Topping The Bill

Nov 6, 2020 by Rob

The big story of week 2 of Strictly was a huge gamble on Bill Bailey gathering speed, matched at 6 on Betfair after the Outright market re-opened on Sunday night, and since backed as low as 3.8 following news of a 5-couple final this year.

While his QS earned rave reviews among the judges, landing him 24, and a vast improvement on his week 1 score of 15 for his CCC, it was the social media fall-out that saw the money pile on.

Bill and Oti, aka, Team Boaty McBoatface, were always anticipated to bring plenty of entertainment to this series. But what is already abundantly clear is, Bill has the musicality, performance skills and natural dance ability to bring much more to the dancefloor than merely in a comedy capacity.

Tomorrow night is ‘Movie Week’ and Bill is now tasked with a paso. Set to the iconic spaghetti western, Morricone instrumental, you can imagine the routine being high impact once more, and performed with great showmanship by Bill. The judges may well be meaner in their assessments compared to week 2 but one key component in Bill’s favour as we move further into this series is, Oti is an excellent teacher, clever choreographer and will seek to play to his performance strengths.

Maisie landed the week 2 top score, and tied HRVY on the combined judges’ leaderboard.

week 1 & 2 combined judges’ leaderboard:

HRVY & Janette – jive – 8, 8, 9 = 25 (12) – VW – 7, 8, 9 = 24 (8) = 49
Maisie & Gorka – samba – 8, 8, 8 = 24 (7) – tango – 8, 9, 8 = 25 (6) = 49
Nicola & Katya – QS – 7, 7, 7 = 21 (10) – Street – 8, 8, 8 = 24 (10) = 45
Ranvir & Gio – paso – 7, 7, 7 = 21 (9) – QS – 6, 7, 8 = 21 (9) = 42
Caroline & Johannes – AS – 7, 7, 7 = 21 (2) – paso – 7, 7, 7 = 21 (11) = 42
Bill & Oti – CCC – 3, 6, 6 = 15 (11) – QS – 8, 8, 8 = 24 (3) = 39
Max & Dianne – tango – 6, 5, 6 = 17 (3) – jive – 6, 7, 7 = 20 (1) = 37
JJ & Amy – waltz – 6, 6, 7 = 19 (6) – paso – 5, 6, 6 = 17 (4) = 36
Clara & Aljaz – CCC – 5, 6, 7 = 18 (4) – VW – 5, 6, 6 = 17 (2) = 35
Jason & Luba – AS – 4, 6, 6 = 16 (8) – salsa – 6, 6, 6 = 18 (12) = 34
Jamie & Karen – CCC – 4, 5, 5 = 14 (1) – AS – 5, 6, 6 = 17 (5) = 31 – bottom 2
Jacqui & Anton – foxtrot – 3, 5, 5 = 13 (5) – samba – 2, 5, 5 = 12 (7) = 25 – eliminated

With both of them having established such an exemplary level, there is no journey to excite viewers. CCC is a technical fast Latin for HRVY to cope with, with him and Janette presumably styled as gnomes, but they at least have a nice Elton John song to sell it. This routine also has the feel of a potential show opener.

A Frozen-themed AS for Maisie should be aesthetically pleasing and has the look of continued excellence for her but after their impressive starts to the series we might see the judges nit-pick both Maisie and HRVY tomorrow night and as a result we could see a surprise table topper.

Caroline produced a fine paso last Saturday but the judges were keen to focus on her playing it too safe. A couple’s choice theatre/jazz routine to a well-known ‘Gypsy’ track among Strictly’s core older viewers, again should be ideal territory for her to shine but doesn’t seem the obvious pay-off for the narrative they have teed up.

If you’re talking about Caroline truly letting herself go, that lends itself more to a first fast Latin routine for her, which we may finally see in week 4. A potential negative for Caroline is, after Saturday she will have burnt through 3 suitable dances.

The same favourable treatment in terms of dance choices is being enjoyed by Nicola as she is handed a third successive fast and frenetic dance in jive. However, her flicks and kicks haven’t looked convincing in training and it will be interesting to see whether or not the judges set a more critical tone in their assessments.

Clara, on the other hand, has a second successive ballroom and a third dance in tango that probably wouldn’t be high on her list of dances she would ideally wish to tackle. But her tango training has looked ok with her getting to grips well with its staccato movements. Clara pegged herself as ‘more of a fast Latin girl’ at series start and she should have some, in theory, stronger dance choices for her further into the series, when it will matter far more.

Jason, like Bill, has paso. A Star Wars-themed routine should have impact on the night but after two late r.o. slots, Jason could be on earlier tomorrow, and underwhelming comments and scores will put him in trouble of the dance-off.

In terms of the 2nd elimination it may well come down to who is scored lower between him and JJ. One thing not in JJ’s favour is, in the foxtrot stakes, Ranvir looks much better placed to be scored higher on the night as she has looked assured in training. However, we have already seen generous scoring and treatment for JJ in the first 2 weeks and his war hero and less able-bodied status could see more of the same tomorrow, despite his foxtrot training looking lacklustre.

Jamie found himself in the first dance-off of the series but Charleston looks an open goal for him to entertain viewers and earn decent scores and comments from the judges, with the song title ‘zero to hero’ offering the chance for one of the judges to pithily describe his change in fortunes.

Max has what looked on paper an odd Couple’s Choice for a ‘Street’ routine incorporating The Simpsons theme. However, his training VTs this week have hinted this is going to work very well set to the legendary opening sequence to the long-running cartoon series, with requisite Homer and Marge styling for him and Dianne. It’s also the sort of thing that may end up being granted the pimp slot.

We will be opening a poll following tomorrow night’s show in which we would like to invite you to register up to 3 votes mirroring who got your vote on the BBC Strictly website.

Movie Week (Week 3) songs and dances:

Ranvir & Giovanni – Foxtrot – Love You I Do from Dreamgirls
Jason & Luba – Paso Doble – Star Wars Theme from Star Wars
Caroline & Johannes – Jazz – Everything’s Coming Up Roses from Gypsy
Max & Dianne – Couple’s Choice – The Simpsons Theme from The Simpsons Movie
Clara & Aljaz – Tango – Lady Marmalade from Moulin Rouge
Jamie & Karen – Charleston – Zero to Hero from Hercules
Maisie & Gorka – American Smooth – Into the Unknown from Frozen II
HRVY & Janette – Cha Cha Cha – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart fromf Gnomeo & Juliet
Bill & Oti – Paso Doble – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Nicola & Katya – Jive – Greased Lightnin’ from Grease
JJ & Amy – Foxtrot – Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid