Episode 49 Strictly - It Takes Two

To Thursday's It Takes Two. A record breaking show tonight. No

word of a lie, from from their skirt strippingly good tango at the

weekend it's Lisa and Robin! We will have an exclusive first peak

at the costumes. Tonight is the grand finale of the Pro Challenge,

can anyone beat the Boag. If they can it will be either Pasha, Flavia

and Artem join us. This is It Takes Two. What you talking about

Live from Television Centre. Please welcome your host, Ballabriggs.

It's Thursday, the Strictly -- Zoe Ball. It's Thursday and the semi-

finals are looming. Let's see how our couples are getting on with

our couples are getting on with their first dances. The American

smooth is a dream come true for me. It has mine and Robin's name all

over it. There's three lifts. How many are we doing? Zero. Because

I'm slightly rotund, we have to go away from the lifts otherwise Robin

will pass out, bless him. A lot of people use lifts to create the wow

factor in their dance. We're going to yaet a wow factor without lifts.

That means that our steps have to be completely bob on. One, close,

head. I want to work on my arms and get my feet completely correct. We

have to make it wow. I feel like I'm a bit confused in the tango.

is quite a full-on routine, foot work, sink paigs, head flicks.

don't know whether my head should be doing a sharp right or left.

Don't look at me, go there. James said he's leading me and I should

just follow him. Who's lead sning I'm not very good at following.

I've put a bum spin in. I find it difficult and it hurts my bottom.

When Denise tries to stand up, she's not using her legs enough.

But I'm sure she can cope with it. Foxtrot is the beautiful dance to

do. It's probably one of the hardest of the ballroom dances. It

looks really soft and delicate, but in fact there's a lot going on.

Quick, quick, slow. Heel, toe, toe... That-da-da-da. I struggle to

learn one dance a week and try to make it good. Now we've got two.

It's stressful. This is scary. not -- don't be scared. It's just

foxtrot. He doesn't need to be scared. He just needs to enjoy the

dancing. This week we are dancing the

Argentine tango. It's technically really challenging. Everything have

to be so precise. There's no room for error.

I need room in your legs. It's really hard! We've had a few issues

when it comes to getting our legs crossed. There's loads of leg wraps.

It's easily that we get tangled up. It is more of a tangle than a tango.

Vincent is panicking a bit. Stop getting stressed. I get worried

because the Argentine tango is one of my favourite dances. I need to

make sure there's no room for mistake. This week we're dancing

the American smooth. I find it hard to learn one dance, so to learn two

is hurting my head a little bit. I've forgotten. The biggest

challenge this week would be keeping our energy up. I do have a

tendency to say I can't do things. It's difficult for me just to do

this. Just do it again. Pasha reminds me there is no such

word as "can't". The American smooth is a lovely dance. Right now

I think my brain is overload. know how she feels. We'll see how

they're getting on with the second dance later on. Last week, we

launched the It Takes Two Pro Challenge to see who could set a

brand new world record for the most number of kick ball changes in 30

seconds. Please welcome our final contenders - Artem, Flavia and

Pasha! A rose between two thorns. Anyone

would have thought that you practised that. Artem, welcome back.

We've missed you. Thank you. are the reigning champion from last

year with the boat foing yoz. Did it come near as close as the glory

of lifting the Glitterball trophy? Of course, it's Guinness World

Record. You're the best in the world almost. Have you got your

certificate where someone can see? Yes near the TV. Whenever I look at

TV I can see the certificate. a world record holder. We can

imagine you wanted to make it two out of two, two years running, but

it didn't quite go according to plan. Let's have a look.

I'm the current Pro Challenge holder for the most boat foing yoz.

-- botafogos. Hi Artem. Our reigning champion, all set for the

kick ball change Pro Challenge? quite. Bit of a problem going on, I

had a surgery on my knee and it's still playing up on me. So I'm

going to disappoint rch, but I'm not going to be able to take the

challenge. Can't you use the other leg? That would be unfair, I would

set myself for failure and I don't do failures. That's a real shame

not to see you do this challenge. You've made the right decision and

you've got to look after your injury. We completely understand.

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Take care.

I am quite disappointed. I was looking forward to the challenge.

But at the end of the day, I have to really look after myself and try

to make sure that I'm well fit for next year and you know, next

challenge possibly come across. Oscar goes to... Me. And what

lovely cleevage. Ready to hand on your crown? Yeah? Am I ready to

give to someone else? Do I have a choice? No, you don't I'm afraid.

