BBC Strictly Come Dancing - Week 9, Tom Chambers blitzes the Salsa

35 points? That will do nicely, Tom Chambers and professional dance Partner Camilla Dallerup move through to Week 10 with ease.

Judge Craig said, "It was a little too much about you. It felt slightly selfish." The other judges disagreed strongly, with Len Goodman labelling Craig "a born again plonker!"

Craig seems to be taking a lot of Stick this series... maybe it is written into his contract.

This week, Tom and Camilla take on the Tango. Should be no problems and this dance gives them a strong chance of topping the leaderboard after the Judges scores.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2008 - Week 8, Rachel Stevens 35 points = Bottom Two Dance Off

So... these days in Strictly Come Dancing, 35 points from the Judges can leave you ending up in the bottom two dance off. What a joke this is and not a very funny one.

Professional dance partner, Vincent Simone, choreographed a brilliant American Smooth routine and wouldn't have believed what happened with the voting public. This was Rachel's best performance week so far and she was rewarded with this travesty of events. It appears she must have very little support with the viewers at home which is a bit of a mystery. Has something gone wrong with the vote counting system?

One thinks that maybe it has.

Thankfully Rachel survived the dance off this week, but it was to the detriment of Heather Small, who also danced well. Truth be told, neither of the women should have been there.

Head Judge Len Goodman said of Rachel's original routine, "Diamonds come in small packages and that was a gem of a performance."

Bruno added, "it was Fred and Ginger for me tonight, so elaborate and demanding... you did that effortlessly."

It is perhaps impossible to fathom. Bruno said he felt as if he were in the Twilight Zone. In a week where a score of 35 out of 40 can land you in the bottom two, the dance part of this competition is becoming less and less relevant.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing - Week 7, Rachel in the Pack

Is it just my imagination or does Rachel Stevens get under marked every week in the Strictly Come Dancing Contest?

Rachel's Jive scored 32, placing her fourth after the Judges votes.

The dance seemed pretty good to me, but normally jovial Head Judge, Len Goodman, seemed somewhat annoyed by the whole affair. He remarked, "It was competent, and I liked it, but it didn't really wow me."

Thankfully Bruno roared, "Welcome back Rachel, the firecracker! You were selling it - tonight you ignited!". He scored it a 9 which compensated slightly for Craig's rather feeble 7.

Rachel Stevens was one of the hot favourites before Strictly began, but as of yet, has never quite made it to the top spot.

It is possible that the Judges are comparing Rachel with last years winner, Alesha Dixon. Slightly unfair maybe. Alesha was absolutely brilliant in the previous series and she shares a similar background. There are some... and I don't know who they are... that say... she was even better than John Sergeant.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing - John Sergeant does it again !

John Sergeant's voting fan base in this years competition is huge. No, that is an underestimate, it's far bigger than huge. The word huge seems woefully inadequate. The word huge should probably be reserved to describe a large elephant where as the support for John Sergeant is more akin to a small galaxy.

This week entertaining Mr Sergeant danced the foxtrot,

The choreography professional dance partner, Kristina Rihanoff, is inventing each week to get them through is simply genius. What a team!

They predictably finished bottom of the leaderboard after the initial Judges scores, but did they end up in the bottom two dance off?

Not on your nelly! as Head Judge Len Goodman would probably say.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing - Week 7 - No set dances ?

What are the set dances going to be on Week's 7 Strictly Come Dancing?

Well... that is a very good question. Usually there are two dances with each couple performing either one, depending on what they have danced previous or how it has been drawn.

What is known so far is Lisa Snowdon and Brendan will be dancing the Tango, Tom Chambers the Paso Doble and Christine Bleakley, the American Smooth.

Although it may be more entertaining to watch, I'm not sure I'm in favour of everybody performing a different dance. For one, how are you supposed to judge them all against each other? How can I tell if Lisa's Tango is better than Christine's American Smooth? If Tom's Paso Doble is better than Cherie's Moonwalk? If Castle's Cha Cha Cha is better than John Sergeant's headspin?

