Strictly Family - Series 20

Dates

Sept-Dec 2022 (13 weeks plus a launch show, 15 couples). The final is tonight so this is the first time in this set of posts that we can’t talk about who won. The 4 finalists are all in the pic above.

 

That time period in context

In February Russia invaded Ukraine – a war that is still ongoing. In Pakistan a period of the worst floods in the country’s history began in June. In April the energy price cap in the UK rose by 54%. In July a temperature of 40º Centigrade was recorded for the first time in the UK. Omicron became the dominant variant of Covid-19 in the UK and elsewhere this year. After scandals, outrage and an outbreak of resignations, Boris Johnson was finally no longer UK PM from September. His successor, Liz Truss, lasted a mere 50 days and then Rishi Sunak became PM in October. This year the UK has also experienced its largest outbreak of bird flu. In arts and entertainment, musician Neil Young removed his catalogue from Spotify in January. CODA won best film at the Oscars in March. In May the last episode of the last series of the brilliant TV show This is Us was broadcast.

 

Judges

Shirley Ballas (head judge), Anton du Beke, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horwood.

 

Presenters

Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman (main and results shows).

Rylan and Janette Manrara (It Takes Two). I have been meaning to say for days that Heather’s favourite part of ITT for years now has been the Vicky Gill costumes section. I couldn’t see anything about which year Vicky first appeared on the ITT (and I can’t remember) so if anyone else knows please share. She has the best laugh on TV and we think she is fab-u-lous.

Addition to format

Due to the men’s football World Cup the Strictly main show took place on a Friday one week and then the semi-final was on a Sunday – truly a world turned upside down.

There was a theme week to celebrate the BBC’s 100 Years (and thank heavens that won’t be back).

This series saw the return of Blackpool week.

This time it was Neil Jones, Luba Mushtuk, Cameron Lombard and new professionals Lauren Oakley and Michelle Tsiakkas who did not get celebrity partners (both in pic below).

In this series there were two same sex couples in the line-up.

Dancers 

(celebrities first, professional partners second; the couples are in order of elimination but as this series has not quite finished the four finalists are last in the list but in no particular order)

Kaye Adams and Kai Widdrington
Richie Anderson and Giovanni Pernice
Matt Goss and Nadiya Bychkova
Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer
James Bye and Amy Dowden
Ellie Simmonds and Nikita Kuzmin
Tony Adams and Katya Jones (withdrew, though he was going out anyway)
Tyler West and Dianne Buswell
Ellie Taylor and Johannes Radebe

Kym Marsh and Graziano Di Prima

Will Mellor and Nancy Xu
Fleur East and Vito Coppola (new pro, pic below, left)

Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu (new pro, pic below, right)

Helen Skelton and Gorka Márquez

Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystał

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

Kaye Adams (TV/radio presenter – not very popular in our house, some relief that she went out first), Richie Anderson (radio presenter, heard him on something like celebrity Popmaster once or twice), Matt Goss (obvs, Bros), Jayde Adams (had seen her in the brilliant comedy show Alma’s Not Normal, then watched her stand-up special), Ellie Simmonds (Paralympian, swimmer), Tony Adams (footballer, Arsenal/England), Ellie Taylor (love her on The Mash Report), Kym Marsh (singer and actor, was in Corrie). Also we knew Fleur East’s Play That Sax track (though not that she’s a radio presenter as well as a singer), Helen Skelton from TV (presenter, Blue Peter and lots of challenge type things) and Will Mellor (actor, also lots of things, daughter liked In the Club).

Who did we vote for?

Rather like the Tory membership, our voting was a bit of a hot mess this time. At one point or other I voted for Richie, Jayde, Ellie S, Tyler, Fleur, Molly and Hamza.

 

Celebrities we liked more after the series

Pretty much all of them.

 

Is it obvious who is going to win?

