Episode 47 Strictly - It Takes Two

Stkpwhrts Tuesday, welcome to It Takes Two. -- it's Tuesday. They

were in the dreaded dance-off at the weekend. Let's give them a big

cheer. Denise and James are here. Aussie pride is at stake tonight as

she takes on the Pro Challenge. Please welcome, Natalie Legs Lowe.

And look at these two, they have 5,000 sequins stitched on to their

outfits between them. Here to talk choreography and costumes, it's

Karen Hardy and Julien MacDonald. This is Strictly, It Takes Two,

please welcome your host, Zoe Ball. Hello and welcome to It Takes Two.

I will be chatting to the saved couple Denise and James in a moment.

But first, here is a reminder of their performance. The jive part of

it I thought was incredible. Your kicks and flicks are be a shrultly

fantastic. Really brilliant. -- absolutely. I thought the quickstep

had go and the jive had show. It was a proper fusion. Eye-popping

explosive jive. Morphing beautifully into a lively and

cheerful quickstep. Except for that moment. You know, these things

happen. Eight. Nine. Nine. Nine. would like to say going from

ballroom to Latin was seamless, but... I've never, ever worked with

someone that works so hard. You put in so much effort. Only one couple

will dance again next week. Judges? Denise and James. Denise and James.

Denise and James. Please welcome Denise and James.

Oh, bless you both. Congratulations on getting through to the semi-

final. That's the best bit. Not the easiest of weekends for you.

Amazing performance and shocker of being in the bottom two. Someone

had to be in it. We had a feeling early on in the show when we were

slipping down the leaderboard. We expected it, really. We were

prepared, weren't we? You went on first. Incredible performance. Then

they start falling, tens, tens. You were starting to worry, then,

James? We were in the bottom half of the leaderboard. Everyone knows

if you are in that middle bracket people don't necessarily vote as

much for you. We were practising after the live show and we were

ready for it, let's put it that way. Can I also just say that I think

obviously we were devastated that Nicky left as well. He is such a

wonderful guy. And Karen. I would like to say for the record that

Craig was wrong about him. He gave him a fie. He was better than that.

-- five. He did an amazing performance. A lot of people agree.

I can see how visibly upset you were. It is a an upsetting thing

when it is like - oh my goodness, we have to dance again for our

lives. Was it nice to be saved but then lose a friend? It is a

difficult situation. We have been together for so long. We form

friendships. There is a bond there. I love Nicky and Karen. As much as

we were relieved and pleased at the same time I was sad for them. You

can't really good too excited but of course we are really happy to be

in the semi-final. Also it's sad knowing that you put in all this

time and effort. Admittedly someone has to be in the bottom two. But

you kind of know when you are there that the public haven't necessarily

picked up the phone and voted for you as much as other people. It is

sad to know that. It feels like rejection, doesn't it? That no-one

loves you. People hate us. We know you are hugely competitive.

Everyone on the show is. But we never thought you'd try to outdo

each other in the pain game. Oh, no. No pain no, gain.

The pain game. Denise Van Outen verse s shimmy Jimmy. Are you

ready? Been ready. Three, two, one, fight.

Don't do that. I hardly touched you. One, two... It's going to hurt.

Oh, sorry. Now my ankle is killing me. My nose.

I'll try and go for something else then.

I hit my nose on your bum. Shimmy Jimmy wins.

So good. It is so good. The guys in your Ed it team are brilliant.

have never had so many bruises. -- edit team. I'm surprised you have

ankles that work. New week, new challenge. Let's forget last week.

This week, semi-finals. Two dances. Which are you doing? Rumba and

tango. I was just hoping she remembered. Early days. How is it

going? Is there one you are preferring at the moment? We have

only done one. We haven't finished that yet. We have started on the

rumba. I thought a little bit outside the box. Trying to get

Craig back on-side. We have gone more emotive. It is not a

traditional rumba that you will see. It is more story-telling. We like

story-telling. It could be very beautiful but... I don't want it

hear that. It could be one of those ones when you finish that people

go... Lovely. A slow moment. tumbleweed moment. How are you

going to keep Denise's spirits up? She's training with me. All she

needs. I don't know about that. are you going to keep your spirits

up?! Is it tricky to have two dances. But they were fused, now

you have two whole big dances. is tricky. It takes me at least

three days to learn one dance. We have to learn two. It takes me

three days to choreograph. So that's six days. Times two. If we

have 12 days, we're OK this week. We are so close now. Semi-finals

this weekend. What would it mean to you, Denise to get to the final?

I would love to be in the final. It is the icing on the cake. What you

work for the whole time you are putting the hours in, in training.

