Episode 18 Strictly - It Takes Two

TRANSMIT well, hello, and welcome to Wednesday's It Takes Two. Tonight I

am treating you - two delectable couples on the sofa. They have

proved themselves untouchable, Mark and Iveta time. Break it down. I am

gutted he's not in his gold jacket. You made your minds up to keep them

here, thank goodness. It's Deborah and Robin. Finally, it's very cold

outside, but he's turning up the heat in here. It's Ian Waite -

shirtly on Strictly - who would have thought it? This is Strictly: It

Takes Two! Nice! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, hello, and welcome to It Takes Two. On Saturday night, we saw Mark

and Iveta giving the dancefloor an MC Hammering. We loved it. I'll be

talking to them in just a moment, but first, let's remind ourselves of

their weekend story. It was all very flat foot and

stompy. BOOING.

The cha-cha-cha you actually did was danced, I'm afraid, very badly. I'll

tell you what, you're full of talent. I won't tell you what

Craig's full of. You worked really hard on those details, just

brilliant, loved it. It was unique. It was different. It

was memorable and very, very funny. Three. 8. 7. Oh, we did so well. He

looked so good. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I am going to wear

this in real life, definitely. We had such a good time, no matter what

Craig says. We had a good time. Please welcome Mark and Iveta.

APPLAUSE Yeah! Please tell me you're going to

keep that jacket. It was so good! Definitely, yes. I think so. And the

Hammer pants too. And the pants. It is a complete look, obviously. Two

words for you - awesome sauce. My son says that's what they say on the

streets, must be really good. Your first eights - how many times have

you watched it back? With my kids, loads. We loved it, didn't we? It

was such a great week because it was so fun to do that when we did it and

we got it all right, we did it the best we'd ever done it. It was a

brilliant night. That's how you need it to be, the best you have ever

done it on the floor for everyone to see. Obviously, people were

hysterical in glee online. You broke the number of comments - SID says

"His MC Hammer hybrid is going to be one of those dances I watch over and

over again." We have to look at you at this point - a cha-cha to hip-hop

- how did you come up with the idea? It was brilliant? First of all, I

love the song. I used to listen to it as a little girl. Because he's so

fun, I always think of songs that would bring that out of him. As soon

as I mentioned it to him, he loved it. "OK, let's do it." That's how MC

Hammer used to do it in his days in his routine, so I made sure it's

pure cha-cha because everything, if you look, is pure cha-cha, but we

added a little bit at the beginning and the end. We just had this

flavour going. We must talk about this pure cha-cha because Len was

saying he loved the traditional cha-cha content and Craig was saying

there was no traditional cha-cha content. Who was right? Who do you

agree with? Len, every time, every time. Of course. He'll love that. I

think it's because we were selling the concept so much, why cha-cha

maybe became overlooked because it wasn't just cha-cha. It was the

costumes and a slow-mo moment, but it was a lot of cha-cha. If you look

back and ignore all of that and look at the steps we're doing, it's

mainly cha-cha. We got the comments of the salsa not being enough salsa,

and you made sure there was enough cha-cha in this. Apart from the end,

it was all cha-cha and apart from the slow motion bit obviously. That

was just so good! It was like don't ever let it stop. It was so

brilliant. Let's talk also about the scores. How confusing is it you in

the disparity between scores? Craig giving you a 3: Len giving you an 8.

What do you make of all of that? It was a bit odd. Listen, you've got to

take what the judges said and take it on the chin. Hopefully, this week

I can prove to Craig that I have been working on it and gotten better

at the things he criticised me on of it was a bit odd one was really low

and the others high. If they'd all been similar, you could kind of go,

fair enough, but it was a bit odd, wasn't it? The good thing was you

definitely made an impression on the audience and everyone at home.

That's not the only impression you have made recently, Mr Benton -

ah-hah! Have a look. Hello. My name is Iveta lucky-poo-poo. I am dancer.

I am four times world champion. How did I get stuck with you? I am five

times American champion. I am two times Great Britain champion. Look

at you. Oh, my God. I could have had beautiful Ben or Ashley, but I get

you. If Mark makes a mistake, I will break him! I like to test you, to

always test you every day. Don't walk into my space. I will crush

you. Really keep you on a knife edge. You can do this lift, Mark,

but if you drop me... (Her voice) I will break you! Did it work?