Before we attempt a prediction for this series let’s look at what makes people vote (and when I say “people”, I do wonder what percentage of the voters for this show are women, largely middle-aged/older women, like me – I’m 55). I know there may be hardcore ballroom experts and fans who vote purely based on footwork (or at least there are people who tell themselves that’s what they’re doing) but I think outside of that group lots of other factors come into play. I have detailed some of these below but obviously they are just my thoughts on Strictly voting – you may have your own.

1.    Sex appeal/partner material – there does seem to be a section of the public that votes for, in particular, the blokes they find attractive. This is partly to do with dancing (a very physical activity anyway and some of the dances, and outfits, leave little to the imagination) but it is to do with other things too. This year Will seemed to be popular with “the ladies” (i.e., I kept hearing women over 30 on TV and online saying how attractive they thought he was). I couldn’t quite see the appeal (and I prefer real people to celebrity crushes really) but he had a good run and did some extremely enthusiastic dances. It should be noted that the celebrities who get this kind of attention don’t necessarily have to have an obvious “beach-ready bod” or anything. So often what we really want in our partners is, to call on Prince, just someone to help us “get through this thing called life” and so what attracts us is more to do with humour, a sense of adventure, gentleness, maybe even just an ordinariness (and I think that was part of Will’s appeal this year – he seems like an ordinary bloke, a Northern one especially, and one who might also be up to dancing with you at your friend’s wedding). With Will gone (in the semi-final) I imagine some of his voters might switch to Helen and Gorka because the latter is also very popular with “the ladies”. We are fond of Gorka in this house too (though not in that way) – he’s funny, not embarrassed to be daft or affectionate or gentle and he likes dressing up as animals. 

2.    Wanting to be the celebrity or identifying with them – sometimes I think voters vote for the dancer they most want to be or the one who feels most like them. That appeal might be to do with strength, humour, positivity, vulnerability, romance or a mixture of many things but whatever it is we see that trait or traits in the celebrity (or in the partnership) and we find it so attractive that we just have to vote for it. I think an element of the audience (and that might be largely white middle-aged women) are definitely seeing this in Helen this year (woman triumphing over adversity and over exes/men). Plus, she has done some great dancing (and there’s Gorka).

3.    The story – sometimes the personal story of the celebrity really grabs the audience’s attention. It needs to be accompanied by good (or great) dancing for a win but a good story is hard to beat. I think the story is not quite the same as the much (much!) discussed Strictly “journey”. With a contestant like Rose last year, for example, it was more a large part of the audience that went on a “journey” (learning more about deaf people) whilst Rose was just on a TV show, sharing her story, opening minds, being brilliant. Helen’s story this year (her marriage break up) might see her win the series (because even though she hasn’t talked about it in detail in the show there have been articles in the press). And it’s news to me but apparently she has been writing a Strictly Diary in the Daily Telegraph every week (does that paper have a Strictly Diary every year – it’s not a publication I follow closely). I’m sure there are some celebrities who don’t want any of their stories to be public ever and that is to be respected. Keeping the private private probably affects a celebrity’s chances of winning (because the audience is needy and greedy and we want all the emotions) but sometimes, indeed most times, there are more important things than winning a TV show. Questions are regularly asked (on Twitter anyway) about why women of colour rarely win the show and we might ask ourselves if they are less likely to bare their souls in the press and on TV (knowing the reputation of the British press and how it treats women, in general, and women of colour, in particular). Could this issue be part of the answer? Articles linked to in previous posts this month about Alexandra Burke and Nina Wadia might suggest that it is.

