'Strictly Family'- Series 21

Strictly Come Dancing (Series 21) - 2023

Dates 16 September (launch show) to 16 December 2023 - 15 couples. 

That time period in context 

That autumn unfortunately saw the loss of so many Palestinian lives with the awful Israeli attacks on occupied Palestine (Gaza) while Hollywood writers and actors were on strike for around half the year (from that spring until November). 

Speaking of Hollywood, Barbie and Oppenheimer were the biggest films of the summer, with Wonka being one of the biggest movies that came out that festive season. We also had some fairly big storms in late October and sadly lost some very talented legends in the last couple of months of 2023 (Andre Braugher, Benjamin Zephaniah and Matthew Perry) and the magnificent Ghosts aired their fifth and final season. Ted Lasso and Succession (both featuring Harriet Walter) came to an end in late May and the Ted Lasso star, the lovely Hannah Waddingham, released her own Christmas special at the end of the year. Ken Bruce (not the one we knew in Montrose) took ‘Pop Master’ to a new radio station and was replaced on BBC by ‘Ten to the top’ with Vernon Kay (and sometimes Gary Davies). 

Judges 

Shirley Ballas (head judge), Motsi Mabuse (the marvellous Motsi Mabuse, in fact), Craig Revel Horwood and Anton Du Beke. 

Presenters 

Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly 

Fleur East and Janette Manrara (It Takes Two) 

Addition to format 

Sadly, the lovely Amy Dowden couldn’t take part this year because of her cancer diagnosis (sending her lots of love) and Lauren Oakley had a partner for the first time. 

Dancers 

Les Dennis and Nancy Xu 

Nikita Kanda and Gorka Marquez 

Jody Cundy and Jowita Przystal 

Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice 

Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer 

Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima 

Adam Thomas and Luba Mushtuk 

Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lauren Oakley 

Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington 

 Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu 

Nigel Harmon and Katya Jones 

Annabel Croft and Johannes Radebe 

Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell 

Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin 

Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola 

Celebrities we’d heard of before the series 

Amanda Abbington (arguably best known for ‘Sherlock’ but she also appeared in an episode of the brilliant ‘Inside No.9’), Les Dennis (I was certainly aware of him), Angela Rippon (Morecambe and Wise sketch, need I say more?), Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Layton Williams ( I’d seen some of ‘Beautiful People’ years ago) and Bobby Brazier (I’d heard of his late mother, Jade Goody, anyway).

Who we voted for 

Layton Williams (as he was/is such a star and the bigotry that was directed his way was so disheartening but not really surprising, for reasons that have been touched on in the other ‘SCD’ blogs) and Angela Scanlon as she was really great and often undermarked. 

Celebrities we liked more after the series 

Two words - Annabel Croft.As she was posh and sporty (nothing to do with the Spice Girls) she wasn't someone I'd obviously gravitate towards but she actually turned out to be a very sweet, humble and genuine person and a great dancer who’d lost her husband earlier that year and did a very moving contemporary dance in his memory. I would say that it didn't almost make me cry but it's pointless to even try to deny it and there's nothing wrong with tearing up either. 😉🥹 Krishnan should definitely be included in this list too (proper finding/rediscovering the joy of dance and life thing going on with him and it was very heartwarming). Layton was also SO amazing to watch and Angela Scanlon was really funny, warm and talented.

Was it obvious who was going to win? 

I’d say so, yes, if not initially, certainly from around the halfway mark or so onwards, Ellie and Vito seemed like pretty likely winners. All the finalists were brilliant so it wasn’t obvious who was going to take it on the night but Ellie had a very big following and we, as a family, predicted that she would probably win it this time. In fact, at 22, she’s currently the youngest ever winner.

Were there articles moaning about ‘previous dance experience’? 

Oh, indeed there were, with a certain phenomenal finalist bearing the brunt of this negativity… While female contestants often get a much worse time of it with these kind of complaints, this time, there was a certain amount of racism and homophobia which led to a lot of negativity about Layton and his wonderful dances, as he wasn’t the only contestant with previous ‘dance experience’ but he definitely seemed to get the worst of it this time. Also, while I don’t watch it because it’s much worse than ‘SCD’ for this, a similar kind of racism was unfortunately prevalent with regards to bloody far right Nigel Farage appearing on ‘I’m a celeb’ that autumn and the very concerning amount of support for him. 