So good! It's so uncanny as well. It's ridiculous. If you closed your

eyes, you wouldn't know the difference! You could be both

people. It would be incredible. Exactly. Let's talk about if waltz,

an elegant dance. We love you bring a tale to every story. Will there be

any Bentonesque sides to this or will you play it straight I think

we're going to play it straight this week, especially after last week. We

want to show I can dance and Iveta said I could make a beautiful

dancer, so hopefully I'll do my best to make it graceful and elgamut and

I have been enjoying doing it. Wonderful. One, two, threes - don't

follow me. I know nothing. Or one and two and threes. It's so

confusing! Something really lovely we found out is you have formed a

nice friendship with Dave. Yes. And you check in with each other once a

week to find out how you're doing? We do, yes. We have a little bit of

a comfort talk every Wednesday or Thursday. He rings out to say how

are you doing? I am like, "How are you doing?" We talk about things

like chassises... Chassises, not ones on cars? Yes. And other moves,

things I never thought I would find myself talking about. Good luck with

your waltz this week and well done on MC Hammer. It will go down in

Strictly history. Mark and Iveta! Once again, it's time to put your

Strictly knowledge to the test with a game. The question is, can you

tell me who this former dancing celebrity is?

Hmm. Did you guess who it was yet? Find out later in the show. Now it's

time for the first instalment of "Two" - he's here with his warm-up.

It's Ian Waite. Look who's here - Ian Waite... Yes!

All week - our week is complete. Thank you. Fully clothed again. If

only you would take your top off now and again. Hello, gorgeous. Did you

enjoy the delights Saturday night? Yes. I wasn't with my dog this week.

I was with my friends, Jason, Derek, Carrie and Heather... Friends, I

can't remember their names. It was funny because they were saying I was

like a fifth judge. Is this one of your dreams? It might happen, one

day. Let's talk about the couples this week. You're going to look in

the training rools, give us some top tips. Hopefully they'll work on

these by the weekend. Joanna and Kevin -- Susanna and Kevin are doing

an American smooth. I loved her samba, very Tarzan and Jane, wasn't

it? But this is a very style of dance, lots of smooth movements,

also, this is a foxtrot American smooth, not the traditional sort of

one. What I wanted to point out was this area here, and that's her feet.

She needs to make sure on the foxtrot pieces she does she flicks

up that toe so it transfers the weight on to the back foot so she's

never stuck with the weight forward. Can you show us that? Yes, I can.

Just releasing the toes like that, back. Releasing the toes,

transferring the weight. Beautiful, beautiful.

APPLAUSE Pasha and Rachel, it's a passionate

Paso for pash-face and her. She reminds me of a previous partner of

mine, Zoe Kid. She turned into a very lovely ballroom dancer. I think

that's the same with Rachel. I think she could turn into a very nice

dancer. She has all the potential, has the great body. What she needs

to do is straighten that knee, and she needs to straighten that back

leg and get her hips underneath. What Len always talks about, tucking

the bottom under? Yes, so that she can create a strong - even as a

female, when they do walks and stuff, they should still walk like

that... Like a girl. Hips underneath and walking. So the men walk like

that and so do the ladies. This is how he walks around the supermarket,

ladies and gentlemen, if you ever see him, in the fruit department.

Patrick is doing a salsa. He's he's a Latin man. He's looking brilliant,

I think, actually. All of a sudden, he looks like he has confidence in

his own ability. That's what you need, to have no inhibitions and

just go for it. His body is moving quickly. I think it will suit him.

But what I will say is... An if. There is a saying I always say is

when in doubt, stick it out. I am talking about his arms. Thank you

for clarifying that. Karen says that too. Ben and Kristina, he wowed last

week in his salsa in a vest. This week, for a quick step, how is his

footwork? He is doing some trotting steps, the trots, I call them, and

surprisingly light on his feet. Ben's a big kind of bruiser, but in

this dance, he looks very light. There is a step here - watch. We'll

do it quickly - he's going to do the Rhonde and what he needs to do is

stretch his toe. If you could do it with me - one, two, three, close,

one, two, three, close. That is not easy in these heels. No, it's not.

