Episode 41 Strictly - It Takes Two

Ss Hello, dance lovers, welcome to It Takes Two. It's Monday. What a

show I have for you today. The final bell may have tolled for them as

they became the latest couple to leave the competition. Big Ben and

Kristina are here to say goodbye! We'll give them cuddles. They kicked

off the festivities with a cha-cha-cha, it's Susannah and

Kevin! And if nit-picking was an art form, this man would be nothing sort

of a masterpiece. Tonight, what a line-up. It's Strictly It Takes Two.

It's gooing to be good! Live from London, this is Strictly,

It Takes Two! Please welcome your host, Zoe Ball!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Not quite sure what that is, like a

dinosaur! Welcome to Monday's It Takes Two. A glorious weekend of

dancing. The couples pulled out all the stops to make sure they made it

through another week. It was fantastic. In case you missed it,

where were you? You are in trouble! Here are the Strictly headlines.

Good evening. Here is the news. Thank you very much! Despite dancing

a rumba, there was no love lost between Brendan and the judges. They

deemed his performance this weekend with Sophie lacking in chemistry.

What? ! Brendan was of course not amused.

Didn't have enough chemistry for me. I totally agree with Len. I like my

rumba a bit more launchier. I don't want to give filthy rumbas, I just

want to do a lovely, clean, beautiful classic rumba. We

delivered that, we felt. Bless him! Well said. Strictly proved it had

the right recipe for success when it teamed up with the Great British

Bake Off Mary Berry in a show-stopping performance on Sunday

night. Love that Berry. # If I knew you were coming I'd have

baked a cake... # Merry Berry, I salute you!

Keen to make sure his big moment was not half baked, we caught Craig

backstage practising his lines. Really cute.

Ready, set, bake! Just practising my lines. Ready, set, bake... . Ready,

set, bake. Oh no. Bake! Baulk. Bless him.

So cute. Love the little hat. Finally, this Christmas, six

brand-new celebrities will take to the floor for the much-anticipated

Strictly Christmas special. Would you like to hear the line-up, ladies

and gentlemen? For the ladies, we have my old maid, Radio Two DJ Sarah

Cox, Rochelle Hughes from the Saturdays and is it EP, yes, musical

Theatre Royalty, Elaine Page. She's good! And the boys, it's Rufus

Hound, fat Boy from EastEnders and former Bros Star, Matt Goss. BBC One

on Christmas Day will be a cracker. Those are the headlines, I thank

you, good night. If that wasn't enough, here is our

exclusive footage from behind-the-scenes. Little treat just

for you. Hi. Morning. Good moshing --

morning. Last week in Blackpool, there was tents flying around like

you wouldn't believe. It was a tent fest. But now we are back, will it

happen again? Five feeling a bit like a giddy kip they are week. The

tango is great. I feel like I probably need to be a bit more

fierce. Just punch Ali in the face full force and it went whack. That's

strong passion. He's been getting on my nerves this week so I felt like

he needed it. Mark has a bed and that's one thing we are all jealous

of, especially me. I thought, I'm always tired, so I can remedy it

with having a sleep. It's all the rage.

There you go. Physio Room. Fabulous Rachel looks

after us. I've got a stiffness in the neck. Cuff a look at that? No

problem. Let's have a little look. Do you mind taking your top off for

me. Hang on, get out, I'm getting my kit off. Off you go, you can't see

this. What are you going to do when

Strictly is over? I'll be very sad. Call me is what you are going to do?

People neat a support -- need a a support network after they've

finished. Look who it is, scary Mary, make sure there is no soggy

buns! We are doing a group number and the theme was a Bake Off. This

seems like a perfectly good cake for me to eat. Not happy! We can whip

together a meal. Look at that, darling, we are putting Mary Berry

to shame. You do such a lovely sponge. I can do your hair.

Absolutely lovely. Strictly is lovely, you never know what will

happen next. It's lovely and so beautiful and sparkly.

Oh, no, don't kiss me with red lipstick. I'm being stitched into my

outfit because I wriggle around way too much and if I don't get stitched

in, it will all fall off live on television and Strictly 2013 will be

ruined. Four minutes, four minutes before we go live.

Here we go, here we go. Come on! 30 seconds. Good luck. Go for it.