Did it matter? 

Yes, I’d say it undoubtedly impacted things a bit this year for Layton and might well have had an effect on the final result. Thankfully, all the finalists did have support behind them and I wish the brilliant runners up, Layton and Bobby, nothing but the best for the future. 

Shock exit 

There weren’t really many shock exits this year, maybe Eddie and Karen as they went from getting one of the earliest 10s in the competition to going out just two weeks later (in week 5) so I do wish that they’d stayed in a lot longer, especially because of how much we love Karen. 

Was there anyone who stayed in arguably too long? 

Not really, I wouldn’t say, maybe Angela Rippon is arguably the closest but only because there were so many brilliant dancers and they kept getting Angela R to do the same thing with lifting her leg into the air (not to downplay her dancing ability/prowess at all as she was 79 so it was genuinely incredible but it did still feel a tad repetitive at times). 

The story of the series 

Amanda dropping out of the show because of her transphobic tweets resurfacing (with online terfs defending her) and rumours about a dispute with Giovanni, Ellie becoming the favourite to win (feat her growing confidence and possible blossoming romance with Vito, who became known for his stream of consciousness and lengthy, detailed, super fast descriptions), Bobby becoming a firm favourite and winning over many people with his sweetness and moving contemporary dance for his Mum, Layton being on a whole other level with his incredible dances and unfortunately receiving lots of negativity but still maintaining a lovely bond with Nikita, Annabel’s poignant and tear jerking tribute to her husband and Nigel injuring himself just before the quarter final and having to leave the show. 

What was going on with us? 

Mum started a new job working at a crisis centre (12 hour night shifts and everything - like in the Lionel Richie song, or rather, songs!), Dad was looking forward to retirement but also thought about looking elsewhere for work and I joined a choir and finished working at Disability services and had… a lot of interviews before getting a short term position working at DJCAD in October. We went to the Orkney folk festival in May and sadly lost Zoe in September and we were also away that month as the TSSS had their first conference (down in England) in four years. The couple in our family who had the big wedding that we missed last summer (Sarah and Shaun) welcomed a baby boy in October and some of our favourite people had a very tough year, health-wise. I was down in London for the bank holiday weekend in August to stay with relatives that I hadn’t seen in years and to see ‘The Pillowman’ with the awesome Lily Allen and the extremely talented and fantastic Steve Pemberton (‘Inside No. 9’) and it was so incredible (really dark and just amazing).

The Greatest Dancers

 

As the title suggests, it’s another ‘Strictly’ post incoming! Don’t worry if it’s not your thing though, some non-Strictly posts should be coming soon…

This post is mainly going to focus on some of the recent tours that we’ve seen with professional dancers from ’SCD’ (although confusingly not ‘The Strictly Professionals tour’, that’s something else). No, this time, I’m going to be talking about Giovanni Pernice’s tour (‘Made in Italy’) and Johannes Radebe and his ‘Freedom Unleashed’ tour.

 Giovanni and his cast (including the brilliant Lauren Oakley, who’s a new pro on the show and who I was lucky enough to actually get a photo with as she came into the audience before the show started) actually came to Dundee. I can’t speak for anyone else but this was brilliant for us as it was great to be able to get there and then back at the end in five minutes rather than having to run for the last train or drive back for at least an hour last thing at night. 

As for the show, it was great and so full-on! They didn’t stop for a minute and they put everything into it, from songs about pizzerias, fashion and motorcycles to Gio recounting his experiences of being on ‘SCD’. (Look, I like Gio, he's a handsome, funny and charismatic guy but he’s also not exactly the most humble or shy and retiring...) 

It’s always interesting to hear from the pro dancers themselves about their experiences on ‘Strictly’ as opposed to hearing about them via exploitative, lying tabloids etc. Equally, it’s been cool to hear the perspectives of dancers who are still on the show vs those who have already left as while many of them are mostly very positive about the show, some do show a different side and are more honest about the hard parts and potential downsides etc. 