You need to come from behind to the front. And you'll get it right.

Another question, "The double 18 are doing the foxtrot -" great, we all

loved it. How is the foxtrot looking for Abbey? She's not releasing her

toes everywhere. It's important when you're doing this dance to do that

because it's a safety mechanism to transferring the weight. OK. It will

get her in the right place. Otherwise, it will feel like he's

dancing against a brick wall, but in saying that you know, he's upped her

content this week. It's more difficult, and she gets better every

week, so... Good, good stuff. I think it's going to be good. She has

a good top line. She needs to maintain it. Dave and Karen, it's a

party dance for him. It's the Saulsa, it's a snakedance. It's

arms. Has he got it in bundles? Not just yet. He is adorable, though. To

be honest, he hasn't done much this week because he has been filming a

lot. He has that move down! Come on. I thought this was a brilliant move.

He does it very well. He has the hair for it. He has this inner rock

God coming out of him. It's fantastic. Look at that. I am going

to give him some of these. Oh, King day! As a little nod to Prince

George and his Coronation... Not quite old enough to be King yet!

LAUGHTER Bless him. Christening! I meant

christening. Thank you, Ian. We'll have more from him a little later

on. There is a whole stadium of people working backstage to bring

you Strictly every Saturday night. We asked our mate, the gorgeous Lisa

Riley so find out a little bit more. It Takes Two - our work experience

girl here at the Elstree studios. I have exclusive access to find out

what makes Strictly so fabulous! I found out my task is with the

lighting team, and this is where all the magic happens.

Hello, Mark. Sit there. Oh, this is so exciting! What's going to be my

first task? I think we better put you on a follow spot shortly. Follow

spot! I am up for the challenge, if you trust me. Of course, I trust

you. It's only rehearsal. A little bit out of breath. I just climbed up

five flights of stairs. Look how high up we are. It's amazing. The

galley is going to talk you through this performance. You can do the

whole rehearsal for them. Every time they shout spot E, that's me? That's

you. Lisa, you're a bit too wide. Too wide. That's it, better. Not

that. A bit liger - a bit too small now. I have lost them! I have lost

them. Stay on them. There we go. I like it now because they're in the

same spot. Big finish. I don't know how you concentrate hearing all of

these voices in your head. It's not as easy as it looks. The guys make

it look easy. Job well done. Thank you, Lisa. We're here with Dave with

the most technical part I think. He's in control of everything being

fired on the floor, all the projections and lights. It's all in

your hands. Do you want to swap seats? I am going to have a go!

Going to do it. The theme they have is Indiana Jones and on the floor of

the studio is loads of rocks. With this button we're going to make them

crumble. It has to be on time. When I say go, hit the go button. Go and

then press? Do it as I say. Go. Did I do it right? That's fine! Oh. This

is more nerve-racking than dancing. I can't bear the pressure. Go. I

made the floor change! At least I got that one right. Made a few

mistakes but got that one right. That's all right. They'll think I

did it. I am going to blame you. Can I consolidate anymore information

today? The answer is yes. Explain what you provide to the lighting

team? We make all the graphics to go on to the LED screens and that get

projected on to the floor. What is an LED screen? Lots of small

lightbulbs that form a grid. Each individual lightbulb is a pixel.

They'll create the image. That's the picture we see at home? Yes. Do you

want to have a go? " Craig, be nice." Happy with that? Yeah. Look.

I have done my design. What do you think of it - "Craig, be nice"

It's a dis-aster! What a brilliant end to such a

fantastic day. I have had a ball. Well, lights out.

Thanks, lovely Lisa. Never underestimate the power of a little

lighting. Look at that! Jez, put your tools away. It's time now to

meet our second couple of the night. We thought they had plenty of fizz

on Saturday but the judges said they needed to buck up their technique.