It's amazing. I would love to get there for James it. Would be

amazing. I'd love to get there for me, too. Never mind her. Good luck

for this week. You are brilliant. Denise and James.

Dance fusion meant it was buy-one- get-one-free on choreography this

weekend. Always worth every penny is our very own Karen Hardy. Thanks.

In your face! Please welcome Karen Hardy.

Don't do your Shimmy Jimmy at me. massive six tens. Who thought the

dance fusion would be such a success. I think what was exciting,

it challenged the professionals. It's the first time anyone had this

idea on the show. They were thinking - mine is going to be the

best fusion. I love it when the professionals lift their game.

Let's start with Denise and James. A shocker they were in the bottom

two. Len made the comment the flicks in the quickstep were a bit

too jive-ified. Jive-ified is interesting. How nit-picking the

judges are getting. It is about the technique. Remember all those weeks

ago I said get the technique right early and the foundations of the

support is there for you. Here we go, we are nearing the end. As we

go into the jive, these are the pendulum I can kicks we are after.

We know she got caught in the dress, so we will ignore that. I want to

demonstrate, a little bit. How we go. OK, let's see it. When we are

go. OK, let's see it. When we are looking at a jive flick they are

sharp. We have the knees working. It's got the real Latino freedom

about it. When we do the quickstep flicks, they are much lighter and

freeer and softer What happened with this dance, it was so fast.

James was clever in the sense in that he chose a wow dance. Of the

five ballroom, you have the quickstep, the wow. Of the five

Latin they are the jive, they are always danced last because they

always danced last because they have big impact. He saw those two

and put them together and went for the wow effect. But fast music,

lots of choreography. I think 2 just lost a little bit of sparkle,

of the entertainment factor, for me. However the quality and content in

there was incredible. She is doing amazing. Kimberley and Pasha a

different weekend for them. Four tens. And they have the accolade of

the highest scored dance of the series. Did they deserve it?

Incredible. We were saying last week, if they were going to break

the 34, it had to be a dance with a lot of gambles in it. Tain had to

absolutely come out and whack us all. -- and it had. I think they

are listening to us on Tuesday. That's what we got. Talking about

the fusion. This is what I want to show you. Look at the tango. I have

slowed it down. Straight up out into the cha-cha-cha. Another demo

into the cha-cha-cha. Another demo here. This is really interesting.

You are spoiling us. Let's imagine the tango. So she has to be in the

closed hold position. She has to be right down in the knees. She has

her body contact. She has to get the head the way up, strong

stacatto action and within one step, come right the way up, straight

legs, hip actions, the Cuban movement in the body. That fusion

they put in was seamless. And so they put in was seamless. And so

clever. Well done. Dani and Vincent and their Charleston and quickstep.

Darcey was saying Dani has improved in technique and they got the tens.

Well-deserved? Welcome the dehave a, she's on the dancefloor. I

absolutely loved this dance. -- d diva. Look at the steps I have cued

up. Their quick ste. The difficulty of that movement and into the

Charleston, the twisting of the feet and what I love, she's

bringing her own feeling, her own emotion to it. So for me, it's pure

dancing we are seeing now. It's not a numbers gi. It's not this is the

choreography, this is the timing -- a numbers game. She is actually

bringing this dance alive for me. I thought worthy of maybe one more

ten. Of another ten, we wanted for Dani. That was said by lots of fans.

Louis and Flavia and their tango and rum BA how well did Louis coach

with fusing those two dancing together? -- rumba. You could see

it was interesting. You could see it was definitely the rumba and

tango. What caught my eye is Flavia took the gamble of using the rumba.

In the past the celebrity men's have looked terrible. Look at the

basic. Look at the hip action and the connection between the two of

them. The softening of his body action. It was absolutely first

class. That was check-forward walks. You know celebrities in the past,

men doing rumbas, it's... When you hear of a man doing the rumba, you

say - don't make me watch it. a gamble in the quarter-finals to

take a shre dance. James took the - - slow dance. James took the quick

ones. She went slow. That can expose technique and timing. Rumba

has four beats and only three steps. Really hard. The quality of his

dancing was superb. And the change into the lovely tang yes action we

had. Absolutely brilliant. -- tango action. So exciting. They are so

brilliant. Lisa and Robin. Len said it was predictable. Craig said her

topline was failing her. What did you make of the fusion? The fusion?

