Episode 38 Strictly - It Takes Two

Welcome to another jam-packed edition of It Takes Two. It's

Wednesday and I have two gorgeous couples gracing the sofa tonight.

Their beach-themed quickstep gave us plenty of pleasure. It's Abbey and

Aljaz! CHEERING

They left the judges salivating with their smouldering paso full of tasty

morsels. Susanna and Kevin are here! CHEERING

And speaking of smouldering... Save on your heating bill and warm up

with him instead. It's Ian Waite here for his Wednesday Warm Up!

CHEERING This is Strictly It Takes Two.

Live from London. This is This is Strictly It Takes Two.

Live from London. This is Hello and welcome to Wednesday's It

Takes Hello and welcome to Wednesday's It

under way, fingers Hello and welcome to Wednesday's It

say Wednesday Warm Hello and welcome to Wednesday's It

has his eye firmly on the ball - sadly not me,

has his eye firmly on the ball - I know you loved every minute

has his eye firmly on the ball - have to say who's made the most

improvement? They all remarkable improvement from the

first week, from being remarkable improvement from the

producing a fantastic job. Fantastic remarkable improvement from the

Craig said he wanted to see a remarkable improvement from the

Not enough from me. I would like Be careful with the gapping.

more work in his Be careful with the gapping.

Normally it would be OK in Be careful with the gapping.

you've got to try and keep it. Be careful with the gapping.

is early days. There'll be Be careful with the gapping.

is driving better. I'm very impressed with him. His posture's

improved so much. You can see in his top frame, he

looks like a professional almost. Lowering, lovely heel lead. But

there is a but the and when he does his side closes, at the moment

there's a lot of passing the feet. What should he be doing? I would

like him to close his feet together. Because it is a Viennese waltz.

Always closed, tidy up Ashley. Apart from that, good work. Very good.

Sophie and Brendan are doing a rumba, a very expressive and

emotional dance. The judges said they wanted more from her, they got

that from her in Blackpool. I do think this could be a very good

dance for her. She has lovely long legs, a lovely shape to them. You

need aesthetically lovely legs for the rumba. To get those rumba walks.

I wanted to point out this area here. Her centre. Sometimes it goes

a little bit long. In rumba you have to tuck at this time up underneath

and keep it very short and tucked under, so that's all compact in this

area. Then you can use the sides but the centre stays short. It is all so

uncomfortable this. Stick it out, tuck it in... It will be brilliant.

Natalie and Artem are doing a tango this weekend. Natalie is going from

strength to strength. Could we see a full house do you reckon of tens? I

think it is early days yet, but for me every time I watch her, I feel

secure in the fact I know she's going to do a good dance. She has

that level of understanding of quality of dance that you know it is

going to be good. What I wanted to point out is her posture really. She

needs, she's a bit upright. If I can get hold of you Zoe. Someone needs

to. Needs bent? Lovely. As you can see, she's a bit straight in his

arms and you're, you need to create a bit more shape. Like that? If I do

a link, open your head? Like that? Just to create that space between

the partner... Oh goodness me. It's all coming back. Never left me. I

would like to see that a little bit more. It would create the space

between the two of them. Do you need me to come close again? Are you

sure? Please thank Ian Waite. After Saturday's fantastic

performance earned them a trio of tens, there's a high chance that my

next guests are still walking on sunshine. Abbey and Aljaz join me

next after this reminder of their quickstep. That really was a

quickstep on Pleasure Beach. Unbelievable. There was a lot of

gapping throughout. I thought the frame was loose. . These are minor

details, darling. I absolutely loved it. It was beautiful. You travelled

with control across that ballroom. If you were a stick of Blackpool

rock, you would have "talent" written right through you. That was

blipping good. First time we got three. I wish it

was four. Next week, if we're still in. High fives. Please welcome Abbey

and Aljaz! APPLAUSE You clever, clever monkeys.

That was amazing on Saturday. The loveliest thing about you Abbey was

it was like you couldn't believe it was happening. Has it sunk in yet,

three tens? No, I don't think it has. It was a tricky week, so so

much content. I was knackered. We had a terrible dress run and we

managed to pull it off on the night. Susanna's pep talk helped with that.

She took me aside and gave me a mum chat and said, just have fun.