Let's remind ourselves of Deborah and Robin's weekend story. Had

plenty of fizz. You have to buck your feet up. I love your

enthusiasm, love the way you come out, got a brilliant smile. Just

need to work on the technique a bit. The kicks I have to say were very,

very lame, not your dance. You have so much enthusiasm, and I know you

can come back stronger next week. Five . Six. Six! We did it. We did

it. We did it. We got through it. You did fantastic. I am really

proud. You gave it the wellie I wanted you to give it. No technique,

but lots of wellie. Serious amounts of wellie! Please welcome Deborah

and Robin. Hello, you two. I can't take him seriously without the hair

- without that wig, I am not even going to talk to you. Well done on

Saturday, the jive. How with was it for you on the floor? Touch. I

struggled with the jive. You know, I had - I know I keep saying this - I

still enjoyed it, but I knew it wasn't going to work -- be my best

dance, and I knew that. It makes you self-conscious. If there is one you

love and you have the hang of it - if there are any doubts in your mind

- which bits do you think you got right and did well? I love the whole

- you know, I have discovered dancing, and I just love the dancing

of it. There were some moves in there I was quite pleased with,

actually. In particular, which ones? I was stompy. You know, I didn't get

off - I said, the bets I knew - were annoyingly the bits I got wrong, but

I still enjoyed it. Well done on you for going in there and keeping a

straight face when you're faced with Robin in that incredible Barnett. It

was so beautiful. It was glistening, it was so shiny. Did you enjoy

wearing that? I did. It's in the incinerator now. Oh, no. Less about

the wig, but those pants were amazing. Those you have kept, of

course. Yeah! You know, I was just a prop for him last week. You

understand that, don't you? I know. We have the hang of this. You have

had lots of messages. Anni said, ""Robin Windsor looked like Shaggy

of Scooby-Doo with that wig." You do! I am so glad those pants went

home with you. Was there any disappointment that left you

disheartened going into this week, or have you put it all behind you?

Honestly, no, it wasn't my best dance I did struggle with it. I am

incredibly grateful to still be through. It's made me think, I need

to work on technique. . I just need to get better! Let's talk about the

quick-step in week four - stunning, it was, but nothing can dishearten

your love for dance because you really have properly fallen head

over heels. Let's have a look. Strictly has given me a huge love,

the love of dancing. Good. That feelings great! I'm having fun.

# Don't stop now # I'm having a good time, having a

good time!# Maybe not. I love that. It's a whole

new different side of me people weren't expecting to see. It's

great, love it. I got excited by the dance by doing that. I am glad. It

feels great when you get it right, doesn't it? To get to my stage in

life to love something so much so late, I wish I'd found it earlier. I

am still loving it, but it's a bit weird. I was enjoying myself then.

Every now and then I catch a glimpse and think, is that me? What am I

doing? How did this happen to me - but in a lovely way because I am

loving it. I love it. It is so infectious.

Let's talk about the Viennese waltz this week. How is going to in the

training room so far? Brilliantly, absolutely brilliantly. She's loving

this dance. Not only that she's loving the music and the concept.

She's just loving everything about this week, so if all continues the

way it has been going, it's going to be fantastic this Saturday. Of

course, the judges were talking about working on your technique. She

putting you through your paces? I imagine he is. So, the first time

I've ever actually had to spend an hour with my arms hooked over a

broomstick. Why? What does that do, Robin? Just for fun! Just for fun.

She was having problems with rotation, and she doesn't really

like to move her shoulders to help her rotate, so having this stick

across the back, all the time she's having to rotate. We can then go in

a straight line down the floor because you were kind of veering

off. Spinning around! We're getting the there bit by bit. Can we talk

about something very lovely - your husband leaves you little presents

every week, doesn't he? He sends me flowers every week, but do you know,

the loveliest thing - I didn't know he was doing this. He's researching

the dance I am doing, and he's sending me the appropriate flowers

for the dance! So it's always got a relevance, and he didn't even tell

me that. It's making me well up. He didn't even tell me that my sister

said, "You understand why you're getting those flowers." Turns out

he's a romantic. Keep hold of him! Deborah and Robin, everybody. It's

getting emotional around here, I tell you. Earlier I set you a

challenge to guess who our mystery former celebrity dancer was. Did you

work it out? Tissues! Would you Adam and Eve it? It's me,

Ricky Groves. Love that boy. Hello, Ricky. Good you get it right? Time

for part two of his warm-up. It's Ian Waite.

