Welcome back ladies and gents, we didn't know for a while if we'd be here, but it appears the glittery Strictly wagon is rolling into town (local restrictions permitting) for 2020.
There's only 12 contestants this year and we still don't quite know how the format is going to play out, so there's a fair few question marks to consider. Saying that, the makeup of this line-up doesn't seem particularly out of the ordinary for Strictly - there's popstars and sports people and politicians, oh my! This comes despite the tabloids telling us all the big names would be queuing up to do the show as everything else has been cancelled, whatever, you know you'll be rooting for someone you've never heard of after two weeks anyway.
Caroline Quentin
This got us off to a good start, everyone just seems to love Caroline and she's super-excited to get going on Strictly. I know her from TV in 90s-tastic shows like Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek (will there be a mystery-themed dance with her partner in a duffle coat?), but she's also done a lot of theatre over the years which will stand her in good stead. Plus, as Alex Jones was very quick to mention on the One Show reveal, she did some dancing in her youth - could we be on to something good here?
Clover Awareness Rating: 10. Readers, I have heard of her. She gets an automatic ten.
Jason Bell
Some of us struggle with identifying sports people, but bringing in AMERICAN sports people is in another league *boom boom*. So yeah, drew a blank with Jason but he seems very keen and...American. Aren't American footballers supposed to be fast as well as strong? That could work. Plus he's 6ft, which is tall for a dancer but not ridiculous. Hopefully he's not too competitive, because as we've learned the British public does not take well to that. Kind of hoping his ex Nadine Coyle will be inspired to finally do the show.
Clover Awareness Rating: 0. Readers, I have not heard of him. At first I thought I heard it as Jamie Bell. Who would have been the ringer to end all ringers. But no, I can't imagine many have heard of him in the UK tbh? Surely we have not run out of British sports people.
Max George
The lengths they will go to to try and make Jay McGuiness come back for a visit, even during a pandemic! He's go a lot to live up to, but I imagine is fairly confident due to boyband experience and, randomly, being on the final series of Glee. I don't know what it is, but he reminds me of Matt Goss From Bros, which just makes me sad that we don't seem to have gotten that delightful loon on the show again this year.
Clover Awareness Rating: 3. I haven't heard of him, but I have heard of The Wanted. Yes, yes, that's only because of Jay McGuinness maybe, but hey. Get a Bros on Strictly.
Ranvir Singh
This year's 'make sure to get coverage on ITV' contestant is GMB's Ranvir Singh, which feels like a perfectly sensible signing. Sorry people, but it looks like Ben Shephard and his degree and in dance will never be making it onto the show. Ranvir feels like an unknown quantity here, so happy to see how it turns out. Plus she's from Preston, so we feel a bit of local loyalty there. What a shame it's unlikely we'll go to Blackpool this year, they could have milked it no end!
Clover Awareness Rating: 5. I had heard her name but I'm not sure I could have placed where from. She went to a school local to us. That school always used to beat us in netball matches.
Clara Amfo
The fabulous Clara seems like another contestant who is raring to get out on the dancefloor and mingle with the whole Strictly experience. She always seems to be around music, whether it's Radio 1, Top of the Pops or the Brits, so let's hope she can channel some musicality into this. It doesn't appear she has any dance experience, so could be a bit of a dark horse - I guess it could all depend on her pro partnership.
Clover Awareness Rating: 0. Sorry, Clara. I barely know anyone off the radio.
Nicola Adams
Nicola is finally in the Strictly ballroom! Fans have been calling for her to take part for a few years now, plus her retirement from boxing last year means she's got the time to devote herself to the task. Her TikTok dancing moves plus her flyweight category boxing suggests she could be quite fleet-of-foot. I sounded like I knew what I was talking about then, didn't I? Of course all media attention will be on which female pro she's going to partnered with, but irrespective of that, she has a lot to give to the show and is a top j-word contender already.
