Episode 32 Strictly - It Takes Two

Hello and welcome to Tuesday's It Takes Two. Tonight, it was a close

shave for our bald Bond villain but he lives to dance another day. Mark

and Iveta are here. They gave us Hollywood glamour, it's Strictly's

answer to Fred and Ginger, Patrick and Anya are here. Here to give the

weekend's choreography is our dance detective Karen Hardy. This is

Strictly: It Takes Two. Hello and welcome to It Takes Two.

It's Tuesday. Our remaining nine celebrities are breathing a Hugh

sigh of relief, save in the knowledge they have one more week

left in the competition. For Mark and Iveta it was almost the end of

the line when they found themselves in the bottom two for the first

time. Hear here next. First, here's a reminder of what happened. If only

you had stroked the floor with your foot like you stroked your white

pussy cat it would have been a stronger rumba. On the end of your

arms are hands and it's your hands that need shaping. It's all very

well to have beautiful arms which I think you achieved Georgeously, but

-- gorgeously, but unfortunately there is no shaping. You tried

Goldfinger, it ended up a fish finger. You are an actor and every

dance you play a part. You come out with the character. I found the

dance difficult all week. You can only listen to the judges and take

it on board. Judges, it's time to decide. I would like to save Mark

and Iveta. Mark and Iveta. Mark and Iveta. Please welcome Mark and

Iveta. Can I say you were a brilliant Blofeld and the brilliant

thing is you are going to Blackpool! You did have to survive the dreaded

dance-off. First one for you. How was that experience and also going

up against your mate, Dave? That was the worst thing. I sort of expected

to be there. I deserved to be there. The dance wasn't the easiest dance

and going up against Dave was the worst really. He is such a great guy

and such an entertainer. Oh, like, no, of all the people. The two of

you have become so close, how upset were you to say goodbye to him?

Really upset. The thing is you realise it's an entertainment show.

I was talking to him today on the phone and we are going to keep in

touch. It's OK. He is OK, he is going to be all right. We were both

laughing about it. Brilliant. I will miss him. We all miss him. Iveta,

let's talk about the rumba. Len said very difficult dance. Was last week

a struggle? At the beginning I thought it's going to be good for

Mark because I think he can do anything. I think he can. She

believes in you. It's a more difficult dance because it's slower

so you have to create more actions and lines. And be in charge and be

dominant. If you don't have enough it looks a bit still. I wasn't keen

on the song, if I am honest. But sometimes you get given a song and

you have to go with it. This is the thing. It's a romantic dance, the

rumba. And that makes that quite difficult. It was a tricky one. It

wasn't a funny one, wasn't a serious one. It was kind of... I didn't know

where to place it really. Iveta always, always gears the

choreography to me. That's the first thing she thinks about and that's

why she's brilliant. She thinks of what I can do and works around that.

The worst thing about Saturday was the fact that I felt like I let her

down. I know, but, you know, you try 100% and because Iveta works so hard

you think I want to do it and make sure she's smiling at the end. Well,

you are still here and going to Blackpool. It's not all bad. We must

speak about Iveta's outfit. Was that an outfit or was it sprayed on? You

looked incredible. It was all sprayed on! Amazing. You look

stunning tonight, as well. We are beginning to notice this signature

move. We have seen it. Let's look. It is the looker-shooter leg lift.

Look at that! Incredible. We have all been trying it at home and with

varying degrees of success. Is it something you will ever attempt,

Mark? Well, I taught her it actually. It's something I like to

do. Not maybe on screen, but at home quite a lot. I can do it with both

legs at the same time. OK. I don't think we could handle that. She's

perfected it, you must be proud. Iveta is teaching you to dance but

you are teaching her something in return. The local lingo. Take a

look. I am learning the correct

pronounceation. I will come back to you and I'll be speaking in a

British accent. Iveta. Iveta. Well, I know how to say my name. Ivetaaa!

All right? All right. All right, darling! All right, darling. Halloo!

I'm going up t'pub My name is Michael cane. Who -- Caine. Who is

that? Away the lads. We should start a language school. You two give us

so much joy. You are going to Blackpool. It's your birthday at the

weekend. We have lost him. You are doing a jive. My 21st on Saturday.