Looking at that I think I had too much fun! Aljaz, Craig had a little

list of criticisms. He did say they were only finer details, but he gave

you a 7. Did that spoil it or did you agree? No, I thought his

criticism was spot on. All the things he mentioned were really

important, so we are definitely going to work on her posture even

more to make sure she does it even better. Make sure the gap's not

going to be there any more, so the next ball resume dance will be...

Get some Velcro. Yes, stick to you. He also said he was shocked that the

other judges gave you a ten. What do you say to that Well, he's the

expert. I can't say anything really. I always agree with Craig's

comments. When I look back, he was right. All we can do, we are in it

again for another week and we can just try to apply to - what's the

dance? The quickstep. The new one. The paso doble. Oh, my God! Aljaz,

you pushed Abbey so much. There was so much content in that quickstep.

Is it brilliant for you that she can take it all on board and give it

such finesse. I absolutely love it. From week one I'm trying to put in

so much and we end up dancing from the beginning to tend. I'm thrilled

with the way she's getting the choreography. She does all the

steps, does everything that I ask her to do. So far she can pick up

anything. Goodness. It is so exciting. You did say when you were

here a couple of weeks ago you had been to Blackpool before. Yes. And

we were wondering if we could dig around and find a picture of Aljaz

in Blackpool. Oh look! Look at how cute his little Dicky bow... Having

a Dicky bow I was around nine or ten? That's so cute. That's only

three years ago though. Thank you very much to your mum for sending us

that. You looked so sweet and innocent there, but we have noticed

in training you've been getting a little bit angrier. OK Abbey let's

go. Aljaz is such a calm person and is an amazing teacher but now he's

more comfortable with me he's not as scared. You've been shouting at me

all day today. Sorry? Don't get annoyed. Don't get annoyed? What do

you mean? Trying to be so nice and explain everything and you're

laughing at me. Grrr. I didn't forget. You didn't forget? You

didn't do it because you didn't feel like doing it? No. The nice Aljaz is

back. Yep. For 20 seconds. APPLAUSE I loved your Chewbacca as

well. Can you do it again? Grrrr. Happy question step last week,

walking on sunshine, is this week intense, the paso doble. How is the

transition going, Abbey? It is really hard. We are trying to be

happy and fun in the dances, and now it is hard to get back into this

strong character. We need to go back to the assault course. Can I come?

Yes. You got a really high score for your tango. I guess the mood for the

tango is similar. Is there anything you can take from that that Abbey

can take through to the paso doble? Definitely. Tango is a ballroom

dance and paso is a Latin dance. She can take what she learned from tango

and we are going through the steps now, making sure she gets all the

content. After we do that, we are going to do the paso face. This is

the music you are dancing to. This will get you in the mood. Music: You

Got the Love. Blackpool was everybody's goal. Now Blackpool's

over, can you see the final in sight? Are you competing getting

excited about that? No, I legal take each week as it comes and I can't

believe I'm through every week. For me to be able to dance after

Blackpool is amazing. I can't believe it really. You are doing

brilliantly and long may it continue. We love you, Abbey and

Aljaz! CHEERING

So, as you all know, Natalie Lowe has been teaching our wedding

couple, Melanie and Gordon, their first dance routine. With the big

day looming, she's stepped it up a notch and last week she had a

surprise exercise in store to help them with their dance connection.

Take a look. There's only four weeks until Mel and Gordon's big day and I

would really like to see them have a lot more connection for their

performance. I have a little surprise in store for them tonight.

Hi. Hello. Come in. What have you got going on here? Tonight's session

is going to be very different. Instead of training we are putting

you on a silent dinner date. So the only form of communication is

through expression and bod language. Which is what I need from you more

for the dance. Are you up for it? Yep. Would you like to take a seat?

Thank you very much. You're not allowed to talk. Zip it. Thank you.

This is the moment where he's going to be opening the wine. Hopefully it

all goes to plan. This could be an awkward moment. Gordon is being the

true gentleman, taking the lead, which is exactly what he should be

doing during the dance. Lots of communication through the eyes and

smiling, which is nice. I think Mel's enjoying the wine. I'm

extremely surprised at how good their connection is. The eye

contact, their body language, normally on the dancefloor Mel's

extremely shy. She is really coming out of her shell. That's just made

my night, that. Watch out now, I'm just going to make them do so much

more. Now I've actually seen this. I'm going to go break their silence.