The audience certainly had a very positive reaction to Gio (it was definitely an audience with maybe two or three men and therefore mostly made up of women, many of whom seemed to find him pretty attractive too). In fact, they couldn’t get enough of him and there were standing ovations almost constantly and some of the biggest cheers that I’d heard at a ‘SCD’ related show (well, maybe tied with the show I'm going to talk about next anyway...)

Not that long after Gio’s show, we went to Aberdeen to see the incredible Johannes Radebe in his tour, ‘Freedom Unleashed’. Johannes (or JoJo) is always a total star and it was nice to have a little getaway in Aberdeen as we’ve hardly been there since moving to Dundee).

Much like with Gio’s show (and with basically all the ‘SCD’ tours/shows, must be a common theme there as while each ‘SCD’ show is different and offers some insight into that particular dancer and their style and personality, the energy and often very fast-paced approach is present in them all), JoJo put everything into this tour and it was non-stop in a great way. There was some insight/background into his childhood and upbringing in South Africa, as well as some incredible singing with the costumes and music being inspired by the South African culture. JoJo is also incredibly flamboyant and LOVES a show and chance to dress up fancy (heels, huge brightly coloured feather boas, you name it), so that was so fab from a visual point too. They rattled through a rapid fire musicals megamix too, which is always fun as a fan of musicals, and crucially (which was a lovely important touch in both the Johannes and the Gio tour), they both shared a dance  with another man in their shows, which was so wonderful to see. They’ve been starting to introduce this more on the main ‘SCD’ show as it’s so important to have it and just to normalise it (in tours and the main show) as it shouldn’t be seen as a big deal but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t super important and way overdue). The cheers for Johannes were about as big as the cheers for Gio, which is always a great feeling and I’m sure means a lot to them as you got the impression that even Gio and JoJo themselves were a bit surprised with just the level of cheers, love and excitement from the audience (all ages and generations).

Late to the party (a piece on some shows that I finally go around to seeing recently)

   I was just thinking about how I hadn’t written a piece for this blog for a bit so here we go. With this post, I’ll mainly be talking about some musicals that I recently saw after some near misses of almost going to watch it or had heard about a lot about it before going to watch it. The first one that I’m going to talk about is ‘The Lion King’, and, as it’s often more associated with being primarily aimed at kids, it doesn’t really help my case about people presuming that I’m a child with my height and appearance and is also why I have conflicting feelings about stuff that is typically aimed at kids but that’s for another time…

 I was originally due to see ‘The Lion King’ back in 2020 but being 2020, that didn’t exactly go ahead. I then had to cancel my planned trip to see it last summer so it became something of a running joke about how I’d never end up seeing it. However, as this post suggests, I was fortunate enough to see it at last earlier this year and even tied it in with a trip to visit two of my cousins in Manchester and we had a nice catch up and a little weekend break together so that was good too. As for the show itself, it was really well done with some great visuals and numbers. I’ve never disliked ‘The Lion King’ but it was never my  favourite, number 1 show either despite the wait to finally see it but that was actually probably a good thing as it meant that I could still enjoy it but wouldn’t have been too disappointed if I didn’t love it as it was never my favourite. This goes for the 1994 Disney film too (which was very loosely inspired by ‘Hamlet’ and only came out three years before the first performances of the stage musical).

 Now, the next show is one that I saw even more recently but similarly to ‘The Lion King’, it was already a very famous story and had already been established as a stage musical as it’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’. This story, as many will already know, was based on the 1964 Roald Dahl novel and was adapted twice for the big screen (in 1971 and 2005), before being adapted again into a stage musical, which premiered in 2013. Out of all the Roald Dahl stories, which aren’t my favourite now but I did like them as a kid, ‘Matilda’ was probably my favourite but I did end up liking ‘Charlie’ quite a lot (mainly but not only because of my fondness for chocolate). I’ve actually only seen the famous 1971 film a couple of times as while my Dad’s always enjoyed it, it didn’t have the same kind of meaning, significance or nostalgia for me.  Although, I do like the ‘Pure Imagination’ song, which was one of the two songs from the Gene Wilder version that appear in the stage musical (the other being ‘Candyman’). The 2005 version is one that I know a lot better as it was a childhood/teenage fave of mine and somewhat of a guilty pleasure during my Tim Burton phase (and a long-time running joke with my lovely best friend). Although, the 2005 film was actually closer to the original book than the 1971 film or the stage musical and it has some original songs that don’t appear in any other version and use real lyrics from Dahl himself.