4.    OK, the journey – does the Strictly journey even still exist? Sometimes the word is thrown about more than a female celebrity in a showdance and its use can start to feel (a) meaningless and (b) even a little desperate (“Vote for me! See how I’ve grown as a person!”) but by the last weeks the contestants are all so exhausted and emotional that I guess we can let it pass. Often what was talked about as the journey in the early years was simply some of the male contestants learning that dancing is fun and exciting and that men can do it too, even in daft clothes. You could see Darren Gough and Chris Hollins as journeymen of this type (and there have been others who have made similar journeys over the years without winning the show – Dan Walker in recent times, for example). A lot of this kind of journey is to do with the fact that so much of our “culture” in the last couple of hundred years has rewarded men for fighting and being competitive but has struggled with the idea of them in leotards or just generally using their minds and bodies in friendly ways. It’s a bit sad really.

5.    That one dance – as has been mentioned in many of the posts in the past 3 weeks, sometimes there is that one dance in a series that just grabs the audience’s attention and means that whatever happens, that couple will go on to win the show (Jay and Aliona’s Jive, Bill and Oti’s Couple’s Choice...).

6.    And finally, the secret ingredient – there are always lots of great dancers on the show but there are a few individuals who bring a kind of magic to their performances, even when they’re not perfect technically. It’s a look in their eye, it’s the feeling that they are almost somewhere else, and I suppose it’s something like the “electricity” of Billy Elliot. Hamza in this series has that special something for sure and unfortunately for the others, as they say in the classic disarster movie Showgirls, “whatever it is, you can’t teach it.”

So after all that theory – who is going to win tonight?

 

After their amazing week 4 Salsa with its eye-popping lifts, Hamza and Jowita became hugely popular and still seem on course for the win. Hamza was not an obvious favourite and that is one reason he has been so popular this year (the element of surprise!). He is obviously fit and strong but he does not have the stereotypical dancer’s body (I think he is the only one of this year’s finalists never to have been seen in a training VT in a crop top). Also he isn’t really in the entertainment business (well, certainly not in the jazz hands wing of it, no stage school for him – he did zoology and is a wildlife cameraman and presenter). He is a Sudanese Scotsman (most often seen in his Ardnamurchan t-shirt, his practically body-length dreadlocks arranged in plaits or nets, sometimes dancing along with him) and, like Rose last year, people have fallen for him partly because he just seems such a lovely person (and he’s great mover too). As the competition has progressed he is one of those contestants who I think would almost rather not win but he has gone this far, seems honestly shocked by it and will want to do his best for Jowita. She has already proved she can win (she and partner Michael won the TV show The Greatest Dancer in 2020) and so I think this team will win Series 20 (though obviously there are always injuries/accidents/terrible showdances to watch out for). I imagine Jowita has been planning the showdance since week 4 though (no flies on her, pic below).

If Hamza and Jowita don’t win tonight it might well be Helen and Gorka who take the prize. Gorka is very popular and has yet to win a series and Helen has a big story on her side (see “story” section above). Also their Couple’s Choice to Cabaret’s Mein Herr in the quarter-final was one of those dances (straight into the Strictly history books, a big hit with the viewers, especially with the story attached). Helen and Gorka are doing the Mein Herr dance again in the final (which seems very soon to be repeating a dance) but I suppose it’s because both they and the show know that it is their best weapon (plus Cabaret songs are always big ol’ crowd-pleasers, I love them too, they’re hard to beat). I’d still rather Hamza won the series (the “joy of dance” candidate most often does it for me) – he skips a light fantastic and it’s great to see it.

Both Molly and Fleur are brilliant dancers who have been in umpteen dance-offs so they are less obvious winners for this year. However, Molly had a burst of good vibes in the semi-final after her Paso Doble and Carlos is delightful (and tearful) enough to win some votes so it is also possible that Molly and Carlos might grab victory in the last seconds - especially if they do a showdance to remember. We haven’t really had a story like that before on Strictly (have we?) and it might be a good one.