What a brilliant show. We like the way he worked it, but sadly it

wasn't enough for the judges. Please will you welcome strong man Benn

Cohen and Kristina muscles Rihanoff. Hello you lovely two. We didn't want

to see you two here. What a shocker. How are you feeling today? Actually,

I could look back with no regrets, I had a great time, had a blast and

Kristina's been great, had the patience of a saint. I dropped her,

bruised her, trod on her toes and I've learned to dance a little so

I've had a great time. You've learned to dance a lot. Wait until

you see your story and how you have improved, it's amazing. You said the

charleston was out of your comfort zone. But you went for it on the

floor. It went brilliantly. What did you think of the dance? Actually I

felt like it was the only time I've danced to the music because I've

never really been able to hear the music all the time, I've always gone

off Kristina's timing. Yes, that's true. It's the first time I've hit

the beat and I filt the timing of that was really good. I thought that

was probably my best dance. The only disappointing thing is, not going

out because I've had a Downing Street time, was being bottom of the

leaderboard -- great time. There is no regrets. There is lots of people

online saying that you were undermarked. Mary, Patricia, Jessica

and Paul are going to miss you sand said you were undermarked. You said

this of your American Smooth. Did you think Ben deserved to be in the

bottom on Saturday Not at all, I agree it was his best dance. He

performed great and the steps were all there. I know because of his

tearing problem music was always an issue and it was truly the one

performance when he danced side by side with me in time to the music so

it was heartbreaking to see the marks. I actually didn't know what

to say to him afterwards, I just kept saying, I'm so sorry. He worked

so, so hard. Mark was in the bottom two again for the third time. How

did you feel going into the dance-off with Mark? It was only

going to be this week or next I felt for me. I felt like I was on

borrowed time. It's like a dance competition now. Yes, that's what

the show is, but it's got quite tense! Yes, you feel that backstage

but Mark's great. He's a really good friend of mine. It was like, go out

there, do your best and see whatp whats. -- what happens. On the

actual dance itself, it was a really hard dance but I made mistakes and

deserved to go. How gutted are you to leave four weeks before the

final? So annoying. It is sad but I was thinking, when I've got to learn

two dances in one week, I'm going together be in some serious trouble.

There are other things leading up to the final where I was thinking, I'm

not going to be able to cope with that. But it's amazing how you cope

and get on with it, but the thought of it, I was thinking, I don't know

about this. Let us see how much you have improved. Here is your Strictly

story. So oh, no. It's brilliant. The lady you will be tackling is...

Kristina! When I was told about Ben, I was so excite and happy, hopefully

Ben is going to grow into a beautiful swan. From the word go,

I've been a bit like the rabbit in the headlights really. I've got my

work cut out. As a first go, full of glitz. The first dance in front of

everyone. I'm really proud of you. I wake up having a nightmare about the

waltz. This way. My nemesis at the moment. Great improvement. Yay,

thank you so much, lovely waltz. You are a good teacher. This week, I'm

dancing the rumba. I've got to get a bit sexy. Notoriously very difficult

for celebrity boys. I'm willing you to dance very well

and, you know what, you did! Yeah... ! Woo-hoo. All I can do is give it

100% and hopefully that's enough. I said to Ben, this is your time to

let go and have fun on the dance floor. And he did exactly that. So

I'm really proud of him. You are having fun. I love it!

We got three 8s. I'm really starting to enjoy this now. I'm having a

great time. Smile no problem now. What you did you did well. It's a

tough dance, guys, well done. It's about challenging and pushing

yourself. Hopefully we can take it a step further in the paso doble. We

need to make sure he has the activeness. Slightly distracted. I

was hoping for fireworks but unfortunately there were none. It

was an explosion. Explosion! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love

dancing with Kristina. She's got the patience of a saint. She's driving

me insane. Again. Again. Again. Again. My favourite word is again. I

put him through a boot camp. Hands, frame, elbows. Argh. Argh. Not heavy

handed at all! It was a bit like a trifle, fruity up top and a bit of

sponge down the bottom. For me, it was a bit too laboured, as I

expected. It is important not to let Kristina and myself down. My belief

will be always bigger than his doubt so I know it's going to be great.

Ben, you really carried that off, especially all the lifts. Big Ben is

back in the ballroom! We are over the moon. Can't imagine dancing with

anyone else. It's been so rewarding. Nice to have someone really to hold

your hand through it. She's been fantastic. The attack into the lifts

was brilliant. It did lack a bit of freedom in the movement. I would

like to say Ben and Kristina. Mark and Yvette that. Mark and Yvette

that. -- I Iveta. I respect and admire you so much, I had the best

time. Oh, I think she needs a cuddle. You

were inconsolable on Sunday. How much are you going to miss dancing

with Ben? A lot. I'm going to miss dancing myself a lot. Dancing with

Kristina, to come from nothing and I really did struggle early doors - aw

- that... Give me my box of tissues! It was really like pulling teeth

sometimes and I've had a great time, a great experience and ultimately I

came on to build awareness of my foundation, which is the Stand Up

Foundation and people are aware of what I do after rugby now. I've had

an incredible journey and the support has been amazing. Will you

be dancing with your wife now, can you teach her a few ballroom moves

there? Careful what you say there? ! It's not the right time for that.