If it were Spring-Board Diving, the points would be multiplied by the element of difficulty of the dive. This system doesn't work on Strictly and the Judges just mark from 1 to 10, or in Len Goodman's case, 5 to 10.

The final result could be a bit random this week which must be good news for Andrew Castle, random is what he needs to stay in.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing - Week 7 - Support for Cherie

Cherie Lunghi has suddenly overtaken singer, Rachel Stevens in the betting market and now is favourite of the Ladies to win.

This is somewhat of a surprise. It follows a week where her Paso Doble didn't go entirely to plan. A slip-up at the beginning of the dance seemed to destabilize her, and from there on, she was just going through the moves and not really living this passionate dance. Her natural grace of movement perhaps made up for some of the earlier problems.

Judge Bruno commented, "You are naturally gifted. The performance just wasn't up to the standard of the actress you can be."

Despite everything, Cherie still scored a credible 31, 1 point shy of Rachel Stevens total. There is obviously money going on Lunghi to win and that is why her odds are shortening in the market.

Head Judge Len said, "you gave a good performance but not quite as good as you have been."

It was of course no surprise at this stage, Cherie swept through to the next round without any problems and it is likely she will bounce back to give a good performance this Saturday.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing - Week 6, Scores after the Judges vote

Week 6 tonight of BBC Strictly come dancing saw the celebrities dance either the Paso Doble or the Viennese Waltz.

Here are the scores from Len Goodman and his band of Judges.

Austin Healey & Erin 34
Tom Chambers & Camilla 32
Rachel Stevens & Vincent 32
Cherie Lunghi & James 31
Lisa Snowdon & Brendon 29
Heather Small & Brian 27
Jodie Kidd & Ian 26
Andrew Castle & Ola 24
Christina Bleakley & Matthew 22
John Sergeant & Kristina 21
Mark Foster & Hayley 16

Austin was back on top after a bit of a dip last week confirming his favouritism. Rachel Stevens also bounced back to score 32 which Tom Chambers equalled despite a week which saw him get married, have a honeymoon and only put in 9 and half hours practice!

Last week, Heather Small ended up in the bottom two dance off despite finishing mid-way in the table at this stage. The same thing could happen again as people at home vote in their droves for John Sergeant and Christina Bleakley.

Be sure to watch this Sunday when the 6th Eliminee from Strictly Come Dancing 2008 will be revealed.

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BBC Strictly - Week 5 - Heather verses Don

The sixth series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, Week 5, saw Don Warrington be voted out of the competition after finding himself for the second time in the dance-off. Here's how the Judges saw it,

Heather Small survives her second dance off in as many weeks. Arguably neither of the two should have been in the bottom two, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Mark Foster and Andrew Foster perhaps should have been competing instead, but it goes to show, they both must have some support with the viewers. Heather could well be in the bottom two next week also.

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BBC Strictly - Week 3 - Rhodes Out

Gary Rhodes becomes the third celebrity to be eliminated from the BBC's Strictly come dancing contest.

After finishing last with the Judges, this week, the viewing public failed to save him. Rhodes faced a dance-off with swimmer, Mark Foster. Although Mark's performance was nothing special, it was better than the celebrity chef's by a measure of light years.

In the end it was a unanimous final decision with the judges to keep Mark Foster in and it was an obvious decision. Judge Craig even went so far as to described it as "a no brainer."

Len Goodman said of Gary's dance-off, "It was a brave performance." and we all know that this is really secret code for rubbish.

Respect has to be given to Gary Rhodes for entering the contest as dancing is obviously not his strong suit, but now we can move up another notch as the competition starts to intensify.

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BBC Strictly - Phil vs Don

Following on from my latest Strictly Blog, here is a recording of how the final vote panned out.

Phil Daniels was perhaps a little unlucky, but that's the nature of the competition. There wasn't much to choose between Don and Phil in the end and really, Gary Rhodes should have been in the bottom two instead of Phil. That's just my opinion of course, and the voting public strongly disagrees!

This Saturday see the female celebrities strut their stuff for the first time.

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