Strictly Family - Series 11

Dates

Sept-Dec 2013 (13 weeks plus a launch show, 15 couples).

That time period in context

Margaret Thatcher died in April 2013. Alex Ferguson retired as manager of Manchester United. Andy Murray won the Men’s Singles at Wimbledon in July. The Black Lives Matter movement began in the US in July (the hashtag first used after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin). Same sex marriage became legal in England and Wales. Netflix debuted its first series House of Cards in February and Orange is the New Black started on there in July. The first series of Peaky Blinders started on BBC in September. Nelson Mandela died in the December.

 

Judges

Len Goodman (head judge), Darcey Bussell, Craig Revel Horwood, Bruno Tonioli.

 

Presenters

Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly (main show), though Claudia Winkleman presented 3 main shows with Tess while Bruce took some breaks (this was his last series as main presenter). Tess and Claudia (below) presented the results show.

Zoe Ball presented It Takes Two.

 

Addition to format

This was the first series to be made at Elstree Film and Television Studios in Hertfordshire because the show’s former home at the BBC Television Centre in West London had closed down for redevelopment in March. The new home meant a lot more space for big routines and the show has turned into quite a different creature since this move.

Blackpool week was back for November.

Love Week appeared (just once, like a bad one-night stand). I have no memory of it whatsoever. Anyone else?

Dancers 

(celebrities first, professional partners second; couples listed in order of elimination with winners last)

Tony Jacklin and Aliona Vilani (who had left the show but returned to dance for the injured Natalie Lowe)
Vanessa Feltz and James Jordan
Julien Macdonald and Janette Manrara (new pro)
Deborah Meaden and Robin Windsor
Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev
Dave Myers and Karen Hauer
Fiona Fullerton and Anton du Beke
Ben Cohen and Kristina Rihanoff
Mark Benton and Iveta Lukošiūtė
Ashley Taylor Dawson and Ola Jordan
Patrick Robinson and Anya Garnis (new pro)
Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Brendan Cole
Natalie Gumede and Artem Chigvintsev
Susanna Reid and Kevin Clifton (new pro)

Abbey Clancy and Aljaž Škorjanec (new pro)

 

Celebrities we had heard of before the series (and how we knew them)

Tony Jacklin (golfer, though saying that his face surprised me on a recent online search and I realised that in my head I was expecting to see the face of Jackie Stewart, racing driver – I guess sports aren’t really my thing), Vanessa Feltz (TV, radio), Fiona Fullerton (actor, although again her face surprised me on the search and I think I was expecting to see Fenella Fielding, actor in Carry on Screaming, which made a big impression when I saw it was a child, I’m not doing very well at memories this time, apologies), Sophie Ellis-Bextor (singer), Susanna Reid (news presenter). I suppose Mark will have known Ben Cohen (rugby).

 

Who did we vote for?

I think we voted for Ben and Kristina for a while (pic above). We liked Kristina and she still hadn’t had a win. As the series progressed though I voted for actor Natalie and Artem. Natalie was amazing.

 

Celebrities we liked more after the series

Fashion designer Julien Macdonald was kind of fablous (not a typo) and new pro Janette an instant favourite. Here they are celebrating something.

I never watch any of the business TV shows so I didn’t know ‘dragon’ Deborah Meaden before this but I enjoyed her on the show (and her online presence is pretty good too). 

Countdown’s Rachel Riley was a relief as, despite being a blonde glamour puss (my Mum’s word, see pic below), she was really pretty bad at dancing (though she did marry Pasha later so she certainly won some kind of prize – he’s very popular with the superfans). 

Actor Mark and Iveta were full of energy but for the love of god, let MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This never be used on the show again (shivers). Iveta’s parting line to Mark (“friends for the life”) is now a Strictly saying (we use it at home too, don’t you?). Sophie Ellis-Bextor was charming and very good (a particularly great Charleston). Again, Natalie was marvellous.

 

Was it obvious who was going to win?

No. I was totally shocked when Abbey won as I had no idea she was popular with the fans. If I have a recurring prejudice it might well be against people famous more for their husbands/families/partners and she was very much presented as a footballer’s wife/girlfriend so she wasn’t an obvious favourite for me. Plus I don’t know most of the players in football, never mind their significant others (I tried following premiership football once, the 1997-8 season, and one year was enough for me). Abbey did seem very sweet so we didn’t mind her winning when it happened but I wonder if a lot of her appeal might have been due to her pro partner, a new pro that season, Aljaž Škorjanec (I might be wrong – Abbey fans make yourselves known). Aljaž has always been a big favourite with the fans and though he left the show recently I suspect he will be part of the Strictly furniture in some way before too long. He’s funny, smiley, attractive, totally at home with his gentle masculinity – very much the new face of Strictly. Here are your champions.