OK. Yeah, maybe, why not. Who are you rooting for? Who do you want to

see win? I think Susannah's got a good chance, it will be a tight

final. Really good quality dancers. I think it's for the girls this

year, I think it's either Susannah or one of the girls left there, but

I think Susannah has it all to win. We've loved having you both on the

show, we'll miss you a lot. Go crazy for Ben and Kristina. Thanks, guys.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Time now for another guess who.

Which former structly star do you think this is?

Who could it be? Saturday night turped into a cha-cha-cha-challenge

for my next guests after they got a hip hounding from the judges.

Susannah and Kevin will be joining me after this reminder of their

brilliant performance. Timing throughout very, very good.

For me, it was all a little bit moneysy, darling. -- mumsy. It's a

difficult dance but you still gave 100%. It was lovely. Your problem in

this dance was your leg action. You didn't get the straightened leg and

you lost hip action because of that. Your performances fly off the

shelves like mince pies at Christmas.

Bit more subdued this week. Can't control the judges or anything else.

All we can do is go out and have a great time and do our best. I can't

even control my legs. Really proud of you. Please welcome Susannah and

Kevin! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hello, my darlings. You did say last week... Happy birthday, by the way.

Thank you. Love you. You said the cha can cha-cha was not your friend.

You gave it your all. Will you be sending Christmas cards to each

other? I've lost the cha-cha-cha's phone number. Kevin, did you enjoy

your flirt with Darcey at the top of the routine like that? Terrified to

be honest, still a bit in awe of her, prima ballerina and everything

and I don't have any moves. It was more just me going like that and

looking. Fancy a cider. Len said the dance was acceptable, rather than

exceptional. You have had so many great comments over the weeks and so

many great dances. Did that bother you a little bit, Kev? Yes. I don't

like the word "acceptable". I would rather it was a disaster. We always

talk about that. We either want it to be amazing and brilliant or a

complete disaster because it means we have gone for an extreme.

Acceptable is like it's forgettable. Don't say that! Just for me. I

really loved it. And the thing is that, I totally accept I don't snap

my legs into position and clearly my hips weren't doing the right thing,

but what I loved was that we just went out there and we just had a

great time, hilarious fun. It was great and I really loved it. Your

facial expressions were a joy to behold, Suzanne nasmt they were

amazing. What character did you give to yourself because I could see you

working it there, come on, sister? The thing is, because I didn't

naturally love the cha-cha-cha, I pretended I did and then something

else just came out, yeah, went a bit kind of wild. I like that look about

you. Len did say at the beginning of the show he was going to get picky

because they were getting closer to the final. Did that worry you, did

you start thinking, hang on a minute? Yes, when someone at the

beginning goes, I'm going to get picky, you think, here we go, here

we go, so definitely. It's getting towards the latter stages of the

competition and they are not going to let anything go now. Perfectly

reasonable, I suppose. The great thing as well about you, Susannah,

in training last week, feigning it a bit of a struggle, but she had a

brilliant way of distracting herself from dealing with it all. Have a

look. I ask her just to walk in a straight line and she's just messing

about. I would love it if you did some cha-cha-cha whack walks. OK. I

hate these shoes. I can't cha-cha-cha but I can do that that.

This isn't really going to benefit us in the competition.

# We should be dancing, yeah... # Wasting a lot of time, the more time

we waste, the less cha-cha-cha I have to do!

Naughty Susannah. Maybe that was part of the problem. Impressive crab

manoeuvre there. This week, quickstep, no walking, lots of

hopping, back in the ballroom are you excited? We had a terrific day

today, didn't we? Normally Mondays are... Horrible. Moody Mondays, but

it was lovely. Kevin's cog radio fill is, as ever, an absolute dream

re choreography. What do you think Susannah might struggle with this

week? We have had a really good first day which is brilliant but

scaring me a little bit. Usually it comes together Tuesday and

Wednesday. So I hope we are not brilliant first then it goes wrong.

She seems to be taking to it so far today, don't you? Yes. Lovely music.

Yes. You did let slip to Claudia actually that it's from Singing in

the Rain. You have emerged as strong

contenders in this competition. What do you make of that, Kevin? I sort

of don't want to talk about it. Let's move on then. It was lovely of

Chris teen na and Ben to say such lovely things.

