Episode 54 Strictly - It Takes Two

Hello and welcome to It Takes Two. On the show tonight: Kimberley and

Pasha will be hot-footing it here from training after their brilliant

performance on Saturday. We will be discussing the costumes with Vicky

Gill. APPLAUSE As if that was not enough, we have managed to get in

three of our favourite winners from Strictly Come Dancing past years.

Chris Hollins, Jill Halfpenny and Mark Ramprakash are here. APPLAUSE

This is It Takes Two. I ain't This is Strictly: It Takes Two.

Please welcome your host, Zoe Ball. APPLAUSE Hello and welcome to the

penultimate It Takes Two of the series. In just - I know - in 47

hours 58 minutes and 34 seconds the Grand Final will begin. I will be

chatting to three of our previous champs in a moment. Let's see how

some of this year's contenders are getting on in training. This week,

we have to pull everything out of the bag. It is the last time I get

to dance with Vincent and I want it to be awesome. Our favourite dance

will be our jive from week five. We enjoyed it so much and obviously

Vincent wanted to bring the Fonz back! It was a very iconic dance

from me and Dani. I was dressed up as the Fonz. The story is so

endearing, it is so cute. It was the first time where I really let

go and really enjoyed myself. It was so much fun. That is what

Strictly is all about for me. I love dancing with Vincent. I'm so

glad that the judges picked our tango. They picked the tango. It's

been one of my favourite dances. I cannot wait to do it again. I will

do it ten times better. It was the first dance where the judges

started to see potential in Dani. Darcey said last time that I looked

like a moody teenager so I will try my hardest not to look like a moody

teenager! I will give it more than I gave it the first time. Our

showdance is a mash-up between paso, rumba, tango. We will chuck

everything in it. The showdance is all about the wow factor. It is

very tricky. Left, left. Lifts are not my strong point. But we will

chuck a couple in. I do trust him with my life so it should be fine.

Oh! I think I may have broken Vincent! I'm only little I'm very

strong! Vincent has pulled out all the stops in the showdance. His

choreography is amazing. So all I want to do is make him proud and go

out and smash it. We did it! does feel strange knowing this is

the last week of training. I can't believe I'm in the final. Our

favourite dance was the Charleston. So we have picked that to do again.

Hopefully, we can replicate that or make it better. It is such a fun

routine. It's the point in the competition that kind of turned

things around and it gave him the confidence to go from there. That

was the point when things changed. It was brilliant. Everyone enjoyed

it. We are looking forward to performing that again. We have the

salsa which is the judges' choice. They wanted to see more attack from

Louis. They wanted to see more salsa. We kind of kept the same

structure but we will spice it up a bit. The new salsa is more

salsaish! LAUGHTER There are lots of arms everywhere. Where's Flavia

gone?! These judges want to see a salsa full of content and character.

That's what I'm going to give them! I'm excited about the showdance.

There aren't rules. It has potential to be a very wow routine.

It will be a rumba sort of style showdance. We will try some mad

lifts. There is an element of danger involved. Things can go

wrong. It is make-or-break. It is the final. You have to take risks.

But we like to think we are professional! Strictly is a dancing

competition. It is important to incorporate enough dance to

compensate with the tricks. But we are not going to disappoint in the

showdance. I am looking forward to it. It is our last chance to show

off Louis' skills. There's massive pressure on the showdance. That is

the reason why we will go hell-for- leather! And we will see how our

other couples are getting on later. First, they came, they danced, they

conquered. Please welcome our Strictly past winners, Chris

Hollins, Jill Halfpenny and Mark Ramprakash. APPLAUSE

# You're simply the best # Better than all the rest. #

APPLAUSE Hello. Welcome back. Welcome to the show. Shall we

remind ourselves of just how good you lot were? Is it in black-and-

white?! Fire it up! APPLAUSE

So good! Chris, welcome to the show. Have you watched much of the

series? Always watch it! I always record it. Not only on Saturday

night but on Sunday as well. Have you had any favourite moments?

always love watching out for a Charleston. It was the only dance I

could do! LAUGHTER You were very good at that one. Some brilliant

couples. I'm so glad I wasn't in this year! The same! Jill, can you

remember this last week leading up to the final and how intense it

was? So intense. So unbelievably intense. I mean, it feels like you

are so close to the end, but them last days, you know, because

everybody wants to win it, of course. They all feel that. They

want to win it. But you can only - there are only so many hours you

can train. By the end, you are exhausted? Yes. By the end, you are

like and the winner is... Oh, you are so tired. Was it me?! Mark,

could this be the strongest final we have ever had? Or was your year

better?! LAUGHTER That is a leading question! This year is magnificent.