 As for the stage musical, which I’d heard about for a long time before we went to see it, it was pretty good. The cast were very talented, the visuals, design and world-building worked well and there was generally a lot to like especially because of the ways that it had been made more inclusive with the addition of Mrs Bucket using sign language while delivering her lines and two trans actors to play Mike and Augustus. It's also been updated with Charlie as Charlie isn’t always played by a boy or a white actor in this production. However, while there was a lot of good, I wouldn’t say that it was amazing or especially memorable with regard to the new songs but I’m still glad that we saw it (and that’s about as negative as I’ll get for now). Hope you have a good week.  :)

Dancing fools (although these pros are anything but fools)

 Just a quick lil post this time as I haven't posted on this musicals blog for a while and wanted to get this out in time for the 'Strictly' movie special this weekend.

 Now that we're officially into 'Strictly' season, this is mainly a post about our trip to Perth to see the incredible double Strictly champ Oti Mabuse in her solo show in May. Oti's also appeared on 'The Greatest Dancer', 'The Masked Dancer' and 'Dancing on Ice' as a judge and, as this all suggests, she's a pretty phenomenal professional dancer herself as well as being a writer as she's published two books about learning to dance. Her 2022 solo tour (titled 'I am here'- which is the translation of Oti's name in the South African language Setswana) was so amazing and unsurprisingly included some wonderful dancers, some unreal costume changes, choreography and numbers. Oti's husband and fellow dancer, Marius, danced with her on the tour too and there were several personal, familial anecdotes throughout the show. In fact, there were also some numbers that gave a sense of the culture and history of South Africa, (which is where Oti's from) before she moved to Germany for a bit to pursue her dancing dreams with her sister, Motsi, and eventually came to the UK. 

Oti's not actually a professional dancer on 'Strictly' anymore sadly and she'll be missed but she's as iconic as ever and is def 'booked and busy' as they say.

As I said at the start, it's the movie week special on 'Strictly' this weekend. Ok, yes, it must be said though, that after more than a decade and a half of watching it, I (like many others, I'm sure) have heard some of the cliches one too many times and know how it goes every year. However, this doesn't really spoil my enjoyment of the show and the theme weeks definitely hold a special place in my heart. It's so much fun to find out the theme for each dance and to see them try to embody certain famous parts of the iconic characters, stories and music. Halloween and movie week are my fave themes because movies and Halloween are some of my absolute favourite things but it's also so cool when they get to dance at the pretty special and esteemed Blackpool tower as it's such a great venue and the history of ballroom dancing in the Blackpool tower makes it really feel like an ideal spot to host the show, even if for only one week a year. However, seeing as this is a musicals blog, I'd be remiss not to mention the musicals week of 'Strictly', which is well...pretty self-explanatory, really, it's like movie week but with songs from musicals and it's awesome and 'such fun'. (A 'Miranda' reference for a wee throwback there.)

Thanks for reading this shorter but still slightly rambly blog post. There were some musicals that I was meant to see this year but didn't in the end and there are some coming up next year, as well as some more shows with the 'Strictly' pros so might do a post about that at some point... 

Hope you all have a great weekend and a fun spooky season now that we're into October. <3

Dundee Youth Music Theatre Society- ‘Kipps’ Review

Just last week, I was fortunate enough to go to see a local production of ‘Kipps’ (the new Cameron Mackintosh ‘Half a Sixpence’ musical) at the Dundee Rep. The show ran from the 8th to 11th June and was performed by the Dundee Youth Music Theatre society (DYMT). Interestingly, the choreographer and one of the directors of the society, Kenny Christie, was one of our choreographers and directors when I was in Song Shop back in Montrose. Kenny’s also a talented performer himself as he appeared in the DYMT production of ‘Kipps’, ‘Annie’ with Song Shop and was mentioned back in my ‘Priscilla’ post about our trip to see ‘Priscilla’ in Dundee in 2017 as he appeared in that show as well. The link to the 'Priscilla' post is available here.

