SCD - Weekend 2

OK, yes, it's almost a week late, we're almost ready for tonight's show. But I was away, and I've been ill. So ill that I've been to the quacks and got some drugs, and been off work AGAIN.

So, here's a very quick summary:

Tess' dresses - not bad at all. Obviously this is unacceptable, and Claudia was made to pay during the results show by being dressed in a matt bin bag. Hideous!

In the following catergories then:

Very Good:
Jason, Harry McFly, Chelsee

Having the time of their life:
Anita Dobson, Russell Grant

Greatly improved:
Robbie Savage, Alex Jones

Average:
Holly, Dan Lobb from ITV, Audley Harrison, Rory Bremner (couldn't pick out the impersonation this week, might have been doing it as himself)

Absolutely Awful:
Edwina Currie, Lulu, Nancy Dell'olio.


Should Edwina have gone? No. She had patronising choreography, again, and Len never likes faffing around with props, which won't have helped, but for my money, she wasn't as bad as Lulu, who had to be practically dragged round the floor by Brendan, and with half of it in practise hold. I'm disappointed. Before this started I had high hopes for her, but two weeks of being poor on the bounce, and I suspect she won't be with us for long. Even the awful Nancy will outlast her at this rate (although hopefully not by much) and whilst I feel sorry for Anton, who never gets an even break in this show, I won't miss her when she goes. I think Edwina could have lasted longer with better choreography. I actually think they should have put her with Anton, and Nancy with Vincent. I think that would have resulted in better outcomes for all concerned.

Good to see Will Young in the results show, and a nice, if somewhat frantic professional show dance. Bring on tonight, when I expect a small rash of jokes about Sir Brucie having actually received his gong this week.

Strictly - The First Weekend - part 2

And so, on to Saturday. We get a brief recap of the previous night’s dance based shenanigans, and then everyone trips down the stairs in what I think was the same order as last night, but in a whole truck load of different outfits. I hope we’re going to see some of those on the dance floor – this show must cost a fortune in dress material alone.

We start this evening with Harry McFly (I’m going to call him that all the way through btw) doing his Cha Cha Cha. And my word, the jokes about having to punch the instructions into a drummer need to be set aside here – he’s not half bad is our boy band rhythm basher, and the audience love it, rewarding him with the first of many standing ovations we get tonight. Then we have Rory Bremner, who did a waltz, with Erin. He did it as Tony Blair. Really, go look at the footage again, it’s bizarre.  Erin really deserves to go a long way in this competition, but they continually pair her with celebs who are useless. Let’s hope Rory manages to do an impression of a dancer for long enough to give Erin a fair crack at the Glitter Ball.

Alex Jones next. She’s going for sexy flirting over dance ability – point your bloomin toes woman, for goodness sake. Sex appeal only ever gets people so far in this competition.  James Jordan her partner has a pop at Judge Craig, even though Craig was making some valid points. The arguing has therefore started very early this year, again increasing the effect that SCD is going down the slippery slope towards soap-dom. I want something more intelligent from my broadcasting. And I realise I’m asking this of a pro-celebrity dance show. But why must we always talk down to the audience? Why can’t we just show a dance contest, with constructive criticism from judges who aren’t playing to a baying mob, and where the person who is the best dancer is the eventual winner.

And then onto Chelsee from Waterloo Road, who does an absolutely manic waltz with new guy Pasha. The judges picked up on the manic-ness but also picked up on how difficult that all was for her.This is the second year running that there has been someone from Waterloo Road on, and they really need to stop portraying those actresses like they are thick Northern Chavs. At this point, and following the “James incident” Craig started being ineffectual with his comments and really, really quite harsh with his points. There’s just no need for it, and it spoils the show, both for us as viewers and the celebs taking part, who must get disheartened.

