Shake your coconuts

What's this? Another week without extra judges, themes or other such twaddle? Rejoice! You'd better actually because it's Halloween next week and we'll get seriously grumpy. Speaking of Halloween, Claudia appears to have come as a pair of 80s goth curtains - but it's Claudia so we'll let her get away with it.

Jake and Janette
I don't know how they manage it, but every now and again the SCD costume people make someone look frumpy. Janette looks like a 1920s movie star in her 70s, swigging gin from the bottle or something. I wasn't enamoured of this, I think it might have been Jake's worst - one his strengths is that he has confidence enough to perform and I got the impression he just wasn't feeling this. Top line a bit wonky, but good footwork.

Sunetra and Brendan
Fabulous song, fabulous dress, slightly odd hair - like a small startled dog. But my word what a dance, Sunetra's best and yet another amazing routine from Brendan! I was captivated, which is pretty impressive for a VW, it was probably the drama of the song and Sunetra being able to channel the emotion. Great work, guys!

Scott and Joanne
When did the Charleston become all about cockney, it's really getting odd! I can't decide whether I loved or hated Joanne's sexy Victorian nightgown, it was cute but weird. It was Scott's best dance, mainly because you can make a Charleston step-then-gurn and get away with it.

Iveta and Thom
Even though I said this about Frankie last week, Iveta now wins all the Strictly dresses ever, have we ever had anyone so fabulous? I was pretty impressed by this - Thom really looked like he was enjoying himself. In the first few weeks he looked so scared of going wrong and now he's actually just getting on with doing it! (Edit: Oh dear, look what happens when you try and enjoy yourself...)

Frankie and Kevin
Look at these two delightful little cranberries out early for Christmas, so cute. At the start I went into a hate-spiral about how there was nothing in hold, but then once they got into it there was a lot of content. Foxtrot is hard/boring, don't forget. I also liked Kevin's Full Grimsby moment, he's not been as fun this series without hyper Susanna. Not technically brilliant, but a bit less bot-like than before.

Alison and Aljaz
Alison finally gets to some ballroom again, it's been about a year, hasn't it? Walking holding Aljaz's hand is not tango-ing by the way. She put a lot of work into the performance, but the technical parts of the dance weren't great. She seemed to miss some footwork and it just seemed like there wasn't a lot going on.

Mark and Karen
Mark needed to bring it this week and there was no way Karen was going to sit back and take the bottom-2 drama - and woah did they pull out all the stops! The shimmies! The hips! I need a new adjective to talk about how fierce Karen gets. I have a kitschy love of a disco samba and Mark has really being working his socks off.

Simon and Kristina
Hmmm, not too sure about this one. It was pretty fast for a VW, when it should be all flowy and dream-like. And the song dominated it a bit, I'm all for a bit of Queen, but the singers turned it up to 11 and it didn't work with the style of a waltz. Simon could be in trouble again....

Judy and Anton
I secretly quite like an Anton Charleston, he's actually rather good at them and was basically born in the wrong century. After last week's high-point of a tango I think Judy might have broken through some sort of barrier, she suddenly seems a bit more relaxed. Especially when Anton picks you up and all you have to do is wave your arms and legs about! It was cute, she is kind-of-improving, so she's probably earned herself a trip to Halloween week - what will Anton come up with then?!

Caroline and Pasha
Out of all the non-traditional paso songs, Live and Let Die is the pinnacle of appropriate-ness. You can''t NOT do a drama-filled paso to it, if you don't, you're dead. Good choreography, great flamenco arms, great Spanish line. What a team these two are, they bring it week after week, and yet no one seems to notice - show some love for Caroline!

Steve and Ola
Another traditional ballroom number, Strictly you are really spoiling us tonight by sticking to your remit. Steve tried to act, it was terrible, but quite endearing. Not much to say about this one, it was competent and had a bit of smoothness to it that I wasn't expecting from Steve - he's a grafter, that one.

Pixie and Trent
I am totally in love with Pixie's bonkers samba outfit, all it's missing is feathers. I bet it took a lot of dry shampoo to work that hairdo. My god, this was a full-on amazing, knock your socks off coconuts samba! I think Pixie may have had a few drinks beforehand because she let it go like never before. Also, samba roll watch: they were brilliant and they had to get their arms extra-high to clear her massive hair. Love it.