Brilliant. A big birthday. It is a big one. How much fun is the jive

going to be at Blackpool? It's great fun. We kind of set out yesterday to

have fun and all I want to do this week is get back to what we love

doing, creating something that's great fun and we can smile through

it and not - do it for the people who supported us and have a great

time. That's what we are going to do. Excellent. Iveta is giving me

that look. No dinosaur? I asked her this weekend. Give it up for Mark

and Iveta. She's a Florida-born fiery Cuban, he is a sexy Slovenian

with dimples to die for. If you want to get to know more about two of our

newest pros, look at this. Hello, takes takes. Welcome to our lives.

Have a good day. You too. I will miss you. Miss you more. Love you.

Bye. He's gone! This is our living room. And this is where we like to

sit back and relax. This is my zen area.

Got it! This is our shelving unit. Aljaz is

obsessed with playing video games. This is all his video games,

specifically soccer. Unfortunately, I don't really cook. So I don't have

any cook books except for my first two from Dave and The Hairy Bikers,

so thank you, Dave, very much. This is our fridge. Aljaz is obsessed

with pineapple juice. He loves it. Can't live without ham. We have ham

with crackers, with bread. Ham with whatever. Even ham with bananas.

That remind me, I don't have more bananas. I have it with spaghetti,

with soup. I ran out of bananas. I have to get some bananas. So, this

is our bedroom. I am not going to show you too much of that.

This is what I like to call my sentimental area. It has bits and

bobs I really love. This is number one. His name is Little Ali. It was

a gift given to me by Aljaz. I still have the note. I can't wait to see

your beautiful face, here's a little thing to remind you of me, I love

you. Aljaz doesn't know that while he is gone all day and I am here by

myself just at home, I am actually quite the keen gamer.

Now this is Aljaz and I's favourite part of the flat. It's the balcony

because look at our view! You might be wondering why we have a

low set of seats and high set. If you look at this from Janette's

point of view, you see nothing. No bridge, no Eye, no Shard. If you

move to the lovely bar stools now I can enjoy the coffee with a view.

Right guys. Thank you for visiting, I hope you have enjoyed and learned

and explored but I have serious gaming to do. So, get out! Bye, go

on. See you. Thank you gorgeous, Janette. I will be round. This year

there was a big fat F for choreography, that stands for fast

footwork, flips and a bit of Fosse. Who brought along their A-game?

Let's ask Karen. She is the diva of the dance floor,

Queen of choreography, it's Karen Hardy! Hello, darling. Welcome back.

What did you make of the overall choreography at the weekend? The

S-word. Sensational. Bring the competition on. It was fabulous. I

felt the competition has really begun now. There is a real fight.

It's exciting. We are entering the 8th week. Are you still impressed by

the same people at the beginning or is it changing? There is a few

little changes. Always the boys start slowly and then whoosh!

Patrick and Ben, keeping my eye on those two. Fantastic weekend we just

had from them. It's the same when any young man learns to dance,

they're nervous in the beginning but like driving that Ferrari, once

they've got it, whoosh they want to show off! Let's talk about Ashley

and Ola and the quickstep. Len said it's so difficult the quickstep

because the top line has to be calm and feet has to work furiously

underneath. How well did Ashley handle that? The dance of the swans,

that's what I say. He was fantastic. Cool and calm at the top. And the

feet were going like crazy. What did I love most? We all talked about -

he mastered the top line. The lovely chassis and driving across that

dance floor. Totally exposed to the judges. Beautiful top line

maintained. Head held high. Big smile. You can see his character. I

absolutely loved it. Well done, Ashley. He will be pleased that you

are pleased. Susanna and Kevin and the waltz. You tweeted that you

smelt a 10 and she got 9. Was she robbed and if so why? There are

clearly no secrets in this world, that's all I can say. I had a little

moment. I have listed exactly why this was worthy of a 10. There are

eight reasons. First of all, difficult choreography. The

fantastic chemistry between the two of them. The content had many

difficult challenges from step to step. She's hugely improved her top

line. She was wilting at the beginning. She moved well across the

dance floor. Fantastic footwork. Are you still with me? Still with you.