We have only been top of the leaderboard once so I don't know.

Keep going. I think the cha-cha-cha lowers everything. It's gone, this

week quickstep, enjoy it, good luck. Susannah and Kevin!

We are going to see you tomorrow with Karen. You are going to give us

a waltz master class. Yes. Earlier on, we teased you for shots of a

former Strictly celebrity. Time to see if you were right.

Did you guess who it was? Yes, it was me, the snowman. Aled Jones from

series 2, not Julian Clary. Aled Jones, a lovely, lovely man.

Time now for a man whose very name strikes fear into the heart of any

celebrity. Put your hands together, making sure your thumbs are in the

right position, or he'll get cross, please welcome the inscrewable Craig

Revel Horwood. Half the highs of Blackpool, your judges seemed to be

frugal with your scores on Saturday night. It's been the same throughout

the entire series, can I just say that. Thank you. Point taken. We did

say goodbye to Ben and Kristina, you vote #20ed save them in the

dance-off. Why was that? I liked the dance and I it had a lot of content.

They both went wrong, so I just negated that fact anyway. He took

the note about crossing with the swivel. He wasn't completely

crossing and did it better the second time. All right. Ashley and

Ola. Then waltz. You made a great point saying Ashley coped well with

the cross phasing in spite of the difficult music? Yes, that means you

are not just simply doing steps side close and then making a forward step

on the downbeat of the barb. Waltzing is in three fold, darling.

The downbeat is what you look for, but they were cross phrasing which

is gorgeous. And difficult to do? Yes, difficult to stay in time. Mark

and Iveta. Mark's never got higher than a seven from you. Can't seem to

do right from you, although it's still a good score? Seven is rather

high actually. Do you think he's improving? I think he is actually

reaching some sort of plateau. I'm scared he's going to run out of

ideas, you know. His dancing has improved because he's learning as

he's go you through which is magnificent, which is what the show

is all about. But I don't know what he can really do to actually fly in

the competition. Unless it's comedy-driven or actor-driven, you

know, he's suffering I think, technically, compared to people like

Natalie, compared to people like Susannah, you know. Who are up

there. Yes, the tough. Really tough. Rumba-gate, Sophie and Brendan. You

found this cold. What did you make of Brendan's point that the rumba

doesn't have to be raunchy? He has a valid point. The rumba does not have

to be raunchy. It can be sexy, doesn't have to be sex-driven.

Shouldn't be that sense yous but needs to have a communication which

I think is what Len and myself were trying to say. There was almost a

steely coldness between them at times, it went in and out. Sometimes

she'd relax and smile and I can see the story unfoldings, then suddenly

she'd do something technical like her spins and the face went cold as

steel, she looked nervous and it looked really, really bad. You have

got to be able to connect with your partner and work with them and it

should be a form that is free-flowing. That wasn't. She is

quite stiff in a way. So you want more movement and to keep it going?

A bit more hip action would have been gorgeous. It's mainly the

connection between them that I think was missing. I kind of understand.

Patrick and Anya and the Viennese waltz. The bit at the end. You said

there was a lift. We have slow-mowed it down. Which is the bit that we

are talking about? This bit here? This is where I thought it came off

the floor. Is it off the floor? No. Not at all. Not off the familiar at

all. I looked at this in great detail because I'm sitting at a very

different angle than the camera. Excuses, excuses, revel Horwood. Are

you accepting that you are wrong? If I'm wrong, I'll make a national

apology. Come on! If I find and discover another camera angle

darling that exposes that... Anyway, the rule is, one foot on the

familiar at all times and you can have a minor moment of it lifting

off because it goes back on in real competitions. But still... I'm

looking. I know. Natalie and Artem and the tango, you gave her a 9.

Three criticisms, one the hand, her hopping and lack of drama, but she

still got a 9 so you must have loved a lot about it? Tiny little things

and on occasion they did flip up on to his back and the palm should be

facing the floor the whole time. Like that. Exactly. That was that

point. She did hop around which is not great. It would have got a 10 if

those things hadn't have been a problem. What did you think of the

paso? It was great. Easy liked the introduction of new music as well

and working glaens music so I would say well done. Susannah and Kevin?

You know I love them! As always, a pleasure, Craig Revel Horwood!

Who almost admitted that he was wrong there! That's all we have time

for there. Tomorrow I'll be joined by Mark and I ETA, Ola will be

flying solo while Ashley is busy. -- Iveta. Karen is back too. Bye.