It was deaf fitly the fusion. Robin, a -- definitely a fusion. Robin

knows what his job is, it is to hide her weaknesses and push the

strength forward. What did he do? The big costume change and big

smile. It really hit home that that beautiful smile and the energy that

she brings to the floor was her selling point. There are weaknesses

still in there. The technique, we've got - there was bits of

gapping. I have chosen a clip here. It's still falling apart and

bouncey. She needs to be more down in the knees but overall she's

still bringing us the entertainment on a Saturday night. My coach said

to me one day - it's not all about the technique girl, get out and

perform and make people happy. I think that's what she is doing

every Saturday. She's connecting with their hearts. At the end of

the day it's down to everybody at home. She did make a lot of

mistakes but she was very clever in the way she covered it up. Other

celebrities that made that many mistakes, everybody at hem said

goodbye. But they love leasia. It'll be so exciting this weekend.

I don't want any of them to go. -- love Lisa.

Thank you very much, Karen. Time now to get to know our pro dancers

better as they reveal some more of their deepest, darkest secretary

reets I'm Natalie Lowe. Robin Windsor. Erin Boag. I have...

confession to make. Before I started Strictly I was a

beauty therapist for 12 years. The first pedicure I ever gave was on

my fatherment he pretty much couldn't walk for a week afterwards.

So, I decided to hang that up and start dancing.

Every week, without fail, Thursday morning, I have to be at the

hairdressers. Haircut, shave, eyebrows, tint.

Once, quite a long time back, Anton wasn't very nice to me, so I bought

him a chest-wax experience. I went in with him on the day and sat down

beside him on the chair. As he lay down he turned to me and said - is

this going to hurt? I went - not at all. She smothered the wax on, put

the cloth on, and she pulled it. He hit the ceiling. It was one of the

best days of my life. Erin Boag is still standing strong at the top of

our Pro Challenge leaderboard. Can our next contender knock her off?

Please welcome Natalie Lowe. Hello, legs. Oh, I get a kiss. I love you.

Look at those legs. Nice to have them back. Last year you were

eighth in the Pro Challenge. Don't remind me. Sorry about that. How

nervous were you about this one? was just wanting to do really well,

I guess. Kickball changes, you know, not too difficult. But I'm not too

sure. Did you do any training? not really. I just went out there

and thought I'd give it all I've got. I have been doing kickball

changes my whole life. You could be good at them. Do you think you can

knock Erin Boag off the top spot? 71? No way. It's not possible. No

way I could get that. Let's take a look and see if you can do it.

doing everything I can to get to the top of the Pro leaderboard. I'm

hoping it'll be enough. Looking forward to it. Doing loads of

practice, ready to go. Hello. Do you think you are going to do well?

I'm going to win it. That's the spirit. Go for it, darling.

Five, four, three, two, one, spot. Lovely, well done. That was clean.

It was efficient. It was fast. Technically they looked great. You

used your upper body as well, which I think helped. I think you did

very well. That was formidable, darling, Natalie, thank you so very

much. Please leave the floor. you. I think I might have been a

little bit too careful with it. Too precise. Too technical. I actually

want to do it again. I think I could have been a bit faster than

what I was. Craig said you were formidable. You

make me laugh - did you do any practice? No. Then you were like,

"I've been practising." Maybe a little bit. I knew that would

happen. Was it harder than you thought it would be? The 15 second

afterwards I was getting tired. I thought I'd come home and do it as

strong as I o could. It was difficult. My legs were numb

afterwards. How many kickball changes do you think you managed in

30 seconds? 60? 65. No, 6 0. I don't know. Come on then. They have

been counted and verified, Natalie Lowe. I can reveal that you

perform... 58 kickbull changes. Oh, I said about 60. Let's look at

the leaderboard then. You did better than Karen Hauer with her 33.

Lovely Karen, she just took her time. But it does seem there is no

touching Boag up the top there. She is way ahead. Is there anyone you

think can do better than Erin? Vincent or Flavia. I hope Erin wins.

Can we have a bullroom challenge next year? -- ballroom. I'll put it

to the producers. Lovely to see you as always.

! Thank you. This weekend was an absolute smorgasbord of top designs,

fringes, ruffles and sequins glalor. Galore. Of course this all got one

man very excited, indeed. # The look of love #

Please welcome the ultra-glam Julien MacDonald.

Hello, gorgeous man. Can I just say the double sequins greatly

appreciated tonight. You have topped yourself with outfits.

That's amazing. Is that your own? 25,000 sequins.