It means only two contenders left in the competition. Pasha, Flavia,

how nervous are you? We've got sweaty hands. Well one of us!

nice! First of all then, let's remind ourselves how the

leaderboard stands at the moment. At the bottom the gorgeous Jonjo

Heuerman with 33. They were perfect, but a little slow. -- Karin Hauer.

At the top Erin Bog. Pasha you're first. Good luck. 30 seconds

shouldn't be a problem. I'm quite confident stamina wise I'll be all

right. World record would certainly be a great thing to have.

Welcome Pasha. Thank you. Are you going to feel the burn? I hope I do,

because if I'm not it means I'm not going fast enough. We want you to

go as fast as you possibly can. You've got. It Pasha, take to the

floor. Adjudicator ready? Ready. Richard,

Well done Pasha. You lost a little bit of time thring, throughout.

got a bit conscious about where do I place my foots. That's what it is.

I think it's the repetitive nature of it. But you did extremely well.

Congratulations. Thank you very much. It's hard to say if I'm going

to have a record. I tried to do my best. That's all I can do. Let's

hope everybody else is slower than APPLAUSE

Well done, Pasha. Flavia, didn't even break a sweat. Do you think

you can top that? That looks pretty fast to me. Then everyone I've seen

looks pretty fast. Let's have a look, good luck Flavia. Oh, no.

I was really happy last year, I came second but disappointed as

well because I was this close. I think it's time within of the girls

won this Guinness World Records. I'm going to go for it. Welcome.

How are you feeling about it? excited. Ready to create a world

record, darling? I think so. I'll give it a good go. Nice to see a

lady win. Hopefully. Take to the floor. For the record, three, two,

Harder than you think, isn't it? It's confusing. Yeah I thought you

did very, very well to keep the momentum going. What due think?

Very good, really springy and flicky. Due a really good job.

Fantastic work. To do it for 30 seconds is actually quite a long

time. You get to a point where you lose the rhythm a little bit. I

gave it a good shot. If I end up on top, that would be amazing. If not,

I'm hoping that one of the girls does.

APPLAUSE We are quite literally on the edge

of our seats here. Right, here we go guys. I can reveal, at this

point you both beat Erin's score of 71. So it's good. Erin is like that,

drat. One of you got 73, one of you got 76. It is that close. Are we

ready? Envelope please with the results. They haven't even told me.

I'm so excited about this. The Flavia!

CHEERING Congratulations. One for the ladies.

Welcome Justine to present you with your certificate.

APPLAUSE Welcome to the show. Were you

impressed with their efforts? we were very impressed. It was a

high standard of competition. it really was. Do you want to give

Flavia her important certificate. The handing over of the certificate

everybody! APPLAUSE

On behalf of the world record I would like to congratulate you on

your new record. You're officially amazing, flafya. Where -- Flavia.

Where will it hang? I have to think of a nice place where I can sit

every day. It's a good one, with the TV right next to it. Thanks to

all the pros. It was brilliant competition. Let's hear it for

Artem, Pasha and our new world champion, Flavia. A little treat

for you now, one for the ladies - making our couples look fabulous at

the weekend is about more than ruffles and godets. Of course they

help. We caught up with Strictly hair and make up designer, Lisa

Armstrong, to get the Lowdown. I'm afrpl Armstrong, the hair and

make up -- Lisa Armstrong the hair and make up designer for Strictly.

My role is create the hair and make up designs for every single person

on the dance floor every week. The concept for the hair and make up

comes from the whole overall look. We look at the style of dance. We

look at music and we look at costume. We then have to marry it

all together so it works as an image for that individual person.

The typical hair and make up look for a ballroom dance would normally

be clean, very beautiful. Hair would normally be up, so you could

see the dancer's neck line and the make up, glass Russ, classically

beautiful and really fresh -- glamorous. A class Iqbalroom look

would be Dani in the Viennese waltz, a soft up-do, beautiful, pretty

make up and a nice colour on the lip. Latin dances are more fun,

high energy, so we have down hair, curls, bright colours on the eyes,

bright lipstick, that's where all the shimer and sparkle comes into

it. A classic Latin would be deknees in the jive. It's a 1950s

style dance. You want to see the hair bouncing with the movement of

the dance. The costume does affect where we go down the hair and make

up line. With Kimberly's tango, our dress designer concept came through

and it was a white dress. The day of the show it turned into a royal

blue dress. So we then had to rework our design. Then we colour

matched the plalate of the lip to her -- palate of the lip to her

dress. The hair was different too because of the strongness of the

blue we needed a strong style, lift the hair up almost like a

fascinator and she could hide behind that and with the eyes and

the head turning, she could look great strength that dance needed.