I can't wait to see it. There are four incredible couples and the

standard is the highest I have ever seen. They are awesome. Let's

discuss them at length individually. Let's start with Denise and James.

Jill, you won series two. One of your most loved dances of course

was the jive with Darren Bennett. I miss him! Do you think Denise could

be the next to score a 40 like you did with this jive? I think I would

be pretty shocked if she didn't get 40 on Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. She got

- she got three tens and a nine last time? Yes. Was it Craig who

gave her a nine? She is going to get 40! Chris, you are very close

to the Jordans. Yes. Do you think he will have cleared a place on the

mantelpiece? I always ring him up saying, "Do you need any help with

training?" I do remember getting crucified for forgetting my steps

once! I enjoyed it when he forgot his steps! He has cleared a place.

-- cleared a space. They are very close. It will be tough. Louis and

Flavia. Mark, he is the only boy in the final. Do you think that is an

advantage or a disadvantage? Well, I think he's - he has to lead, he

is meant to lead. I didn't lead when I was dancing with Karen. I

think he has done brilliantly. He has led really well. Whether it is

ballroom or Latin, he's gone out there and been really polished. I

just hope he gets the public vote as well because that is all very

much part of it. We shall see. He is doing the Charleston. Chris,

your Charleston is one of the best- loved. Why do you think people love

the Charleston so much? You can let yourself go! We spend weeks and

weeks going two and three and four and then all of a sudden, the

Charleston, yeah! Would you like to do the Charleston? Yes. It is fun.

Your personality comes out. That is why everyone loves it. Kimberley

and Pasha have been top of the leaderboard. How hard do you think

is it at this point in the competition to keep going out there

and giving it your all? Yes, you almost wish she had done that in

the final. She's come up with these unbelievable scores. To do a whole

routine without a mistake, to get four tens is incredible. She's done

it twice! Unbelievable. I hope she can still raise the bar and go out

and produce in the final. Fingers crossed. They have the tango as

their favourite dance. Jill, that was your lowest-scoring dance?

Thanks for that(!)28. Did you only get three nines and a one? What is

so tricky? I don't think it worked. Our routine didn't work. I don't

think it's the trickiest. It was one of the easiest! I think you are

right. It is not the hardest. one, two, three, four. Sometimes

the dance work and sometimes it doesn't. Theirs worked. They are

doing it again, which is brilliant. Dani and Vincent. Chris, Dani has

been labelled the dark poney. You were the dark horse of your year?

Well, I would say very dark horse! -- dark pony. What I like about

these two is they are little. I think she is brilliant. That boy is

a great teacher as well. He is a great guy. I think they could be

the real surprise package on the night. Can I say something? Vincent,

right, he puts so much content into his dances. The people that are

watching at home that don't know a lot about the dancing, the content

that Vincent puts in and she is coping so well with his

choreography. This has been great fun. I could stay here all night! I

have to ask you the big question. Who do you think, or who do you

want to win? I'm a Jordan! I'm part of the family. It has to be James

and Denise. Jill? I think Louis will win. I would like Louis or

Dani to win. Mark? I love watching Denise. She has great presence. I

think Louis will do it. confused. We will see Mark with

Karen Hardy on the red button on Saturday reunited. A huge round of

applause to Chris, Jill and Mark. APPLAUSE Thank you. A couple of

weeks ago, we exclusively revealed the Strictly Shimmy. Some of you

have picked it up easily. For those of you who don't know your left

from your right, Len has sent out his ballroom angels to show you how

it's done. In 2012, three pro dancers were given a mission by me,

That mission is to make you, the Girls, I have a job for you. I want

you to get out and get the nation dancing. I want you to go to

Billingsgate fish market. I want you to get the fishy people dancing.

Natalie, I want you to go to Bracknell Rugby Club. Get those

boys moving! I won't let you down. Erin, I want you to go to Bedford,

meet up with the people of Fit at 60 and get them working. It is time

to dance! Come on, guys, come to us! Let's get everyone dancing.

Everyone dancing. Come on. I have come to the Bracknell Rugby Club to

teach them the Strictly Shimmy! These people look really good.

Hello, there. I have to check a move. And make sure you can do it.

Can you shimmy? You have to shimmy. Do you know where is your left

foot? No. Where is it? You already for it? Yes. Have you danced

before? No! Left, right. Da-da - shimmy. Boys, concentrate!

# Shimmy. # Nice. I am 83 and I know how to do

the Strictly Shimmy! There's a lot of characters in that room. It's

been very different to our usual gruelling sessions! On Saturday

night, my new dance move is the shimmy! Shimmy! Just proves

Strictly is loved by the whole nation! The Strictly Shimmy! Five,

six, seven and - da-da-da - shimmy! Left, right. ALL: Brucie!