‘Kipps’ is the new ‘Half a Sixpence’ musical, with many songs from the original 1963 musical and the Tommy Steele film from 1967, which were based on the H.G. Wells novel called ‘Kipps’ from 1905. Many of the classic songs from the original musical were included in the ‘Kipps’ production in Dundee, such as ‘Flash, bang, wallop’, ‘If the rain’s got to fall’ and the appropriately titled ‘Half a sixpence’ . In fact, the team behind adapting ‘Half a Sixpence’ into the new ‘Kipps’ musical are actually the same team that adapted ‘Mary Poppins’ with Cameron Mackintosh.

This particular production of ‘Kipps’, which included a mostly local cast of children and young people of ages ranging from around 8-25, was a lot of fun and had a lot of heart and comedy. It also had some great dance numbers and choreography as well as a nice message about not forgetting or losing who you are and that money can’t buy happiness as the right people for you like you for who you are, not your status and how you’re perceived or how much money you have. 

The costumes in the show were all really great and worked well with the early 20th century setting. Additionally, the story was well conveyed and expressed and the big chorus numbers and slower, more intimate songs and scenes all worked equally well. Hope you enjoyed it if you got a chance to see it and if not, the same society are putting on ‘Grease’ in Dundee in August if you’re around and looking for a great show. 

Six of a kind

 

So here we are, the blog post about the last show that I was fortunate enough to see live (as there’s been so little theatre going in COVID times.) We went to see it in Edinburgh with our lovely friend, Phyl, in February 2020 and had a really nice time as we stayed overnight and had dinner out and went to see the Tom Hanks ‘Beautiful day in the neighborhood’ film(directed by Marielle Heller), which is almost ‘Ted Lasso’ levels of constant positivity, optimism and hope with Fred Rogers, who Hanks portrayed (although in both the Fred Rogers film and ‘Ted Lasso’, there is a certain level of nuance within the characters to add complexity and depth to their outlooks and behaviour.)  It’s so strange that think that less than two months after that Edinburgh trip, it would have seemed like an impossible or out of reach thing to stay somewhere overnight, travel on a bus, eat out or go to the cinema or theatre. This blog’s all about the musical ‘Six’, which tells the story of the six wives of Henry VIII but from a modernised, feminist perspective from their point of view to show that they were real people in their own right and that they’re more than just one word or phrase in the ‘divorced, beheaded, died’ rhyme. 

It also contains contemporary, modern sounding slang and music, as all six of them are modelled on and inspired by 21st century pop singers and the whole show is presented in the form of a pop/rock concert and the characters are presented as almost like a band, despite initially competing against each other about who had the saddest story or the most painful experience. ‘Six’ was written by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow, who met at university, and premiered at the 2017 Edinburgh fringe festival. Several different styles of music are used throughout as each of the songs is a different genre and tells a different story with a different tone and even though some of the songs may sound catchy, upbeat and lively, there is often a much sadder, more serious or heartbreaking message contained in the lyrics. For instance, in Katherine Howard’s song, ‘All you wanna do’, there are several references to fairy stories and being ‘the fairest’ to depict not only how incredibly young she was when she was taken advantage of by older men but also how she was objectified and not seen as bringing anything to the table other than looks and how she was unfairly viewed as promiscuous, despite being taken advantage of. Some of the lyrics in the chorus are also repeated several times to emphasise the pattern, cycles and heartbreak that she went through, which makes the song much sadder than it initially sounds the first time you hear it. Some of the other songs in the musical include, ‘Six’, ‘Don’t lose your head’, ‘No way’, ‘Get down’, ‘Ex-wives’ and ‘I don’t need your love’(which has harmonies to die for.) There isn’t an interval in the show but they almost roughly split into two sections to put the first three queens and songs together, followed by the fourth, fifth and sixth queens and their songs, to try and reflect on, explore and subvert or challenge what you think of when you hear their names or what you’ve been taught in history class. Jane Seymour, who died giving birth to a son and is often described as the ‘one Henry truly loved’ sings a song called ‘Heart of stone’ which is the slowest song in the show but is also very moving and powerful. It’s also a clever, surprising and nuanced take on the expression ‘heart of stone’ as a lot of people would associate that phrase with being emotionless or unfeeling, whereas Jane’s song considers the expression in a more positive way by using the expression to describe a powerful, unconditional love and devotion and a loyal heart that will never stop loving to portray that as strong and brave, as those qualities haven’t always been associated with being strong or powerful. Also, there is something very unfair, sexist and troubling that at the time, the fact that Jane had a baby boy, whereas most of the other queens didn’t have sons, might have made Henry think of her in an extra special way or might have meant that she’d have been treated differently. 