Whilst we're applying the make up you see the person transform into

that character. On the Hollywood week we turned Nicki into the Mask.

It's important that the audience out there can still associate that

that is still Nicki. We had to do lots of shading, accentuating his

eyes, features. You could see that was Nicki, but he was playing the

character of the Mask. We not only look after people's

faces, we have to look after their bodies as well. Because they've

been training all week and they're being thrown around they get

bruises. In the bres run, it's bruise watch. Normally the girls

have quite a few of them. It's not only just about the hair and make

up, it's about making friendships and having people trust your about

to make them look amazing. They're the one that's are going out there

and literally you're there to calm them down. You're the last person

they see before they hit that dance floor. It's such a nice

relationship to have. Love her, love her! Thank you Lisa. She's

brilliant. Another brilliant lady and very much part of this family,

it's Vicky Gill. APPLAUSE

Love her. Can you feel that love? Last weekend, bit of a mishap with

Denise's dress, juftd a little one. Does that happen a lot?

anything's going to happen it will be the skirt hem. However I think

it was because we were fusing the two dances, the hem was slightly

longer than a normal Latin skirt would be. In the dressingroom she -

- in the dress run she coped well, but in the live show a mishap.

was an amazing dress. This week two dances for our couples. What

challenges has this presented you with? A bit more pressure. They're

all eeinger to make the final, so lots more embellishment and

attention to detail for each of them to make sure it's what they

want and they feel great. It's a big show, semi-final. Let's start

with Kimberly. She's doing the American smooth as one of her

dances. To Peggy Lee Fever, nice, saucy. Her frock looks amazing.

Talk us through it. What we want to achieve was an hourglass shape.

There's a nude body under it with lots of cystals on. There's a sheer

mesh overdress which is crystaled from the bust line down and over

the hips. It's sexy, slinky, smooth. I'm sure Kimberly will be amazing.

Can I point something out to you, this is Kimberly's belt. I can just

get it around my thigh. That is how tiny she is. It's amazing. Special

request from Lisa this week? asked for tange reen. Has a

celebrity ever asked for tangerine before? Never. They often run away

from it. That's why I love Lisa. Talk us through it. This is for her

salsa. We've got lots of fringe. Julienne will be happy. Lots of

single thread fringe that's individually applied. We have a

sheer lace which is running over the top part of the body. We've cut

through to try and block the dress. This is a solid fabric then back to

a lace at the bottom. Lots of fringe, sparkles, movement. Great

for sexy hips. Dani is going for pastels. This is for the American

smooth. This is a pretty dress for her. We always have to be careful

with the skirt lengths. Normally her ballroom length would be about

89 centimetres. This week it's 75. The hem lines are up and down.

we fit tomorrow we will decide whether it needs to be shortder or

longer. -- shorter or longer. the mystery dress. Are you ready?

CHEERING It's beautiful. What can you tell

us about the lady wearing this snfrpbgts the person wearing this

dress hopefully won't get her heel caught this week. It might be a

rumba dress. White, perfect. Well done. You're doing an amazing job.

Thank you. Only one more week. know. It's going to be sad. Back to

the training rooms. We are dancing the charleston this

week which I am extremely excited about. Charleston is quite tricky

but a fun dance. In this routine we have a lot of lifts. One in

particular seems to keep getting more difficult as the days go by.

When we're doing lifts, the main thing is the trust between the

partners. Pasha had an idea to do a little cart wheel trick. Then we

added the second one, now he wapbgts to do three. If we can pull

off the cart wheel trip it will be a show stopper. Our rumba is very

romantic. I really do have to draw on all my acting skills because I

have to pretend I'm in love with James. Rumba is a very difficult

dance, because it's so slow. The most important thing is she has to

actually connect with the dance, with myself and with the music.

There was no connection. All right! I thought connection meant look in

each other's eyes. But my arms of sloppy. There we go. I really have

to use the emotion to get it across what a lovely, romantic dance this

This week we've got the jive, which is very energetic. It's a fun dance

to do. It's the semi-final so you want to give it your all. It could

be the last time that we get to perform. It's non-stop. There's so

much going on. One, two, three, four, five, six. We could do it

twice. We always try to do good technique. This week it's exactly

the same thing. It's very tiring and you need the same energy from

start to finish. With the jive if it's done the way we want to do it,

people are going to love it, want to be on their feet and join in.

