Also, I'm not entirely convinced that any of you will actually read my Strictly posts, but stuff ya...I'm gonna do 'em anyway.
First up on Friday, we had Caroline Flack with the gorgeous Pasha Kovalev (who is now dancing in private with his celebrity partner from last year, Countdown's Rachel Riley). Lucky girl! Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, the Cha Cha Cha. An extremely good first effort for this couple and Caroline's gold frock was very effective.
Next we had Tim Wonnacott (who gets an A for enthusiasm) but probably a D for his first dance. Natalie keeps insisting that she is happy to have Tim as a partner...Liar Liar, pants on fire! That's what you get for injuring yourself and having last year off Nat.
Jake Wood and Janette Manrara danced a very tasty tango....looks like Janette has landed herself a good un with Eastenders 'Mad Max'. He led the dance and was veeery mean and moody and dare I say it...quite sexy. Don't want to nail my colours to the flag just yet, but so far one of my favourites.
Oh my glitterballs, Anton in a kilt...avert your eyes missus. Judy Murray's first dance was always going to be a homage to Scotland and sure enough, Mull of Kintyre was the song and a passable but not great Waltz was performed. Judy certainly looked like she was having a good time, but Anton is such a sweetie, I think we'd all love a dance with him.
Friday's penultimate couple was Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills and new professional Joanna Clifton (sister of Kevin). From this performance it seems that Scott should go back to spinning tunes, rather than dancing to them. Poor Joanne's Strictly debut might be a short one!
Fridays final performance was pop princess Pixie Lott with new boy Trent Whiddon, doing a fairly good Jive. Why do they make them Jive in Week One.. it seems like one of the hardest dances to me, requiring both speed and stamina and which would surely be better tackled later in the series.
So, that was Friday......fast forward to Saturday and we had an awesome opening number by the pro dancers. A must watch (if you've read this far...go on be a devil...risk it for a biscuit...you might even like it!)
Mark Wright of TOWIE fame was first on the dancefloor on Saturday night with partner Karen Hauer. This was a Cha Cha Cha that seemed to be more about showing off his caterpillar skills than dancing, but it was ok I suppose. Not sure about him yet.
Next we had the fabulous Alison Hammond with last years winning pro, the gorgeous Aljaz (pronounced Al-ee-ash). Alison attacked this Cha Cha Cha with gusto and was obviously loving every second of it. She has rhythm and musicality leaking from every pore. They were magnificent and I can't wait to see what they do next.
Oo er! I wasn't expecting Steve Backshall to be as good as he was and look what he was hiding under his anorak! Another terrific Tango here and Ola looked sexy as hell in her almost there dress! She does look good in skin.... Steve and Ola might be one of the couples to keep a beady eye on as the weeks progress.
Mrs Brown's wife Jennifer Gibney took to the dancefloor next with our final newbie Tristan MacManus. Another Jive, which taxed Jennifer's lungs to the hilt and according to the judges Tristan didn't stint us on the number of steps. I think the poor girl needed a lie down afterwards. This was an ok effort but I'm looking forward to seeing this couple do some different dances.
Thom and Iveta were up next with a lovely Waltz. Iveta seems to be quite taken with Thom, could this be this years pro/celebrity romance? Ooo! Ooo! I've just googled it and it looks like I may be correct. Yay!
Iveta and Thom go on secret dates <-- click here to read more.
Next we had Sunetra Sarker and Brendan Cole with a 'Casualty' themed Tango. Very enjoyable. Brendan was the winner, with Natasha Kaplinsky, of the very first series of Strictly but has so far not managed to repeat that success. I fear that ultimately he will fail again this year, but with Sunetra he should be good for a few weeks.
Oh dear...Oh dear...Oh dear! Gregg and Aliona failed to light up the dancefloor with a very faltering Cha Cha Cha and unfortunately Gregg was a little bit too camp in this one. The judges seemed to think he had actually over practiced and therefore failed to put much personality into it. Unless he improves vastly, he may be a candidate for the chop, next week along with Tim Wonnacott.
The stars of the show, according to the judges at least, were undoubtadly Frankie Bridge of girl group The Saturdays and Kevin (from Grimsby) Clifton with a delightful Waltz. Frankie looked stunning Kevin is just yummy. The dress, the umbrella, the mood, the dance, all blended together to create an extremely fetching performance.
Last, but not least we have Simon Webbe of boy band Blue with his pro partner Kristina Rihanoff. Kristina always delivers fabulous choreography and tonights Jive was no exception. Kristina might have got herself a good one here and might finally go all the way to the glitterball.
And there you have it, week one of Strictly 2014. From the leaderboard below, we can see that Tim, Judy, Jennifer, Gregg and Scott have some catching up to do if they want to stay out of the bottom two. We'll see what happens next week.
Tracey x