Looking at you two! That was so great to watch! How was it for you

guys? A bit odd. Definitely one of the strangest meals we've had but it

was good. Now you need to do what you did here in the studio. Are you

ready to do this? Yes. I know you've got a full stomach but let's get

dancing. I just can't describe how different

it was seeing them after their silent date. They know what they

have to do now and they're applying it to their routine. It is

fantastic. This session was a real surprise to us, wasn't what we were

expecting. Who are you two? Where have you come from? ! This helped us

with our connection. We'll need to keep working with it and we'll

probably have a few more dinners in silence between now and the wedding

date. Aren't they gorgeous? It is going to be brilliant. I've bought a

hat. Good work Mel and Gordon. We'll see them soon.

Time for a second helping of Ian Waite! Doesn't he look like Johnny

in Dirty Dancing tonight. So handsome. Until you do that! Susanna

and Kevin are doing a cha-cha-cha this week. The last time she did a

traditional Latin dance was way back in week four, where she did a samba.

The judges said it was messy in places, especially the finishing.

She has improved dramatically, but with the cha-cha there's still a lot

of technique to learn. For me, the steps are slightly stilted and also

the straightening of the knees need to come quicker. It is so difficult

to do that. It is a really difficult dance to do that. You struggled with

cha-cha that week. You had to bring that up. Can we just remember the

glory moments? She gives 100% enthusiasm and speed across the

floor. It is fantastic. It is always a joy to watch them. And it is only

halfway through the week. It will be brilliant by the weekend. Ben and

Kristina are doing the Charleston. After the American smooth on

Saturday the judges said he needs to be stronger out of hold. Could that

be a problem for a dance like the Charleston? It is going to be

difficult for him. It is not an easy dance to co-ordinate. There's a lot

of steps with the feet and a lot of swivelling. It is very precise. As

you can see, there's a lot of step patterns there. I like his

concentration face. The thing with him, he's got to make it look light.

That's what Charleston's all about. If you watch frit the 1920s

everything they do is very light. Just to make him feel a little more

at home we should give him a couple of rugby balls under his arm and

maybe he will feel at home and get co-ordinated more. Abbey and Aljaz

are doing the paso doble. How is Abbey dealing with the

characterisation of this dance? He had a little dance with her in the

studio and he said, she's really good. She was lovely to dance with,

the perfect height for me. What I felt with the dance, she's got the

expression. She's got lovely shaping in her arms. What she needs to do is

create the shaping through the body a bit more. I will stop it here.

Hold on one second... Nice! In here we need to get her hips underneath.

They need to be strong, purposeful walks. With the walks we'll create

that shaping through the body. She'll get more of an arch through

the back to create that paso doble look. Nice cape shapes. Is but it is

all looking good. Patrick and Anya are doing the Viennese waltz. The

judges always pick up on Anya and her loads of content. How is Patrick

coping? It is good to do a lot of content I think, because it gets the

celebrities working. The Viennese waltz is notoriously difficult

because of the continuous rotation. It is difficult to maintain that and

the fan. I'm not a big fan of Patrick's frame. You like Patrick as

a man, just his frame. I love his Latin but in the ballroom he

struggles to create and maintain the frame. He's looking over the

right-hand side. If we do a bit of Viennese waltz, Zoe. Due need me?

Thank goodness someone does. We go into Viennese. I can remember it. I

want you to keep your head to the left and I'm going to keep my head

over to the left. Hello! Gosh! It is not easy in those heels. A bit like

that. Was that any good? The close could have been a bit cleaner. Never

good enough. Good luck Patrick. Are you are gorgeous. Ian Waite

everybody! See you next week, honey. We get to know a lot about the pros

on this show. But if you've ever wondered who is the most

high-maintenance and who likes to make the most noise then take a look

at this. The loudest? Hard to get a word in

edgeways. Rond or -- Brendan or James. I'm going to go with James.

James. James Jordan. Mr James Jordan. You can always hear his

opinion every. Where He always say what he thinks really loud. I don't

really understand why, but if I've got to take that one, with I'll take

it on the chin. I could get into trouble here.

Kristina. Kristina? Kristina. She always looks as lovely as she does.

We are all pretty high maintenance to start with, because that's our

job, to be maintained highly. Either myself or Iveta. It must be

something with Eastern European girls. We love things that way.

Kristina, her middle name is High Maintenance. To be honest with you

we are all pretty high maintenance. I will leave it at that.

You just have to love Iveta, "That is our job to be highly maintained."

