It Takes Two… great name for SCD’s sister show, and a great way to summarise this week’s Strictly Come Dancing. All of the celebrities were put to the test this week, with the pressure of performing two dances each! Would they pull it off? With just a couple of low marks (and a bit of a low Mark – geddit?!) I think it’s fair to say that most of the celebs impressed most of the judges, most of the time.

Let’s take things couple by couple…

Carol opened proceedings with her Viennese waltz. Despite her trademark fixed smile, and the inherent boringness of the dance, she did really well. Arlene was a bit disparaging, comparing her to a science teacher (but then giving her a score of but Bruno and Len gave 9s, saying she "surpassed herself" and was "a great red swan" – which he meant as a compliment – respectively. With an overall score of 34, her best mark ever, Carol was happy, to say the least. Her second dance also got 34 – what a night! – and in my opinion was even better. She seemed to let herself go a bit more, and performed a dance that made Arlene label her "a sexy samba sizzler!" Definitely Carol’s best dance of the series. But would it be enough to stay in?

Carry on over the cut to find out!

After we’ve been over the other couples’ routines, that is…

Matt and Lilia did a quickstep first, to Walking on Sunshine, which was a great choice of music and very well danced, with fab choreography as always from Lilia (I know I always say that, but it’s true!) Matt pulled off some great precise kicks and very light running steps (even if Arlene thought he wasn’t quite light enough!) but it was maybe a bit slow in the middle… anyway, another 34 – most popular score of the evening! Their second dance, a rumba, was much less popular and only earned 28. I think Lilia purposely gave Matt very little to do in hopes of a high mark in the ballroom instead, but it was a good routine from the Lilia-watching perspective. She’s fab. No wonder Marian Keyes loves her! Their poor score made sure they were bottom of the leader board and looking a little anguished…

Emma and Darren kicked off their night with a very nice waltz – a very, very nice waltz! – in which Emma wore my favourite dress of the series, a funky hot pink swirly number. But it was the dance rather than the dress that left the judges "mesmerised", as Craig put it. It earned them an amazing 37 points, with 10s from Bruno and Len. Emma was worried that such a great score would make it hard for her to fake anger for their paso doble later on, but didn’t seem to have a problem when it came down to it. Their paso was one of the dances of the series – charismatic, passionate, brilliantly and inventively choreographed, it kept me hooked, and it kept the judges doling out those high scores, earning them another 37! Mucho impressive.

Louisa, like Emma, is prone to getting stressed and doubting herself, God knows why! Her Viennese waltz was fantastic, definitely the VW of the series. GREAT! choreography proved that we’d been underestimating Vincent’s talent in that area (perhaps because he hypes himself so much?) and I’m really starting to like him as a dancer, almost as much as I enjoy watching lovely Louisa. Her footwork was spot on and it was a confident performance that you could tell they enjoyed dancing. Shame the judges scored it a little lower than they otherwise might (with a 33), pointing out it didn’t have that many traditional Viennese Waltz components… who cares?! Her next dance was a cha-cha and Louisa claimed in the VT to not be very confident about it. But it was brilliant – dazzling, sharp-footed, quick, fun, fabulous… and it gained her 36 points.

Finally, Mark. (He didn’t dance last, but I was keeping you in suspense, see!) His foxtrot was controversial, at least in my mind. I LOVED the inventiveness of Karen’s complicated choreography and thought he pulled it off really well, (even if he looked a little tense)… but the judges totally disagreed! Len said the footwork "was up the swanny river… I’m bitterly disappointed". Even Arlene couldn’t think of anything good to say, and they slunk off with just a 28… But their  samba re-dressed the balance, earning them 36 points. It was great to see Mark smiling and bouncing (!)around the floor, full of energy. "Amazing!" said Craig. I’d have liked a little more hip action, but I might just be a perv.

On the basis of the dances, Mark or Matt deserved to go – but past popularity meant that was unlikely and poor Carol found herself in the bottom two yet again with surprisingly! Emma and Darren – in my opinion the best dancers of the evening. They were top of the leader board with the judges, meaning the public really doesn’t like them (why? Emma’s moaning that she can’t do it followed by a wonderful performance each week?) or thinks they’re more popular than they are… Anyway, it was finally Carol’s time to go, but I fear Emma might leave next week unless all those old Spice Girl fans get calling…

It’s the quarter final next week, and I’m rooting for Louisa all the way – with some split loyalty towards all the others! Oh, it’s hard to choose a winner… which is good, ‘cos it shows how high the standard is this year. Saturday’s show? Best of any series so far, in my opinion.

What did you think?

[Diane Shipley]

Strictly Come Dancing Week 1; Strictly Come Dancing Week 2 ; Strictly Come Dancing Week 3; Strictly Come Dancing Week 4; Strictly Come Dancing Week 5; Strictly Come Dancing: Week 6; Strictly Come Dancing: Week 7;Strictly Come Dancing: Week 8.

SCD website- news, show clips, polls, computer wallpaper, etc.