It's a new season of Strictly, and it's going to be the toughest series ever. Yes, you heard it right. Toughest series ever. At least, that's what we're told by the voice-over at the start of the Friday show. He is accompanied by ominous music and images of candidates looking sweaty, scared and tired. So what's happening? Are we going to watch Strictly Come Survivaling or Strictly in the Bush? What could it be that they have thought out to keep viewers from switching of their tellies?
Oh wait, there is good old Bruce, and the first (well, second) thing he tells us is that this will be the toughest series ever. Thankfully he also tells us why: the contestants will be doing not one but two dances this first week! There's Ballroom on Friday and Latin on Saturday. Which is tough. Sort of.
Of course something else is new too. Arlene Philips has been replaced by Alesha Dixon, and I suspect there are more people not tuning in because Arlene is gone than tuning in to see how Alesha does.
For those who want to know: she does just fine. She's as friendly and lovely as you would expect and she does a good job ad judging, sticking to commenting about the things she knows something about: how the contestants feel and how much potential they have in improving.
There is no real favourite emerging just yet. The contestants are on the whole not very interesting – not as a celebrity nor while dancing. Tess reminds us that it's the toughest series ever (oh really?) but we don't really see that in the dances. Who are they trying to fool anyway, for all we know their preparation time has been doubled this year as well. Everyone is doing just fine, some better than others but they are all at least average and forgettable.
So is there any potential in this series of Strictly? There are a couple of interesting dancers; Jade Johnson, Ricky Groves and Ali Bastian gave us some interesting moves. However Rav Wilding and Martina Hingis weren't as impressive and both of them went into the dance-off. The judges' decision was tied, leaving head judge Len Goodman to make the final decision. Eventually
it was Martina Hingis and her dancepartner Matthew Cutler who had to say goodbye at the end of Saturday's show.
Next week we'll see the other 8 contestants dancing their hearts out (we hope) on Friday and
Saturday. They'll be doing two dances in a week as well because it's, you know, the toughest series ever. It might turn out to become so – for viewers to watch, that is...