Excellent body contact. And the greatest thing of all, fast pivots

that shot across the dance floor. If that's not enough, do I have to give

you more reasons to give it a 10? It's a memory here, Mark and I

didn't get 10s for a very long time. Could be a sign. You heard it here

first. Fiona and Anton and the paso doble. Did you like it? It was

interesting when she came out on to the dance floor and they finished I

went, oh, this is fantastic. I loved it. We had the flap flamenco

section. One thing missed out, the strength was not there because in

the Latin dances we have to dance everything with our toes. Except in

the paso doble. We use heel leads in the paso doble. If we use heel leads

it gives a stronger more powerful image of movement across the dance

floor. If you look back over how she danced everything was on toes. Even

though it was animated and strong if she had put heel leads in she would

have been that little bit stronger. Actually, I really loved it. Well

done. Let's talk about Ben and Kristina and the jive. He is a big

lad, did this go against him in this dance where you have to be light on

your feet with a dance like this and could he have been lighter? As a

judge and as a coach you have got to be doing trick work and looking at

what's going on underneath. When I looked at this performance his feet

were light and quick. He is a rugby player. They've got to be fast. I

noticed the stiffness of the upper body and the arms were stuck with

his legs. Dare I say, it's demo time. Thank goodness! We are taking

to the dance floor. Lovely frock by the way. I have my mother's tea cosy

on! Movements like the jive, when we learn first of all the arms are

stiff and with the kick. What you have to do is learn to separate so

we need the camera higher, there we go. Not my legs, up you go, camera.

She's bossy! We need the hands moving. Light and free. You don't

want everything going together. If he had done that, brilliant. He will

take that on board. Sophie and Brendan and the Argentine tango, the

first of the series, did it have everything you would expect? We have

to look at this clip here. It's an amazing shot we have here. The use

of the feet, the speed, and the height changes from down to up and

into this incredible liftwork. The choreography of this was

sensational. It really gave us a chance to help Sophie improve that

characterisation that we are after from her. There you go. Thank you

very much. Why didn't she score as highly do you think as her

Charleston with this? Each dance has a different characterisation. I

think that care-free cool image of the Charleston, the Flapper girl was

more her style. The Argentine tango, I don't see Sophie as the lady of

the night. She's too cool and calm. It's getting into character, as

well, for her. But the dancing all-round, way up from last week.

Mark and Iveta's rumba. Darcey said she wanted him to stroke the floor

more with his foot. What does she mean? As I say to my students please

clean my floor. The reason is not that I can't afford the cleaner,

it's essential they learn to brush their feet on the floor across the

floor without gapping, so the dust doesn't go underneath. This creates

a fuller and beautiful movement on the dance floor. Shall I? You

should. Let's go on to the dance floor. Right, we are going to use

the steps Mark used which was the sliding door. What we need to see is

that the feet stay on the floor at all times. They brush, use your

knees. Clean that floor! It does need a clean actually. Even in high

heeled suede boots! That's a floor well swept. Thank you very much.

Abbey and Aljaz and the Charleston. Bruno said it was Bob Fosse

influences, explain more. Brilliant. The classics moves from Fosse are si

shuffles, rolling of the shoulders and those quirky bent in knee

action. She had it all. One of the most classical things of all is you

have to look sexy. She pulled the whole lot off. With the hair and the

dress, the moves, I just love the entire performance. What a team.

What a fightback. She was in the bottom two. Could have destroyed the

two of them, but no. Came back fighting. How well did she handle

the hat? I am glad you brought that up. With a prop, it's like a third

partner. It did accidently fall off in the end, but I loved the use of

it, the changing, the timings, it was on, it was off. Most

performances start with the hat on and then throw it off to the

audience. What was beautiful she danced with the hat and didn't look

stressed at all. It was sensational. Well done that girl. Patrick and

Anya and the American smooth. Would it have been 10 from you if it

hadn't been for the incident at the end? Drum roll! It would have been a

9.5. Controversy! I like that. I tell you why, just a little bit too

gimmicky for me. Let me reword that, it was a sensational dance. It was

incredible. But if I was going to give it a 10 I would want more

dancing. That said, I have to say I love that bit of choreography on the

stairs. How brilliant was that? The relationship between the two of

them, the timings, the speed, the characters, the entire dance was

fantastic. I loved it. As always, an absolute dream, give it up for Karen

Hardy! On Saturday night Patrick and Anya took a gamble with their

Vegas-themed American smooth and it paid off. Let's look at their

performance. You are my movie star. Perfection. At the end you messed

up! Take him to the Tower, that's the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool. You

are the best male celebrity in this competition.