Fleur’s highest point in the competition was her Couple’s Choice in Blackpool and she is still (before the final) the only contestant to have received the perfect score this year. She is amazing but she and Vito just haven’t had enough of the audience reaching for their mobiles this time. At times some of the judges’ comments about Fleur seemed confused (was she fantastically powerful or should she control that power, and so on) and at least once you felt Motsi’s impatience with the whole telling-black-women-to-control-their-power business. Some half-arsed critics online find Motsi too soft (i.e., too positive) but I think she is just unapologetically human and we’re not used to that on TV (because so much on TV is pantomime). As a relative newcomer to the show and to the UK I also think she sees some of our problems more clearly than we do.

Fleur may not win but she will be a spectacular finalist and there have been many great dancers over the years who have made the final but haven’t won (John Whaite, Karim Zeroual, Faye Tozer, Ashley Roberts, Denise van Outen, Alexandra Burke, Debbie McGee, Danny Mac, Kellie Bright, Georgia May Foote, Simon Webbe, Natalie Gumede, Sophie Ellis-Bextor…). It’s a pretty solid club to be part of.

 

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

Not that I’m aware of. Could it be possible they have tired of that worn-out old angle? Let’s hope so. They often seem to moan about head judge Shirley these days instead of the dancers (articles like “Does Shirley hate women?”, pic of her below). Really another question might be “Does a large part of the British press hate women?” because the male judges can change their minds, talk nonsense and contradict themselves continually but it’s only a story when it’s Shirley (and I think Arlene got that treatment too). I’m not a huge fan of Shirley’s commentary (very good on dance, less good on other areas) but she’s no worse than Craig or Anton (and let’s not talk about Bruno… or Len’s pesky old walnuts).

Sometimes (sometimes!) the press has good Strictly content and evidence might be this lovely interview with Hamza from back in mid November. 

 

Did it matter?

Sorry, what was the question again?

 

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

Yes and no – Tony Adams (pic below). He was really going for it, seems a great bloke and his routines were entertaining (never underestimate the Katya factor). But for me there were many who went out before him who I would rather have seen more of. And that wasn’t the best sentence I’ve written this month, I apologise. Like the finalists, I’m a bit tired.

Shock exit?

Lots of them. I loved Richie’s quickstep in week 2 so I was sorry The Lion King saw the end of him in movies week (pic of Richie below). I thought mega-famous Matt Goss would last longer too. 

I was also sad Jayde (pic above) didn’t get more chances to dance (the dreadful BBC’s 100 Years week was her downfall – once Jayde stopped singing you couldn’t really hear the rest of the words very well and the whole point about that Victoria Wood song, The Ballad of Freda and Barry, is the words and how they work). Also I would happily have watched a few more weeks of Tyler (pic below, I think he had some “joy of dance” going on too).

The story of the series

Hamza has been a story in himself – most of us didn’t know him before this series but he is quickly approaching national treasure territory. I hope he enjoys it.

This year Ellie Simmonds (pic below) was the first person with dwarfism to take part in the show. She was a fabulous contestant and we loved the way she and Nikita tackled their height difference and made a positive out of it in the choreography and performances. It was interesting (and a huge relief) that the show’s regular term for a short person (“pocket rocket” – so often used for pro Janette, gymnast Claudia Fragapane and several others) was not given an airing this year for Ellie. Maybe that term can be retired from the Strictly dictionary now please as it’s really very annoying. 

The Strictly audience’s love for pro Johannes just grew and grew and he had a good series with Ellie T. In the pro dances he continued to shine and his moment as a Grease pink lady in musicals week was a highlight for us (Johannes, pic below, you’re the one we all want!). We have tickets for his live show in Aberdeen next year and are very excited.

Fleur and Molly pretty much taking turns to be in the dance off was a bit of a story this series. It has been tough going for both of them no doubt (people always use the phrase “popularity contest” for all these shows and who wants to lose one of those?) but they have made friends with each other, risen above all the nonsense and danced like champions. They are both fab-u-lous women and winners in life.

