Dates
Sept-Dec 2017 (13 weeks plus launch show, 15 couples).
That time period in context
In January the 2017 Women’s March saw activity in many countries in protest at Trump’s inauguration as US President. In May there was a bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. June saw the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in London. There was also a UK general election in June and Theresa May’s Conservatives struck up an alliance with Northern Ireland’s DUP to stay in power. There was an independence referendum in Catalonia in October, declared illegal by the Spanish Government. In February the wrong film was announced as the winner of Best Picture at the Oscars (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway said La La Land when it should have been Moonlight). Sally Rooney’s first novel Conversations with Friends came out in May 2017 after a publishing bidding war. Sampha won the 2017 Mercury Music Prize for the album Process. Jodie Whittaker became the first woman to play the lead role in Dr Who in December (to be honest I haven’t watched it since Tom Baker, and that was only because one of my brothers watched it, but I hear it’s still all the rage).
Judges
Shirley Ballas (new head judge), Darcey Bussell, Craig Revel Horwood, Bruno Tonioli. Here is the 2017 panel.
Presenters
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman (main and results shows).
Zoe Ball (It Takes Two).
Addition to format
Original presenter Bruce Forsyth died in August 2017 (aged 89) and there was a tribute to him in the launch show. The pic above (with Tess) is from an earlier annual.
Judge Bruno missed one week but was not replaced by a guest judge.
The thons continued with a Paso Doble-thon.
No elimination in the first part of the final.
Dancers
(celebrities first, professional partners second; couples listed in order of elimination with winners last)
Chizzy Akudolu and Pasha Kovalev
Richard Coles and Dianne Buswell (new pro)
Charlotte Hawkins and Brendan Cole
Brian Conley and Amy Dowden (new pro)
Simon Rimmer and Karen Clifton
Aston Merrygold and Janette Manrara
Ruth Langsford and Anton du Beke
Jonnie Peacock and Oti Mabuse
Susan Calman and Kevin Clifton
Davood Ghadami and Nadiya Bychkova (new pro)
Mollie King and AJ Pritchard
Alexandra Burke and Gorka Márquez
Debbie McGee and Giovanni Pernice
Gemma Atkinson and Aljaž Škorjanec
Joe McFadden and Katya Jones
Celebrities we had heard of before the series (and how we knew them)
Richard Coles (from his Communards days, pic below with new pro Dianne), Jonnie Peacock (Paralympian, sprinter), Susan Calman (comedian), Alexandra Burke (singer, winner of X Factor in 2008 – we didn’t watch it but had certainly heard her version of Hallelujah), Debbie McGee (wife of Paul Daniels and famous butt of a much-repeated Mrs Merton joke – sorry Debbie but that is how many people knew you before this Strictly year).
Who did we vote for?
I can’t remember who I voted for early on (maybe pop star Aston?) but I know I voted for Alexandra near the end as she was so good but still in the dance-off a couple of times (pic below with pro Gorka). Also there seemed to be a lot of talk about “people hating her” (i.e. saying horrible things online, Twitter in particular). She got more 10s than anyone had done in the show so far so I suppose you could say she observed Michelle Obama’s “when they go low, we go high” but she shouldn’t have had to deal with such comments for being in a TV show (or anything else). It was another year to be a disappointed in the section of the British public that insists on going low when there are really so many other options.
Celebrities we liked more after the series
Is TV presenter Ruth Langsford the one who kind of lay on top of Anton du Beke? I didn’t know her before but she was refreshingly relaxed in the show. The series started a bit slow this year but everyone left in from about week 5 was good, entertaining and/or lovely in one way or another. Susan Calman gave it what I know the Scots call “laldy” (trans: she really went for it) and you couldn’t fault her for superfandom and a sense of adventure. Here she is with her pro Kevin (the latter still holding out for a glitterball at this point, not long to wait now).
The following summer Heather and I went to see Karen and Kevin’s live show at Glasgow Concert Hall and Susan was sat just near us in the audience (exciting for superfans). Even more exciting Heather got a photo (and a hug) from Karen afterwards by the stage door. That live show was absolutely fantastic by the way. The pro couple had not long separated, marriage-wise, but they talked about that, which was interesting (to hear it from them, not from tabloids), and they performed brilliantly. For me it was one of the best Strictly-related live shows I’ve seen. Without question, Karen is a wonder of this world, such a powerful presence on the stage. This is a pic from the programme to that 2018 show.
Was it obvious who was going to win?
No, because all 4 couples in the final were very good. Joe and Katya hadn’t been in the dance-off so I guess they were the best bet to win. He was the first Scottish winner, a great mover and particularly charming (echoes of Tom Chambers from a few series earlier) so he had a lot going for him. Also Katya had made such a splash with Mr Balls the year before (apologies) that she was a crowd favourite for sure. It was pretty obvious Alexandra and Gorka weren’t going to win but I did think Debbie might just take it on the “isn’t she brilliant for an older woman and isn’t Giovanni such a gentleman?” ticket (but it was not to be, they are in the pic below, doing something graceful). At this point Joe was the oldest winner of the show (he was 42).