That's the party vibe we want to get across. This week, we are

dancing the elegant and glamorous American smooth. The pressure is on

trying to do two dances. It should be impossible. We're turning the

American smooth into the American Spin. That's so spiny. Doing the

lifts is so disorientating. We're spinning constantly. I have no idea

whether I'm coming or going. I'm so dizzy. Vincent's also feeling a bit

dizzy during the lifts and I have no idea why because his feet are on

the floor. I'm going to give it everything I've got otherwise these

two dances will not happen. This week we have the salsa. It's camp.

It's exuberant and so much fun. It's the perfect dance for her.

worried about standing on my own feet. I keep standing on my big toe.

Things we might struggle with is speed. It's quite fast. There's

lots of arms and intricate choreography. As long as Lisa can

pick it up and do it in the right order, we're onto something special.

We have to get two dances done and it's scary. If we don't, we're

going home and we're not going to get in the final.

Time now for the dynamic duo, Lisa and Robin.

It's getting so exciting now. Did you enjoy fusion week? I did. A

little bit. But I was honest with myself and I made a mistake. I was,

I felt terrible on Robin. It's the first time, you know when you burst

through the doors, my head was down, which is so not me and I must have

said sorry about 80 billion times. Len said there was a terrible

incident. We were all thinking, was it really that bad. What happened?

The tango bit I was proud of actually. My hold was better and

Darcey picked up on. That when we got into the cha-cha, we had arm

slices things, they became like cheese slices rather than arm

slices because they were rubbish. I was rubbish. Look how sparkly my

shirt is. Oh, yes, we loved the Bucks Fizz reveal moment. Whose

idea was that? Of course, Robin. The thing was second from the

bottom on the leaderboard you weren't in the dance-off. The

public saved you. That must feel special. People are so supportive

everywhere, when we go for coffee and stuff. It's really lovely. You

could see, I was crying on the Results Show because I was like,

we're going home. Thanks to the public we got to stay. The semi-

finals this weekend, one thing is sure, the judges are in agreement

that your level of performance is always second to none. Seems that

the soap training has never left her.

You are horrible. I've told you ten times. Dofpbt look at me like that.

I'm not looking at anything. Ouch. Hey. Will you be my date? No. I so

wish I got Artem. That's a horrible thing you made me feel guilty.

Artem. You need me, don't you? know who you really want.

sleeping with the husband of my best friend. Neighbour's dog.

I'm also fathered my sister-in- law's... Cat. I don't know who's

who. Where have you been in the world? I was away for ten years. I

know who Carol is. She's my wife. His wife!! That one's very

unbelievable. I love it. Semi- finals is upon us. Two dances, how

tough has it been this week? This week has been really tough. Quite a

few tears this week. Is that just Robin? It's been a tough week.

Learning two dances is honestly an absolute nightmare. But we've done

it and they're almost ready to go. The good thing is we love to go out

and do one dance every week, so much so we almost wish we could do

it again. This week we get to do two any way. Hopefully not a third.

Fingers crossed. You got the American smooth. Ian was praising

your lines yesterday saying they are beautiful. You have possibly

the tune of the weekend. I'm so jealous. This is from Chicago.

# All that jazz # Queen of the jazz hands. How is it

coming along? I love the smooth. Out of the two I adore it. It's

musical theatre. I adore the song. You're allowed lifts, but you're

not doing lifts. Have you got any tricks or stunts in replace of

lifts? They're all going into the salsa. Saving them up. I'm fearing

for my life at the moment. Bless you. Let's hear your music.

# Oooh, make you want to dance # Modern Romance. I've heard a birdie

tells me there's something in the salsa you might be having trouble

with. Yes there's something going on sholdering. We're doing it our

way. The Lisa and Robin way. non-conformist way. We love that. I

like it. We are intrigued. You have, in of the past weeks, peaked at

eight, some of the others are getting continues there. Can you

catch them up or are you not worried about that? We have got the

public support which is lovely. We have not got a nine or ten. Who

knows, maybe this weekend is the weekend we might. If ever we're

going to do one, it's this weekend. Come on. Keep the faith. How

confident can you be at this point, the two of you, that you could get

to the final? It would be amazing, more than anything. It would be a

dream come true. From start to finish, it's been incredible. It's

all thanks to this guy. Robin, how far has Lisa come in this

competition? Heeps and heeps and bounds. Week upon week, she just

excels and goes out there. Every single person cannot love her.

She's just amazing. To come this far in the competition and have to

go home this weekend, it would be such a shame to be almost there. We

are almost there. I just want to cross that line and make it to the

final. Oh, that was beautiful. We need the glitter box tissues. Good

luck to the two of you this weekend. Thank you. Can't wait for the salsa

trick. Give it up for Lisa and Robin! That's it for today.