Our next guests set did ballroom alight with a delicious paso.

Susanna and Kev kin join me next. It was look a buffet after Spanish

tapas, full of tasty morsels right the way through. Well done. You have

stretched yourself tonight. You ate up that dancefloor. The drama you

gave. The dynamics. The distil ed flavour of Spain was there for us to

savour. Fantastic! I think you were Khanling Anita from West Side Story.

Absolutely fab yew louse! -- fabulous.

Three tens and a nine from Craig! Thank you for giving everything.

Whatever happens from here, I will never ever forget tonight.

Isn't that moving? I don't think any of us will ever forget that night.

Please welcome the fantastic, the fiery seven Rita Susanna and her

Kevin Ole! I was jumping up and down on the sofa. What a performance. The

fire, the frock, the character. And all of it in Blackpool in the

Blackpool Tower ballroom. Do you understand why Susanna everyone

raves about the place? It is still sinking in, but there was a moment

when Kevin throws me to the floor at the end and I was lying on the floor

and I just felt the crowd and the reaction, and Kevin is standing

there and I just thought, oh my goodness, just enjoy this moment,

because this will never ever happen to you again. You could feel that

through the telly. You really could. Tissue box. We might need one soon.

What a week to get three tens. Was there a point for you during the

performance, maybe when leaping sideways or standing in the fire,

when you thought back of the net, we've done this We were both talking

of this, how we felt like we had a bit of an out of body speech. I

don't really remember anything about the dance. We were so far in the

zone on the night, we really wanted it to be special, I've been banging

on about it for weeks UK and we -- about it for weeks and we didn't

know much about it until it finished and everyone was screaming. It was

incredible. The something you said yourself when you got all the tens

and you said, I don't think I'm a tens girl. And Craig said, I never

saw Susanna as a tens girl. I agree with him. I'm not a tens sort of a

person. When we got the first ten from Darcey, I couldn't believe it

and we got one from Len and from Bruno. I'm not somebody who can do

perfect technique. Craig's absolutely right. He will have no

justification to give us a ten this weekend, as we've got a dance I'm

finding really tricky. That's fine. I total - I know what he is talking

about. I would love you to prove him wrong. The highest joint score on

Saturday night and the second highest ever score for the paso

doble in the history of this show ever! Since the beginning of time.

APPLAUSE It is incredible. Congratulations on your magnificent

lunges. How much do you think the traditional music helped you with

your dance? Definitely. I wanted if we wanted to do a paso on the show

to do it to traditional music. When we got the cut of the music on the

CD to practise to, the I started thinking, I don't know much about

music but that's got to be difficult to play. When we perform ?it with

the band, they played it so amazingly it fired us up even more.

So inspiring. Well done to the band. They are brilliant. We experienced

the Susanna stare and we know you love dancing with Kevin. But we have

notice that she might have another ballroom fancy. Oh yes! It's Pasha,

I'm off! I know who is at a loose end? Who?

Pasha. She's in love with Pasha. I lose her to Pasha every time he

enters room. I want passion and drama? But say you want Pasha? She

says, do you think Pasha would do it like this? Pasha wouldn't have

complained. If you need to imagine I'm Pasha... It might help actually.

So when you are looking down there and you can't see me, imagine that

I'm Pasha. And I look up and it's you! Pasha ruins everything. I feel

like I need someone else to practise with. No... I don't believe it! I'm

storming out, first time in the series.

That's so good. Kevin I've got you this. You can try wearing that

That's honestly going to help. Maybe the glasses over the top. Very

quickly, look at that! I want Kevin back. How is the cha-cha-cha going?

I was watch wag you yesterday and Pasha said it is really easy but it

is not. I find it really tricky. It is really difficult. What are you

making of her efforts with the cha-cha-cha? And could this be

another winning week? As everyone says, bags of enthusiasm. And steer

o technique! I'm really loving it but there is a lot of technique to

get right. We are having a great time. He says that after a day when

I said this is making me feel really angry. Put the mask back on. Good

luck Susanna and Kevin! APPLAUSE

That's it for today. Thanks to all my guests. Join me here tomorrow at

6.30pm when I'll be joined by Natalie and Artem and Ben and

Kristina. I'll have the latest training room updates from all the

couples. Plus Vicky Gill will be giving me her glamour guide to the

weekend's frocks. See you then. Goodnight.