Clover Awareness Rating: 10. Olympic gold medal winner. Enough said. And it's about time we had a same-sex partnership. I used to go dancing with someone who was an amateur boxer. He said they were surprisingly similar so I'm expecting her to be light on her feet.
JJ Chalmers
Another sports person? Amid the smaller line-up this year that means a quarter of our contestants are sporty (while Maisie is ginger and Jamie is posh, ha!). JJ hasn't really been on my radar before, but he certainly seems to be up to the challenge after being injured whilst serving as a Marine and then going on to win medals at the Invictus games - this is a guy who's notafraid of hard work. His presenting work means he should be at home in front of the camera, but a lack of performing experience might be a challenge. But as we've seen before, a great pro could make all the difference.
Clover Awareness Rating: 5. I had heard the name and that he's something to do with sports presenting, but that was all I knew. Sounds like a worthy competitor however. If the performing is a problem, make like Lilia and book him an acting lesson! #WorkedOnDawson
Bill Bailey
A bit more of an unusual signing, but a welcome one! This might be our more covid-impacted signing for the year as so many live comedy and music gigs have been cancelled. Bill is clearly going to be marketed as the dad-dancer for the year, which could be both good and bad. I don't expect him to be terrible as he's a musician first and foremost, so hopefully he'll be given a chance. Plus he has a whopping 3.3m followers on Twitter so there's definitely a fanbase there! If there is a movie week I BEG you, Strictly crew, please don't dress him up as a Hobbit.
Clover Awareness Rating: 10. Ha. Will he be this year's race to the bottom? I'm hoping he'll surprise us.
Jamie Laing
Poor little Jamie Biscuits is alive and well, and ready to finally hit the dance floor! As we said last year, he's a good egg with a history of being self-deprecating on reality TV. All he needed to do was apply himself and there's an extra incentive to do that this time. The big question is will he be partnered with Oti again? They did look like they'd have a whale of a time! I expect they're now keeping him in a padded sterilised room for the next few weeks....
Clover Awareness Rating: 10. This. Was. Not. A. Surprise. I can't remember what I said in my opening post about him last year, but: that.
Maisie Smith
Ooh now this is an intriguing contestant. Spoiler: she's done a lot of stage school and musical theatre stuff, but I'm guessing the audience doesn't associate her with that. She's also the youngest contestant this year at 19 and in my head she'll always be about 6 as the brilliant little ginger Tiffany, even though her character is much more grown-up now. There's a lot of pressure and expectation that comes with that too, so I hope she's ready for it. Plus I have no idea how they're going to write her out of the Eastenders bubble. surely she can't do both this year? I will no longer stand for this excessive working of Eastenders stars!
Clover Awareness Rating: 4. No idea who she is but I HAVE heard of the original Eastenders Tiffany. So she can have some points for that. Let's have another ginger winner of Strictly!
HRVY
I'm sorry, what? Are we sure that's not his number plate? Yes, yes, I know I sound like your granny, but I'm just going to call him Harvey and that will be that. As you may have guessed, this one is very much an unknown quantity for me. He has the youth on his side, does he come with a ready-made fanbase like Joe Sugg? Popstar experience also means performing experience. I guess the raw materials are there and we'll see pretty quickly whether he'll have potential.
Clover Awareness Rating: 0. I'm going to call him Huh-Ruh-Vuh-Yuh.
Jacqui Smith
Well this was a dramatic change of gear! 2020 was not the year I expected the return of the politician to Strictly, but then again, this year has taught us not to expect anything. Please, no references to W*ddy, we've suffered enough this year. You might not associate Jacqui with performing, but she did reveal her secret performing background on Twitter, having won a bronze medal for Scottish Highland Dancing - ringer alert! Bit of a weird one to end the announcements on, but that's your class of 2020.
Clover Awareness Rating: 5. I have heard of her but tbh couldn't quite remember what position she had held. Not someone I was expecting at all. Is she set for Anton?
No comments:
Post a Comment