 

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

So it was Covid-19 year 3 (the year people tried to pretend it was all over). In January 

I did another Fun A Day Dundee project (my third). This time I wrote about a song and its songwriter every day for the month (many of them songs I had come across at the local folk club in Montrose when we lived there, full list and links here). As part of the project I went (live!) on BBC 6 Music on Lauren Laverne’s breakfast show Social Recall section to talk about some of the songs. It was a bit nerve wracking but I managed it OK and I was thrilled that they played a few of the songs (including one by Dundee favourite Michael Marra – I don’t think I’ve heard him played on that radio station before). This is the cover of a great book about that musician and songwriter written by James Robertson.

It was a really weird day because after all that radio excitement we got a call at teatime to say Mark’s Mum, Isobel, had died in Leeds. She had been ill for a few years but still the end, when it comes, is always some kind of shock. I had written a poem a little while earlier about her and her husband Allan – they were such a team, well matched and happy together for so long (their wedding pic from 1962 below). Mark’s sister read the poem at Isobel’s funeral service which was nice (the poultry being useful after all).

We had a few funerals in 2022, none of them Covid-related (one of my sisters, a former boss/colleague of Mark’s). Also in the summer I went to an event to celebrate the life of a local musician who had died the year before. It was called Pauline Fest and the musician was Pauline Meikleham (sometimes known as Pauline Hynd). Again I wrote a poem (predictable I know) and this time I read it at the event (you can read the poem and about Pauline here). It was an amazing day with brilliant music and people, all in the lovely setting of Hospitalfield in Arbroath (some of the decor below).

In May Heather and I had some Strictly action – we went to Oti’s live show I Am Here in Perth. It was weird to be back in a venue with lots of people but the show was phenomenal.

And this year Covid did catch two of us. Heather got it in the summer and we had to miss a big family wedding and gathering in Leeds (she was distraught!). I got it in October and barely slept for a month (insomnia and headaches my biggest symptom). Luckily I recovered in time for our now annual family fancy dress photo shoot. This year we went for Devil Wears Prada (although one of my old friends thought it was Acorn Antiques…). 

And now it’s Strictly season again and Heather, now 22, has graduated, got a job and just recently moved to her own place. I wonder now, as I do every December, if we will still watch Strictly together next year and if I can stand another year of it. I complain, as I always do, about what my Mum got me into all those years ago and think of everything else I could have done with all those hours I’ve spent watching Viennese Waltzes. But I suppose we probably will watch it* because Strictly may be tiresome and noisy and quite often ridiculous, but it’s also autumn and cheerful and, after all these years, something like family. Family can be anything – it can be hundreds of people or it can be you and a cat and the cast of Corrie – it’s just whatever works for you. And to finish with a bit of my family, the pic below is a painting by our friend Scott Henriksen of my Strictly-loving Mum and daughter, from a photo of them taken in 2006. Big hugs everybody.

Thanks to everyone who’s been following the posts, spread out as ever on mouldy old Facebook, dying Twitter, past-its-best Instagram and is-it-going-to-be-a-thing Mastodon. The only comments that will last are the ones on the blog itself so if you fancy leaving one on this last post that would be great (you don’t need an account, just comment anonymously and then write a name, any name, at the end of the comment if you like). Maybe say who you think will win this year or share a particular memory of watching the show over the years, any favourite dances or contestants, or your least favourite lifts (ours is the one I call the “gusset lift” where the female dancer is lifted up high, legs wide open, displaying her gusset to the world – why on earth would anyone ever want to do that?). Anyway, gussets aside, I am off to go and get ready for Xmas (I have been neglecting other tasks while doing this mini PhD in Strictly). I hope you have enjoyed this (don’t say it!) journey with me and keeeep doing whatever makes you happy (whilst at the same time helping others – it’s cold out there, in every sense, and only getting colder).

*Unless they ever get a royal on board or Boris Johnson or Matt Hancock or...

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, Series 14, Series 15, Series 16, Series 17, Series 18 and Series 19.