Were there articles in the papers moaning about one of the celebrities being good because they’d danced before?
Well, there were certainly articles about Alexandra but I didn’t read any of them (most of them about her supposed “diva” behaviour so it would seem). Please enjoy another lovely pic of her and Gorka below, to restore balance. Debbie actually was a professional dancer so presumably that came up too (but I don’t think it was used against her in the same way – in fact being on the series totally changed the McGee image from butt-of-joke to actually-a-dancer-and person-in-her-own-right so it was total success PR-wise for her). Had Joe danced before? I’m guessing he had (many actors have) but I don’t remember any talk about that.
Did it matter?
I imagine the press laying into Alexandra didn’t help with the online nastiness so yes, I think for this one it did (though the dirt was rarely about dancing, more about supposed “diva behaviour”, concentrating purely on the negative meaning of the word “diva”). In this recent interview with the singer she talks about having to get therapy later to deal with all the negativity brought up in her time on Strictly. In the interview the “journalist” responsible for the “diva” business blames the stories about her on leaks from the show but no one was forcing them to print the stories … were they? So much of our press is pathetic, desperate, conservative, Conservative and downright cruel. When I was a student (in the late 1980s) someone I knew went to one of the tabloids on a placement and they were told to write a list of every horrible and insulting name they could think of to describe a gay/LGBTQ person. This is the kind of quality journalistic establishments we’re talking about (and it’s not just the tabloids).
Was there an obvious “shouldn’t stay in long but did” contestant?
Not really, though I guess Susan lasted pretty well. She was very entertaining and one of those people who just loves the show so much that turfing them out seems mean.
Shock exit?
Aston in week 7 was the closest to shock exit this time (pic above). He had done some amazing routines (two 10s the week before and he’d been a lovely troll for movie week…) and you might have expected him to go a lot further. Also actor Chizzy went out so early (week 1) that we barely even got to see her. This is a theme we’ve touched on before.
The story of the series
Jonnie being the first amputee Paralympian to compete on the show (pic below with Oti).
Susan and Kevin doing both their Morecambe and Wise number and a Game of Thrones themed dance which was beyond bizarre.
There was a bit of romance too (and it’s often been mentioned on recent shows so I will mention it here). Gorka and actor Gemma weren’t partnered in the series but they made their connection anyway and are still together now. Gorka is another hugely popular pro on the show and happy news about him was very welcome (in his first series in 2016 the news had been quite the opposite when he was attacked on the streets in Blackpool whilst the show was being filmed there in November). Here is Gemma from this series with her pro partner Aljaž (Gemma in an outfit not a million miles from one of Gorka’s recent looks in the current series).
There were all the other stories referred to in other sections as well. A lot of stories this time!
And our family - what was going on with us at the time?
Heather had done more exams, moved into the last year of school in August and we went with her to a few university open days (Dundee, Stirling, a couple around Edinburgh). She had a great English teacher and so was choosing English as her subject (English and Film Studies in the end, as it happened). She still watched Strictly (of course, not sure she will ever stop) but in a second hand music shop (the much missed Grouchos in Dundee) we came across a DVD of a TV show called Smash that turned out to be another huge favourite (it’s about putting on a musical about Marilyn Monroe on Broadway, great songs and star turns from people like Leslie Odom Jr., Angelica Huston, Debra Messing and Katharine McPhee). She loved it so much it was the theme we asked for on her 18th birthday cake (though I’m getting ahead of myself – that’s next year, 2018).
In 2017 Heather’s last grandparent, Isobel, turned 80 and we had a big family weekend in Northumberland in November (dancing, musical movies, roast dinners, bingo). I think Grandma enjoyed the bingo most.
I was still trying with the poetry (in fact Grandma Isobel once misheard me talking about it and thought I was off to a “poultry” festival). In 2017, at the grand age of 50, I put out my second book, a slim volume (a pamphlet or chapbook) called Turn. The title poem was something I wrote in 2016 the week that Jo Cox was killed. We had lived in her constituency (a while before her time in office) so it felt particularly real and close when she died. I launched the new collection at the gorgeous Lunan Bay diner in Angus (right by the beach, pic below, I look best a bit blurry and in the distance).
It was a light night in June and lots of lovely people came and helped me put the wee book out into the world, some of them singing and reading their work too. Heather sang Somewhere over the Rainbow because she is that kind of dreamer (and incidentally Ariana Grande sang that song at the end of the live and televised One Love Manchester concert that took place only 2 weeks after the bombing at her concert in the same city). Life can be terrible and life can be beautiful, sometimes pretty much at the same time.
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, Series 10, Series 11, Series 12, Series 13 and Series 14. Back tomorrow for Series 16 (2018), the one where Kevin finally wins it.
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