There is also something really cool and genuinely feminist that they start off arguing and competing to see who had the hardest time and who suffered the most but they end up uniting and becoming a strong squad and team. This happens when they bond over their own, individual strengths and talents and the unfair things that happened to them all as they never needed a man and it never needed to be about a man at all, as they have their own stories and are worth so much more than being told as simply part of his story. #herstory

Thanks so much for reading these blogs about the shows I’ve seen and the programmes I’ve collected (with some diversions and distractions along the way.) Hope you’ve enjoyed them, thanks so much to everyone who’s stuck with the blog. <3 

Little shop of rocky horrors

 

As anyone who knows me probably knows, I LOVE autumn and Halloween and everything about it. In fact, from the tricks or treats to the sweets to the parties to the costumes to the decorations to the movies (I haven't always been a horror fan but gothic, dark or eerie stories tend to appeal to me), it’s one of my absolute favourite times of year. As it is finally spooky season again (😊 😊), I decided to write a post about some musicals that have a kind of Halloween vibe or a fitting aesthetic for this time of year (much like the ‘Beetlejuice’ musical, for example.)

The first musical is ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, which was written by Richard O’Brien in 1973, just two years before the movie version was released, and has since become a cult classic and favourite among many. For instance, in a 2017 ‘Rolling Stone’ poll, it was voted the best movie musical. The musical parodies and plays with the horror and gothic genre as well as exploring and referencing the sci-fi genre and the musical in itself as a genre. Some of the best known songs include ‘The Time Warp’, ‘Sweet Transvestite’, ‘Dammit Janet’, ‘Hot Patootie-Bless my soul’ and ‘Science fiction/double feature’ (which is sung by a mysterious pair of red lips.) The movie version features big names such as Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry in leading roles. It’s known all over the word and has had a massive impact on culture and other musicals and forms of media as people often get dressed up as the characters and join in to recite all the lines and dialogue whenever they go to watch it. It even inspired a whole episode of ‘Glee’ back in their second season in 2010, which was… interesting to say the least and definitely had some questionable moments, anyway shall we move on?

 The next musical we’re taking a closer look at is ‘Little shop of horrors’, which contains songs such as ‘Downtown’, ‘Dentist!’, the eponymous ‘Little shop of horrors’ and the super catchy, pretty awesome ‘Suddenly, Seymour’. ‘Little Shop’ started off as ‘The little shop of horrors’, a 1960 Richard Corman film, before being adapted into an off-Broadway musical comedy and then a black comedy movie musical in 1986. The 1986 film features a lot of talent and some big names, such as Rick Moranis, Levi Stubbs, Steve Martin and Ellen Greene (which seems appropriate as there is a song called ‘Somewhere that’s green’.) In fact, Ellen Greene also played Audrey in the stage version of ‘Little shop’ four years before appearing in the 1986 film version.  Some other famous names such as John Candy, Bill Murray, Jim Belushi, Miriam Margolyes and Christopher Guest also appear in the movie and it was directed by Frank Oz. Now, Oz is possibly best known for voicing Miss Piggy and Fozzie (and several other characters) in ‘The Muppets’. At first glance, it seems like Seymour, one of the main characters, might be a typical ‘nice guy’ as he’s mild-mannered, shy and lacking in confidence and has a crush on Audrey, who he doesn’t think likes him back. However, he turns out to actually be sweet and caring (if you can look past the murdering aspect with him and Audrey II, the extra-terrestrial venus flytrap that feeds on human blood.) Also, Audrey’s boyfriend, Orin, is so awful to her that you just want her to be happy and safe no matter what and she and Seymour make quite a nice couple as they’re both shy, awkward and genuinely sweet and kind and looking for a real connection.

Hope you enjoyed this post and that you have a wonderful spooky season and a great Halloween. :)