And then on to Nancy and Anton. Poor, poor Anton, who, rather like his professional partner Erin, always seems to get the thin end of the wedge. Nancy was just awful, complete stuff up with the feather boa notwithstanding. And she’s not even going to get the “Ann Widdecombe” vote either. No, that, on this performance, will go to Edwina. What on earth was Vincent thinking? There seems to be a certain school of thought (and Anton did it too) that “older” women – and by that, I mean anyone over the age of about 40, which isn’t old, but these people seem to think it is – and BREATHE!, can’t do any serious dancing. James showed that to be wrong last year with Pamela. Anita was having fun but doing serious choreography the previous night, Brendan looks like he’s trying to do something similar with Lulu. But Anton and now Vincent, seem to think, somehow, that “older” means “comedy”, that they can’t do serious choreography and that the celebs can’t and won’t be any good. This is plainly nonsense – Pamela got to the last three last year, and she was in her 60s. June Brown did the Christmas Special last year in her 80s (yes, obviously, that’s different to an entire series, but she is in her 80s, and they gave her a flattering frock and nice, admittedly gentle choreography, and a relatively long rehearsal time, but it’s still a valid point). It is yet another thing that is making this show more like a soap, and less like an entertainment show.

We finished with the other Aussie, the lovely Jason Donovan (yes, I’m biased). He was also good, but having seen the footage of the launch show dance rehearsals, we’d expect nothing less. The Priscilla experience appears to have given him the confidence to be just camp enough without overdoing it. He has obviously practised and practised and practised, and it really showed, in a performance that ended the show on a high after a run of lacklustre and bizarre performances – irrespective of how the baying mob of an audience may have been encouraged to respond.

Look, I like SCD, I really do, don’t let this entry make you think otherwise. I’ll be watching it until the end of the season to see who wins, although there may well be some weeks where I fast forward through the padding to get to the meat of the actual dancing. But I worry that in trying to persuade some people who are watching the X Factor on ITV to try SCD instead, they are dumbing the show down. Here’s the thing, X Factor has viewing figures of what – somewhere between 10 and 12 million. That leaves about 50 million people who aren’t watching the X Factor, for the BBC to go after. Perhaps, if they didn’t try to dilute the format, to make it a parody of itself, to reduce everything to “Craig is the nasty judge”, “Anton never wins” then perhaps the viewing figures might increase. Let the viewer decide for themselves, don’t lead them with heavily edited interview clips and rehearsal footage. Don’t try to influence people with the costumes the celebs are put in (Chelsee’s Launch Show Hot Pants – anything Edwina’s worn so far, including that god awful necklace from Saturday). Let the audience decide for themselves, and we may get a better, less formulaic show because of it.

I know that “we” in the “dance community” are supposed to be grateful that we even have dance on “primetime TV”, to just accept it if the whole thing is reduced to the level of a talent contest where the most talented person is not necessarily the winner, to be mindful of the fact that the show apparently delivers a big boost to “dance sport” in this country. But I’d much prefer it if the dancing got treated with respect and a bit of seriousness. If the pros got to strut their stuff on an “individual couples” basis, rather than all the pros doing big group dances. And for goodness sake, show us the feet of the dancers – they are there to dance, at least show all of the dancer’s bodies, not just close ups of heads and backs. If within the weekend shows, there was a couple of minutes to explain what each dance is about, and what elements the judges are looking for. We don’t even get that much of that in It Takes Two any more. The BBC is supposed to entertain, educate and inform, and to do all three in this programme could be quite easy, if only some Executive Producer could see past the quick ratings grab of putting the younger female celebs in dresses that aren’t really there, relegating the men to “also rans” as much as possible, and writing off anyone female and over 40 as “obviously too tired and past it” whilst broadcasting a show that contains lots of sound cues and quick edits to appeal to an audience which is assumed to have the attention span of a nat. Then, maybe, we could get a show worthy of the BBC, and worthy to us as an audience.