One helping is never enough. Please welcome back Ian Waite.

APPLAUSE Oh, I forgot to say resplendent in

orange this week. Not to my -- nod to my Dutch friends. They're

watching it back home. Let's talk about the couples, Sophie and

Brendan with the cha-cha-cha following on from their glorious

foxtrot last week. How is she looking? She's looking very good.

It's going to be a good Latin dance for her. She needs to work on her

cha-cha action a little bit, she needs to straighten those knees a

little bit quicker and have a little bit of a slicker action. What I want

to do is stop it here and zoom in because I wanted to talk about the

checking action. Right. What is a check, first of all? Basically, a

check is when you stop the change of the direction you're going, so it's

changing the direction. You can either do it - if it's quick,

sometimes you can do it on straight legs, or you can do it, if you've

got time, to check in with the back knee, 60% of the weight on the front

foot and 40% on the back foot, but no daylight between your legs. No

daylight between your legs. OK. Natalie and Artem, a great dance

from them last week, this week, carnival samba.

There are going to be carnival influences in here. She was using

her arms a lot. It's fantastic in synchronisation with Artem because

when I want to stop this in a particular position, and I am going

to circle because I want to emphasise the arms, I want to

obviously get the matching. To be honest, I could have stopped it

anywhere. She's matching him so well. What's great is she's doing

like a figure 8 - oh, take that out of the way, and we'll draw, shall

we? He's broken it now, going to be in trouble... A figure of 8 with the

arms all the time like this which is fantastic, that matches his arms.

That's the fluidity of the dance, very, very good. Keep it up. Fiona

and Anton are doing the quick-step. She's with Anton Du Beke. Surely,

this will be quality. You know what? She's very light on her feet. She's

doing scattered hassies there, and doing well too, moving across the

room very fluidly. I would like to point out - I would like to stop it

here and draw a little bit here because what she needs to do - I

know they're going through the steps now, but what she needs to do is

banana her bodi... Done! Gremlins in the machine - someone will be

flogged for this. She needs to banana her body like that towards

him. Nice. Also as a little nod to the Great British Bake-off, there's

a couple of... Done for Francis, by the way! Woo-hoo! Ashley andOla, we

know he can Viennese waltz, but the question is, can he jive? You know

what? He's got bags energy, which is what you need for jive. It's all

about the amount of energy you can show and put across. What I would

like to emphasise is he's a bit flat footed in places, and on these kicks

there is no inner thigh connection with his feet and legs. He needs to

have some sort of compactness with his legs. He needs to stretch the

toe. Is that a pointy toe? Yes, pointy toe. So everything needs to

be very contained, so it needs to be underneath him - he needs to kick,

but not out. I am sure he'll take that onboard. Deborah and Robin are

doing the Viennese waltz. We have been talking about it there, could

be good for them. How does it look? Most of it is very good. She's

struggling with this reverse turn. It's more difficult because you've

got to take turns in going around each other, but here she's doing a

fleckle and her footwork is fantastic in that. What I want to do

is try the reverse turn, so a reverse turn - I go around, you go

around. I go around, you go around. This is all very well. Get back over

there, quick, and tell me about Mark and Iveta! Let's is a look at them

because they're doing the waltz as well. Is this going to be a lucky

dance for Mr Benton? I think it's going to be a very good dance for

them. I loved his cha-cha last week, but what I wanted to say was his top

line is impeccable, but what he needs to do is lower into the ones

and get a bit more rise and fall. OK. Just demonstrate that for us

now. So he needs to go down up and lower... At that... Down, up,

down... Leave him to that and have a little chat. That is it for today. A

big thank you to all of my guests. Tomorrow I'll be joined by Abbey and

Aljaz, Natalie and Artem, Susanna and Kevin and Strictly's costume

designer Vicky Gill plus we'll have all the latest training room

stories, and we'll see you at 6. 30pm tomorrow. How can I possibly

concentrate when this man is doing this here? And one, two, three, one,