I had thought Susanna Reid might win (she started strong) but she seemed to lose some momentum near the end. It happens.

I also thought Sophie might win (and maybe if she’d been with Aljaž she might have done). Nothing against Brendan but he was kind of the old face of Strictly by this point and it was his time to move on. You might say, what about Anton (pic below) – wasn’t he the old face of Strictly too (they’d both been there since series 1)? But somehow du Beke hung on in there, survived various terrible partners and many horrible pairs of trousers, and he is now ensconced happily in the judges’ enclosure, his ambition to be some kind of new Bruce Forsyth not completely off the table and his bank balance pretty healthy I would imagine. As Roy Castle used to sing on Record Breakers every week, dedication’s what you need.

Natalie was probably the strongest dancer but they often don’t win (not enough obvious “journey” for the fans and she wasn’t one to bare her soul on the show, she just kept dancing). Plus, Artem had won before and seeing him bare his chest time after time was getting a bit old. Of course, other issues might have contributed too – the only woman of colour to win the show is still Alesha Dixon (Series 5 in 2007).

Were there articles in the papers moaning about one of the celebrities being good because they’d danced before?

About Natalie, I think (pictured above, with Artem, never a man desperate to keep his shirt on). Knowing the UK papers there might have been some other stuff going on there too.

 

Did it matter?

It did maybe affect the result. Who knows?

 

Was there an obvious “shouldn’t stay in long but did” contestant?

Not really.

 

Shock exit?

No.

 

The story of the series

It was in large part the new pros – mostly Kevin (who got to the final, the first of many for him, with Susanna), Aljaž and Janette (another pro couple, now married). All of these 3 pros were in the series for a good while and very popular with fans.

This was the first time ever in Strictly history where all the celebrities in the final were women (pic at top of this post) but I don’t think this is necessarily a victory for feminism or anything. Let’s not get overexcited on that score.

There were a couple of romantic developments between couples partnered on the show (and certainly two of those couples are now married, to each other, a good few years later, though they weren’t at the start of the series) but if it was happening at the time we certainly weren’t totally aware of it (both are pictured below). I don’t read any of that stuff, just sometimes find out by accident when looking for something else.

And our family - what was going on with us at the time?

This was a very different year for us. We had been approved as foster carers and had our first “placement” in May (a wee boy of nearly 3). It had been a while since we’d had such a young child in the house (Heather was 13) and just being back in the toddler phase was shock enough (never mind all the admin and extra kinds of responsibilities, anxieties and emotions of fostering). Was it rewarding? Yes. Was it exhausting? Also yes. Everything went well with this first boy and when he moved on after a few months another toddler arrived the very next day (this one even younger – he was with us for over a year).  He’d been in many different environments and needed a lot of care, though what energetic 2 year-old doesn’t to be honest? All of this change (plus the non-stop illnesses of pre-school life) meant I did still watch Strictly with Heather when possible but it was through very tired eyes and I certainly wasn’t making any cocktails this year (see Series 9). 

Writing about fostering – all the highs and lows, the politics of caring etc. – would be a whole other blog so I won’t say much more here. Certainly it gave me a great respect for people who foster well for years and years – it takes a special kind of person as you have to be really tough (to cope with the system) and yet, to do it well, really gentle with the children/young people. To use Strictly language, all 3 of us “gave it our all” with these two boys (who are both doing well now, as far as I know) but we didn’t have family (or much other “support network”) around and that made it tough at times. We had friends locally but they couldn’t all necessarily give the kind of support you need for a traumatised child. One social worker even said to me pretty blankly, “you shouldn’t have been approved as carers if you don’t have the support network”. Ah, but we were. 

Anyway, perhaps to give Heather something just for her, she did get to the big official Strictly Live Tour that followed this series in January 2014. This is the only time she’s been to the official tour though she’s been to lots of the individual dancers’ shows (some mentioned in yesterday’s post). 

The Strictly official tour (pics above) was a Saturday afternoon show in Glasgow and, because of fostering, it meant lots of complicated arrangements to get there. I was due to go to the show with her but I had a bad night the night before (we were in very noisy hotel and could hear people shagging in the next room, very thin walls). Not an arena fan at the best of times, I just couldn’t face the crowds when it came to it and this meant Mark accompanied her to the Strictly tour instead (not necessarily the arena tour he would have chosen for himself but that is Strictly family life). Heather absolutely LOVED it and she’d probably go every year if she could.

If you want to read any of the previous posts just click Older Post below till you get to the one you want. Or use these links: Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, Series 4, Series 5, Series 6, Series 7, Series 8, our Dancing with the Stars interlude, Series 9 and Series 10. Back tomorrow for Strictly Family – Series 12 (autumn 2014).