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 (she 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 seem to often get a raw deal 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).
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