Fabulous. Len, you will be very proud. These boys did really well.

Mission accomplished. Job well done, girls. That was great. Now, you

have seen how easy it is. Now it is your time to shine!

Simple as that. That is the Strictly Shimmy. If you want more

information, go to bbc.co.uk/ittakestwo.

Let's welcome the wardrobe wizard that is Vicky Gill. APPLAUSE I have

to say it has been an amazing series, especially for the wardrobe

department. Has it been particularly more challenging than

other series for you, this year? think it's always challenging

because of the timescale that we have to work to. But it is great

fun and we all love it. We feel quite proud to be involved in such

a great show so we put up with the challenges. It is always worth it.

A very exciting weekend ahead. Any interesting things come up this

week? It's been a bit of a slow- burn because we are working on the

showdance costumes rather than revisiting the costumes that we

used for the judges' favourite and their favourite. They are staying

as they were. So we have been working with the celebrities and

pros and seeing what they are up to, how many lifts and tricks. People

being dropped, thrown! Yes. Let's start with Kimberley. She is

dancing to Beyonce, Crazy In Love. I imagine it will be awesome. What

have you got? A bit of colour- blocking going on again. Julien

will be happy! Yes. We have a slight flaired skirt which is great

for Kimberley when she has a lot of booty shaking going on! It is

heavily crystaled from the hemline up. We think about 6,000 crystals

will go on it. Can I ask you about these numbers? Does someone count

them? They are stored in thousands, or 1,200 per ten gross pack, so it

is easy to calculate. Let's look at Denise's dress. She is dancing to

What A Feeling by Irene Cara. No legwarmers? No. I thought we

shouldn't. What have you got? have tried not to do the black

leotard number. We have moved to a catsuit, which is great for Denise'

long legs. We have lace detail with lots of crystals. This is a mesh

area and then a Lycra area. Although it is black, you have lots

of different tones of black. Sounds stunning. Very powerful. What about

Louis? Is it not so much fun with the boys? There is this less to

bling up. I suppose we are always trying to keep them stylish. I

think they feel out of their comfort zone. The girls get used to

the frocks. Louis is not going to be wearing a top this week. I had

heard that rumour! So we have a very rough sketch of a legging

where we are working out the seam detail that will work with Flavia's

little number. A bit of her outfit reflected in his? Yes. Hopefully,

it will be blue and white. imagine he has been working out

this week! Finally, it does not take a genius to work out whose

outfit this will be. But it is Dani's! She is doing Bohemian

Rhapsody. Is there going to be more than meets the eye? Yes, this is

work in progress. This will be the outer. You will see more on

Saturday night. She has a paso in there, rumba in there. It is quite

exciting. Can I salute you and your wardrobe elves! Thank you.

Brilliant. APPLAUSE For you lot, back to the training rooms. Let's

see how Denise and Kimberley are getting on. Training for the final

this week is all about having fun. I'm not going to get the chance to

dance with James again and do these dances. You will miss me?

really. I have to make the most of it and have a brilliant time.

LAUGHTER For our favourite dance, myself and Denise wanted to choose

the Charleston. We had such a brilliant time at Wembley. Probably

because most of the time she was out of hold! It is a particularly

special dance. The judges have picked for us our jive which we

danced in week two. I'm so pleased because it is one of the dances

that we both loved dancing. The main thing I have been told to work

on was by Darcey and she said my shoulders are too high and that I

was very tense. So I need to relax a little bit more and keep my

shoulders down. Although we are excited to be dancing the jive, it

is very tiring, but you know what, we have a little bit more fight

left in us and we will give it everything we have got. A showdance

can basically be anything you want it to be. James has decided to

incorporate moments from our favourite dances. It is a showcase

of everything that we have done that we have had good comments for.

When I think of a proper showdance, it is built up with lots of lifts.

At one point, I think she's just spinning for 30 seconds. Physically,

my body has been through quite a lot. Denise' knees are in pieces!

I'm so injured. I'm not worried. I have the following week to recover!

I have pushed her a bit too hard this week. If we are going to go

out, I want to go out fighting. Come on! We can do this! One last

push. We have made it to the final. For me, it's a chance for us to

celebrate everything that we have learnt so I know it will be a

really exciting night and I can't wait. I cannot believe that I am

actually in the final. It's been almost four months since our first

training session together and I really do feel we have come a long

way. I remember now why I liked that dance. We have chosen our

tango. Tan depo is a very tense and demanding -- tango is a very tense

and demanding dance. We have worked so hard to get it to a better level.

