jumble of pace and tempo, fingers crossed every song stays where it should be so the couples can relax into their dances – and their costumes.
Cha Cha - Love Potion No. 9 (The Clovers)Tango - Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics) Jive - Time Warp (The Rocky Horror Picture Show Cast)Argentine Tango - Ready Or Not (Fugees) Samba - I Like to Move It (Reel 2 Real)Samba - Stayin Alive' (The Bee Gees) American Smooth - The Addams Family Theme (Vic Mizzy)Foxtrot - Dancing in the Moonlight (Toploader) Viennese Waltz - That's Life (Frank Sinatra) Paso Doble - In the Hall of the Mountain King (Grieg)Salsa - Canned Heat (Jamiroquai)
'Last Saturday was an emotional night, even for a man who tends to bury his emotions in a really deep hole before adding a layer of concrete and building a car park on top of them,' writes Chris McCausland, neatly summing up centuries of the British stiff upper lip in one sentence.
Last week's waltz to You'll Never Walk Alone was so well-received that he and Dianne even got some nice messages from Everton and Manchester United fans, he says. As ever, much of Chris's diary is dedicated to Dianne's choreography – but his weekly roast of her is fast becoming one of the Diary's high points (a roast being one of the highest compliments that can be given).
'I find it truly amazing how my dance partner Dianne Buswell is able to make this work between us,' he writes. 'The synchronicity, the moving as one, the precision and the elegance, and even more surprising when you consider that just the day before she had forgot that she was guiding me out of a building and walked me face first into a wall.
'Where was the precision and the elegance then, Dianne? We were leaving one of the training rooms when Dianne passed through a doorway seemingly without any awareness whatsoever of the blind man that was attached to one of her arms and I took a big hard wall right in my lovely soft face.'
Read Chris's Strictly Diary in full here.
There are a few milestones for Strictly contestants in each series – and this week, we hit the first. It's Hallowe'en Week, and with Paul and Karen losing the dance-off last week to JB and Amy, there's no obvious contender at the bottom of the leaderboard to soften anyone's fall, or their ego.
Montell and Johannes tied with Jamie and Michelle at the top of the leaderboard last week on 39, with Chris and Dianne following on 35, and previous leaders Tasha and Aljaž on 34.
Punam and Gorka, Pete and Jowita, and Sam and Nikita were all trailing at the bottom last week, the only couples with scores in the 20s – let's see how they fare this week. JB and Amy were a shock presence in the dance-off as they scored a respectable 30 with their jive, but it just goes to show that being memorable matters and that, if you open the dancing, you can risk being forgotten by the time the audience voting comes around.
And on Sunday, the pro dancers will be performing a lavish routine themed around the cult 1988 film Beetlejuice, which released a sequel this year. Fingers crossed they bring out the Harry Belafonte tunes to go with it or the zombies will riot.