You are hysterical. Did you enjoy the dance fusion this weekend?

loved it. Full of my favourite things. It was. Which we will

discuss at length. Who are your must-see top three this week? Who

is at the number three spot? Number three is Dani. Looking gorgeous in

her flapper dress. Why did you love this look on her so much? Well,

what an incredible transformation of a young girl. She's so energetic,

full of life. She looked strictly glamorous. And she looked confident

in it. I love the fact as the series goes on, there is less and

less of the outfits. Fringing, dare I say, one of your favourites this

season. Tell us more. Well this is paneled fringes. This is an

exclusive. It is panels of fringes. It is eight panels and eight metres

of fringes put on to this tiny little skirt. Very, technical.

a great effect there, as well. What about the crystal work? Lay the

facts down for me. Well in this tiny little slither of a dress,

there is not much a dress there, there is over 5,000 geometric

crystals. Now, what out for geometric designs - I am being

serious, in fashion - it is going to be big for next season. Note

taken. Who is your number two this week? My number two look of the

week is the fabulous Denise. A round of applause there for

Denise, gorgeous. Amazing dress, so unusual. What stood out for you?

was surprised to see Denise look so grown-up. Normally she wears

fringes, crystals, bows. All your favourites. All my favourites

things. I love the '40s feel, very film-star and Hollywood.

reminded me of Doris Day. Impressive skirt. Tell me about the

detail. How do they create that volume? There are ro two raspberry

petty could the, and underneath, apart from the gorgeous black

knickers is a secret fabric called crinoline. It is a stiff fabric

that makes that skirt stick right out. You mugs have been excited --

you must have been excited because there are ruffles in the petit coat.

Apparently over eight metres. knows all this. He measures it

himself. The top lay he were and crystal work. Is that some kind of

lace work? It is very much a kind of a spider, circular motive of

crystal lace work. Lace is a very in-fashion fabric especially for

the Christmas period, which we are in. Happy Christmas, by the way.

And there is over 5,500 gold crystals encrusted on to this

spaghetti of lace. He spat at me a little bit as he was saying that.

There were so many Ss. Who is your top spot? Top of the leaderboard,

of course, Miss Kimberley Walsh. She looked so hot. Wherch she got

four tens, I cried. -- when she got. She looked so hot. Well, why don't

I like it? It's got fringes. It's got crystals, it's got panels, and

colour and she is definitely ten out of ten. She got 50 this weekend.

Vicy was saying, in wardrobe, it was one of the dresss that has

taken the longest to make. Give us some more details? The front

section of the dress is glass beads, over 1 thousand little beads,

thread on to a little fringe. Each one done by the hands of angels.

Proper angels. Look at the crystal work, again, 2dom 500 crystals.

love the shoulders, the way it is angled at the back. -- 2,500

crystals. An unusual hemline on the skirt. How does it stay in shape?

It is a special fashion hemline, short at the front, long at the

back. This little skirt is made out of four panels and four godets.

They are back. We know what it is, it is a triangular into the fabric

to create volume. You notice you are the only one saying that. But

she did look so hot there. She zshe just looked so sexy, red devilish

and definitely my favourite dress of the season. Someone else caught

your eye on night, though. Who was your guilty pleasure of week?

this guy gets better and better and better. Look at Louis. He is doing

the Swazwhy, e. Is that a velvet waistcoat? Yes, with a blue. Hang

on. Look at the pelvic thrust. Wouldn't you want to wake up on

Christmas day with Louis wrapped up in bows and godets. A personal

choice. Look at the guns. I'm not looking. But you have been

spreading Strictly joy again. Our favourite part of the show. We have

had a firefighter a plumber and zoo keeper, whose life have you added

magic to this week? The Strictly fashion magic has been added to

Chris, from Swansea, who is a My I'm Chris Hughes. Originally

from Swansea. Now working in a butcher shop in London. I've had a

word with Julien MacDonald. He has offered to lend me a Strictly come

dancing outfit. Let's see if it Liffens up my shop and my day. I

feel fabulous. What do you think Buttercup.

How do I look? Your regular attire. It's good for your posture. You are

aware of it. It makes you hold your tummy in, instead of being like

this all the time. Wiggle your leggings and arms at the same time.

# It's not unusual... # Just dancing on my own, darling.

Can you lift me. I'll try. Ready? That's very good. Marks out of ten,

my dear? Nine. Thank you so much. I've seen better. Liar. If you are

ever looking for a dancing partner, you know where to come. Chris is

already all show. This definitely made his day. You need some fake

tan. You like? Really nice. I've had a wonderful

day today. So have the customers. The only bad part is having to give

the outfit back. I'm sure I can have a word with management to see

what they can do. Come on, Chris. He is such a turn. Isn't he

fantastic. What a great sport. Can you put me aside a couple of Shanks

and chops? I will go to his butchers. Thank you for spreading

costume drama into our show this week again. Semi-finals next week.

Can't wait to see you. Thank you very much to all my guests tonight.