Here come the girls…

I am quite happily settling down to the fact this is going to be my life until Christmas, well, until January 2009 really since there’s also the tour!

So here we are with the real frock action kicking off with Tess in a dress that for once makes her look slim and young. This year the girls escape the rumba-quickstep nightmare and are given the comparatively easy salsa and the ridiculously hard foxtrot...

I'll be the fabulous purple text this time - Clover x


Jessie and Darren
I just can’t help it; I cannot get over Jessie’s hair- it’s like a Lego-man wig! Saying that, she does seem to have potential and I always love a girl who knows the power of eyes and teeth! Fours were rather harsh, there’s always the potential for a journey with Jessie- oh what fun they could have with alliteration- and I’m sure nice as pie Darren will help her through.

Oh how I felt for these two going first. Poor Jessie - it was a sterling effort and in previous years might have left them mid-table, but the standard this evening was very, very high, on the whole and I fear for them. If the public keeps them out of the bottom two, great, but if they are in the bottom two, I disagree with Frankie...I think the judges may let her go. Shame. Darren is nicer than pie by the way...what is nicer than pie? Cake? Darren is as nice as cake.

Christine and Matthew
Lovely dress, lovely girl, absolutely beautiful routine from Matthew! Foxtrot is a rock-hard dance to make them do first, so she must have a lot of natural elegance. It makes me ponder what she will be like at the Latin numbers, but for now we can bask in the loveliness of a girl being good at ballroom this early on. In your face Dominic Littlewood!

I love Christine. Bless her, she's so humble. She commented in a VT about feeling awkward next to Rachel Stevens, Jodie Kidd and Lisa Snowdon. Uh, hello, Christine, you're stunning too! And what a lovely foxtrot. The dance was deliciously elegant. I suspect too that she may struggle more with letting go in the latin dances; she comes across as fairly reserved and well, latin dances are so eyes-and-teeth I wonder if she can pull them off. I will look forward to her waltzes.

Lisa and Brendan
I am going to have to restrain myself from screaming “Who IS she?!” every week in a BB Nikki fashion…and I am also going down to the SCD studios to burn every single yard of that hideous grey fabric that keeps coming back to haunt us! The routine? Brendan never disappoints with snazzy choreography, but I didn’t really think Lisa was up to much, it felt like she was holding back a bit for someone who seems to have a lot of front!

I was not expecting this salsa to be so British. I know I have said I have found her annoying but I warmed to her a little on It Takes Two this week. I don't think she's the over-confident, faux-coy KellyBrookite I thought she was. I thought the dress was quite pretty though...

Jodie and Ian
That dress was really distracting; from a distance it looked like it had numbers sewn on it! I’m starting to like the foxtrot a lot this week though, maybe it’s the fabulous song choices. On the whole, I’m glad to see Iain managed to get another lady who can control her limbs, but that Jive is looming on the horizon next week…

Jodie is seriously cool. Her foxtrot was cool, but not seriously. It was OK, a good first attempt but didn't blow me away. C'est tout.

Heather and Brian
I do agree with Craig for once, Heather’s got potential and did pretty good but it did lack a bit of oomph. Nevertheless, is it just me who is amazed and impressed that she doesn’t seem to have aged a day in the past 10 years? Brian on the other hand looks freaky, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he does.

Ooooh now this was a salsa. Note Brian's salsa moves compared with say, Monsieur Bennett's...the UK pros dance a kind of ballroom salsa hybrid...it's too, I'm sorry to use the phrase again, eyes-and-teeth...salsa should be less flashy, less controlled, less contrived. This was by far my favourite salsa of the night because it was rhythmical and natural. I agree, though, bless him, that Brian looks kinda freaky...kind of weirdly crafted...like he isn't the result of evolution...that he was created for a 'Wallace and Gromit' movie or something.

Gillian and Anton
Watching poor Gillian look like she was going to burst out laughing all the way round the dance floor was great fun! And just what was that frock all about? I was waiting for it to make sense when the music started, but it didn’t! I am glad to see that Anton knows to play to Gillian’s theatrical sensibilities though and that they aren’t going for the comedy vote.

Now I think we were all expected her to be rubbish. She wasn't rubbish. People were surprised, including judges...this led, in my opinion, to her being over-marked (or am I just feeling sorry for Jessie?)

Rachel and Vincent
The Wee People are here! Best salsa of the night in my option; those turns were great and it’s fabulous to see Vincent get a chance to flex his choreography muscles once again. I’m actually looking forward to them doing a rumba after that opening. What a pair, they’ll go far.

Oh what a lovely wee pair they make! Finalists, surely?

Cheri and James
And this week’s Worst Song Choice Award goes too…ok, maybe I just don’t like the song but it just seemed to jar against all of the Hollywood numbers of the night. Alongside that, James ‘eyes of a killer’ Jordan needs to remember that arrogance has got him voted off the show twice before. Best dance of the night? Not in my opinion. It might have been technically good but it certainly didn’t hold my attention like Rachel or Christine. Plus we don’t give out 9s in week one Len, this isn’t Dancing With The Stars!

I LIKED the song choice! I love it when a contemporary number is thrown in. I thought this was LOVELY, from beginning to end. My favourite dance of the evening, and I usually find foxtrots dull (but to be honest, tonight was a feast of fabulous foxtrots...get that alliteration, Arlene...) I am disconcerted too by the early nines though - where can they go from there? - if we have tens in week three or four, well, the rest of the series might as well be cancelled.

Group Dance
Oh what a fabulous guilty-pleasure choice of a song! Highlights of the number for me included: John looking like a granddad at a wedding, Tom’s aeroplane arms, Don shaking it like a Polaroid picture, Erin doing Latin (it’s always hilarious) and Lilia’s dress! This dance didn’t really reveal a lot though, but then again group numbers rarely do...

Aled Jones flashback! Wasn't this the music for his cha cha cha? Highlights, yes, definitely Lilia's dress (I've said it before and I'll say it again - keep her in for the costumes!) and Don...I'm gutted the judges didn't mention him actually - he was ACES - could have given Matt Di Angelo a shimmy for his money. Austin looks as though he may be as fab at the latin as he is at ballroom, but I've worked it out: Matt Dawson's been coaching him for two years. That's clearly the answer. I think Hayley Holt looked awkward.

So who do I think is going to go? No idea this week actually, I have an inkling Jessie might be in the bottom two due to the curse of going first but I don’t think the judges would vote her out.

Who's gonna go?
I can't call it at all this week. Every single one has potential. If I had the choice I'd lose Gillian.