We will try and perfect everything and we will enjoy every second of

it and I think it will be a very special dance. The judges' pick was

the Viennese waltz. I loved that dance. It is so beautiful. It's the

first time we connected, where we really felt the dance took over

completely. Len said he would like to see some more heel leads and

Craig said that he would like to see me improve my top line. It's

quite a tricky dance to do, technically, so we need to work

really hard to make sure that there's improvements from the first

time. For our showdance, we are doing a mixture of salsa, Samba and

a little bit of cha-cha. We have a lot of movements where I want her

to be very natural. Nice! Yes! have a lot of difficult tricks in

there. I have put so many big lips into our showdance and it will be a

real test for Kimberley. We are pushing it a little bit. But come

Saturday, we are going to go for it. Knowing that our showdance could be

the last time I get to dance with Pasha on Strictly will definitely

give me the push to give it everything I have got. Please give

a big round of applause to Kimberley and Pasha. APPLAUSE Super

congratulations. You were the first ones to be read out. That must have

been a relief? It was the best feeling I have ever had. We weren't

expecting it and everybody was so nervous. And we literally just - we

lost it! You could say that. I loved the Kimberley yelp! It seems

to be happening. It shows how excited you are. Your second week

of getting 40 as well. That was so incredible. Your Charleston as well,

it was really brilliant. How chuffed were you to get those

marks? It was incredible. I think after having such an amazing week

in the quarterfinals, it was like I want to go out and do a good job

again. And then we got 40 again! know. You got a fab-u-lous from

Craig and he said he would put your American Smooth dance into one of

his shows. I don't know if that is good or bad? I think it is a good

thing. It was an amazing compliment to have. He loved the choreography.

Good weekend for you, Pasha. You must have been so pleased? Really

pleased. I'm more pleased with how she handled it. Those two dances

completely different characters. She switched it just like that.

That is what we need. There were some impressive lifts. How tricky

were they to learn? They were. They were quite ambitious. And we had a

few little injuries along the way, like... She was so scared at first.

Just go a little bit. Try again. Didn't work. Also the bit when he

went over you. Were you taking his weight? It was momentum but I had

to hold... She is so strong! I want to give it a go, but I might break

my chin! You looked amazing on Saturday. You always do.

Particularly this weekend. Have you changed your lipstick?

Perfection is hard to achieve. any more. With our new Strictly-

tested Kimberlicious lips to give you the perfect pout. Our secret

ingredient is a splash of Pash to give ten times the effect. Side-

effects may include pulling crazy faces, uncontrollably licking your

lips, pretending to be a goldfish, sticking out your tongue, blowing

big sloppy raspberries... Kimberlicious lips - not in a store

near you. APPLAUSE All the make-up companies

are on the phone now! The things that you have put up with on this

show! I know. Two days to the final. How is the confidence? How are you

feeling? You know what, we have worked so hard this week. I really

hope that we can go out there and enjoy it at the weekend. Let's talk

about which dances you are doing. Pash, you were in pole position the

last two weeks. Can you win? We are trying our hardest to look the best.

Trying to make sure the dances are perfectly polished. And if it gives

us a win, we will take it! Sounds good. Crazy In Love, you are

dancing to Beyonce. Looking - this will be awesome! I cannot wait for

this. Looking in your training, there are some quite incredible

lifts in some interesting positions. Yes. Put your hand there! How are

they going? They have been going OK. As we get more tired, both of us

are like oh, we don't have the strength! I was like - I don't

think I can do this. Save it. Reserve energy on Saturday. Judges

have picked the Viennese waltz which was from - was that a thumbs

up for you? It was so long ago now. It was such a beautiful dance. I

think it showcased Kimberley perfectly. She was so floaty and

romantic. Love it. Love it. It was our best ballroom at that time.

Hopefully, we have improved a bit since then. We have worked on it!

Your favourite dance that you chose is the tango, which you did to

Prince! Why this one, Kimberley? loved... Drama. We loved the drama.

We did both love this dance. Really enjoyed it at the time, didn't we?

It felt like we were there. Yes, I do love the drama. It is a totally

different character so it is nice to be able to show different

characters. You have. How are you coping with all three dances on

very little energy? Yes, it is really tough. You have to jus ts

dig deep and go for it. -- just dig deep and go for it. We keep

drilling every single one and hopefully, it will be good on

Saturday. I cannot wait to see those lifts. Good luck. We will see

you tomorrow on the show. Yes. We will talk to all the finalists

tomorrow. Kimberley and Pasha. APPLAUSE Thank you. That is it for

today. Make sure you tune in tomorrow at 6.30pm for our hour-