SCD - The first weekend

And here we go, we’re under starter’s orders – and we’re off! Two shows, just about two hours of “live TV”, and judges scores which will rollover until next week, which will be the first time anyone is eliminated. It’s almost like they’re trying to get their money out of the celebs, and possibly suggests that the Pros have got their shit together on the collective bargaining front. 

Is this Live TV? I’m really not sure. The excellent Diamond Geezer just happened to be wandering past Television Centre on Saturday morning, and apparently saw the audience queuing some eight hours in advance, so it must have been, although this would have been easy to have done on a pre-record. Doing it actually live however gives the celebs a taste of the stress without it having any negative consequences for another week. 

Let’s talk about Tess’ dresses. Friday’s was nice. Actually *not awful*. It suited her and didn’t make her look fat. It was a purple short thing. I say short, I think it was just about skirting her arse. There was a bit of a sleeve, but all told, it was alright. Obviously, this couldn’t last, so on Saturday they put her in some gods awful black, slitty, short and long thing, that managed to make her look thin, and fat, tall and short and possibly almost tripped her up at one point. Seriously, what has Tess done to annoy the dressers and stylists?

No pro dances tonight, it’s just all pro-celeb couplings with training footage and crows nest based Tess interviews. No live music either, this is SCD pure and raw! 

And our first victim, sorry, competitor, is Holly Valance. The audience like her Cha Cha Cha, the judges give it 28 points. It wasn’t bad, but I’m not sure it was *that* good. I think she was probably very nervous (a trait in over supply over these two shows). Next up is Dan Lobb, this year’s recruit designed to encourage ITV to mention SCD in slightly complimentary tones. And oh. My. Word, he's got the blumin arch! The arch with the swing from last year? It's been resurrected (never say you don't get value for money from your licence fee!) but this time there's no swing, just a bench. It still looks daft though. Very, very daft. 

And then came Lulu and Brendan Cole. And it started so well, with a lot of show and flare. And then Lulu just completely forgot the choreography. Completely and totally, and unfortunately whilst she was on the opposite side of the dance floor from Brendan, who couldn’t even grab her into hold and do something with her. They got to the end of the music, and the scores should really have been better for the bit they managed to get through. 

From there we had the very tall Audley Harrison, followed by the very stompy Robbie Savage. You could see Robbie’s mind working overtime during the routine – “now my foot must be here, now Here, And Here, AND HERE”. If he gains some musicality, it might turn out OK. If he stays in that long. Then we were on to Anita Dobson, who is having the time of her life, and doesn’t care who knows about it. We finished the evening with Russell Grant, who I swear, was wearing glittery eye-shadow. He is also having tremendous fun, and this show should be all about that, people who have no dance background, getting out there, having fun, learning something and becoming better dancers. I worry that SCD, like so many other reality TV shows, is losing the focus on its original mission and becoming something, something different somehow, something of a soap opera, with a plotline, and a hero, a heroine, a comic relief, a villain.

Strictly Come Dancing - The Launch Show

Honestly - I've currently got a small back log of things either written or to write about. Let's start with a programme that was on the telly some three weeks ago, but which really got into it's stride this weekend: 

Oh goodness, I love “Strictly”. There was a moment in this opening episode when the Pros were all doing their thing, and I just sat on my sofa and wailed “it’s what I want to be doing”. Of course, I’d have to lose at least 4, maybe 5 Stone, gain some dance technique and find an extra day or two in the week. Oh, and if someone could find a way to take care of my mortgage and other bills, that would be helpful. But I digress, Strictly is back, from now to practically Christmas, and if the opener and the celebs this year are anything to go by, it should be a cracker.

Bruce and Tess are back, Bruce newly en-gonged with a long overdue Knighthood, and Tess in the usual god-awful outfit. Seriously, what the heck are the Beeb’s wardrobe department on? Tonight’s attempt was a canary yellow, all in one, floor length trouser suit thing. It managed to be too flow-y at the bottom, and too tight at the top, making the unfortunate Tess’ boobs look like they were being constricted by curious foundation garments and pushed and squeezed in all sorts of weird ways.