I have no words! I quote Craig, best male... I don't think you knew how

to take that. Thank you very much. It's his opinion, then I will take

it. They may have been last out but they

stole the show. Please welcome Patrick and Anya. Congratulations.

Standout performance for you, Patrick, birthday boy. How does it

feel to be top of the leader board? Incredible. Unbelievable. I could

keep going. Amazing. Wonderful. Smashing. Super. You still have the

sparkle in your eyes from Saturday night. Anya, you pulled out all the

stops. You meant business, didn't you? I meant business. I was saying

to Patrick, I am not going to hold anything back. We are going for it.

We have the most amazing song. This is a - this is probably closest we

can get to Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. It was fantastic. I loved

dancing to that track and doing all that smooth stuff. It's one of those

moments sometimes on the show it comes together and you get that

music and that outfit. Boom, off you go. Fantastic. Your face before you

started dancing was incredible. You were totally zen. Were you getting

into the zone? Yeah, I mean, I was in the character of, I want to dance

with this woman here. She's stood there and I am going to grab her. It

was all him. I did not teach him that. He can do that naturally. You

are a lucky girl! Now, the judges obviously were gutted when you had

the little fluff at the end. If you look at their faces here, so you are

doing the dance. Oh, no! Look at Len! He is

devastated. He doesn't actually move for about 20 minutes. He still

hasn't moved. He is still there. This is how I felt. Is that how you

were feeling a little bit? It was hard to understand what was

happening. I knew that I got caught on the skirt. He was a true

gentleman to be honest, he was there - I couldn't get up. At that point

it's just, I don't know how I got there but you were holding me tight

and I made it. It was a little flourish to finish with and I didn't

know what was happening. Apart from Anya couldn't get up. I thought,

well, don't worry, you are safe, it's fine. Goodness me. What means

more to you after that, Craig saying you are the top male dancer or

Darcey giving you a 10? Well, I can't really split them. Basically,

the 10 is quite fantastic. When we think about the dance, the dance was

- I loved it. I didn't think about anything. I just danced it. And

loved every moment. Obviously, that little malfunction with the dress

and skirt, well, we did our best. That's why Darcey gave you a 10, she

thought you deserved it and dealt with that. If you make it to the

finals is that a dance you would like to do again? If we make it... I

would do that again, I would do it right now, I loved it! Now obviously

in the studio on a Saturday night there you are, you are Fred Astaire.

In the training room it's a different dance icon that you tend

to... Have a look. I am such a big fan of Michael Jackson. I used to be

able to do all that. # Beat it, beat it

# No one wants to be defeated Fantastic. Get you and the moonwalk.

This weekend you are going to the Tower Ballroom and you will be doing

a samba. How is it going so far? Great, I think. Really? I think it's

going great. It's like, yeah, you know, getting there. Great, I like

that! He has got it. You are on the up and up. There's no stopping you.

I quite like the track, it's Barry Manilow. Doing the samba? Yes.

Extraordinary. It's going to be incredible. Exactly. Anything about

the samba that worries you at all? Speed. That it's not as slow as I

think. OK. All right. There's so many different rhythms with the

samba. I am going to keep it traditional. I want to do basic. I

want the judges to see the progress. That's what they seem to be liking.

We are going to keep it very traditional. But fun. Also it's a

vast floor at the Tower Ballroom, how are you going to cover all that,

do you have to choreograph differently? Definitely using more

space. We don't have restrictions. Samba, you can really travel a lot.

But we travel as much as we can. It's all about rhythm in samba. I am

going to worry about the rhythm He has that in leaps and bounds. You

will be fine. You are looking so fit. On Saturday my friends were

watching, and like, he is never 50. Look, it's shining through. Good

luck this weekend. I think it will be glorious and well done on

Saturday. Thank you. That's it for today. A big thank you to all my

guests. Tomorrow I will be chatting Charleston with Abbey and Aljaz, and

Ben and Kristina stop by for jive talking and Ian Waite stops by. Good

night.