In many ways, this episode was something of a con. It was pre-recorded, on I think Wednesday this week, and we won’t get to see the couples dancing for a further three weeks. This was a teaser in many ways, of the treasures to come. And what can we deduce from this early glimpse at the celebs form?

Alex Jones (BBC’s The One Show) appears to have little to no sense of Rhythm. Russell Grant is really, really going for it. Fair play to him. He’s apparently lost ten stone in the last two years, and is doing this to get fit, according to his 24 second interview with Tess up in the crow’s nest. Jason Donovan is working his ass off, and Edwina Currie should not be under-estimated. Lulu has good stage presence (you’d be more surprised if she didn’t), Anita Dobson looks like she’s already having a wail of a time and Robbie Savage looks like he might actually be quite good. Holly Valance appears to have put weight on (but she works in Hollywood?!) All of them are, as ever, claiming to have never done anything like this before. This is plainly nonsense. One of them has had ballet lessons as a kid – a training which, if it was any good, will come in very useful here. Holly Valance has shaken her booty in a number of pop videos, and Jason Donovan – well, what can one say. 

I’ve seen Jason Donovan on the West End Stage in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He played the Dick van Dyke role – which requires you to dance (recall hazy memories of childhood bank holidays, and the deliberately-one-beat-behind-the-others genius that is “The Old Bamboo” - here's the Dick van Dyke version). Until recently (and he might still be, who knows?) he’s been in the tour of The Sound of Music, playing Captain Trapp, a role that requires ballroom dance ability in a pivotal romantic scene. He’s also recently spent a year playing “Tish” in the West End version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. And from what I have seen of that on various late night charity tele-thons, there’s a good dance element to it. In short, the man is a leading Actor currently plying his trade in West End Musicals, and these days, that requires at the very least, movement in time to the rhythm of the music. He may well not win, as this is one of those shows which is all about a “journey” for the eventual victor, but I’ll personally be very disappointed if he doesn’t go quite some way in the competition (yes, OK, the 14 year old me has a massive crush on him – come on, I went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – it wasn’t for the intriguing plot, was it?).

The pros tonight were on top form in a number of routines, including a sort of paso based thing with good use of chairs, and an excellent opening routine to “Born this Way” involving excellent use of canes and top hats. I love a good use of a prop, and that was what was going on here. Let’s hope that the pros don’t take this as an excuse to use weird props inappropriately during the competition dances (let’s try to forget that god awful sing thing that Aliona and Matt used last season). The first dance with the celebs at the end was a bit of a mess, but these things always are at this stage – come the final week re-cap they’ll all at least be in time and approaching being in rhythm – for now it was an acceptable glimpse and the three minutes upon which many of my above observations are based.

Roll on the end of the month and the series proper, I can’t wait, especially as, by my reckoning, it will be coming back fully just as Doctor Who is reaching the thrilling conclusion of Season 6.2.

Hello World

Look, I've already got an account on Livejournal that I haven't updated in like 6 months. I have one on Dreamwidth too, which so far has one holding post and not much more. So why do I think this one is going to work?

Because I think I want it to more. Because I think it's easier for people to find you on here. Because I think this is easier to post to if you're not a code-monkey (I'm not). Because on here I can post about things that would probably get skipped past on lj or dreamwidth. I will still use lj and dw. I think they're going to become a repository for *all* of my posts ( I have like, two other blogs as well as this one, and a further one in the planning).

I will be talking on here about the stuff that doesn't fit into any of my other blogs. That will be some sport stuff, some dance and exercise and weight loss stuff, some TV stuff, some reviews, and probably a bit of anything else I feel minded to write about but which doesn't fit into the more "fixed category posts" that my other two (and eventually 3) blogs cover.

Let's see how it goes, shall we....