Episode 54 Strictly - It Takes Two

Welcome to It Takes Two. It is Thursday, which means we have all

the latest from the trading rooms. Their Argentine tango left the

judges wanting more. Welcome Susanna and Kevin.

Lovely to see them, as always. It is the final of our 2013 Pro-Challenge.

Tonight Kevin and Janette are here to discover which of our

professional dancers will take the crown. Could it be one of them or

will it be to du Beke? The gorgeous Vicky Gill is here.

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

- It Takes Two. Please welcome your host. Zoe Ball.

Hello. Welcome to It Takes Two. I know, I am wearing a dress. The

semi-final is fast approaching. So excited! Before we go on with the

show, let's see how our couples are getting on in the training room for

their first of their two dances. This is exciting! This week I have a

samba, which I have been dreading the whole series. There are so many

things to think about. You have to do the bounce, the straight legs and

then the hips. I hate all this hip action. Samba doesn't look right...

Two, three... I am struggling with the bouncy hip action. Aljaz has had

me walking around the room, saying "Bounce, bounce." Bounce and bounce

again. And bounce! I am feeling the pressure now. For me, it seems

almost impossible. My first dance this week is the paso

doble. No time for soft, delicate behaviour here! Come on, woman!

It is a very extreme dance. Look at how extreme my position is. My face

is going red. Put yourself in an extreme position. In order to have

that drama it must have complete action and your mask does must not

fall at any point! Hands, Sophie. It has to be sold

with buckets-load of confidence. Which can be tricky. Nice, Sophie!

The first dance this week is the waltz.

A lot of rising and falling. And it needs to be very smooth and just

hopefully cover the whole floor. Just like any other ballroom dance,

Patrick has been struggling with keeping his frame.

Keep your frame! Doing ballroom, for me is, it is holding the frame,

getting the right steps. Not a heel lead when it is a toe lead. These

are the elements that I try and conquer. Boom, boom. I don't know

what happens after that! It is a special dance in the semi-final.

First dance is a salsa. The shippies are in. It is a social dance. We can

have lifts and the moves and all the spectacular steps.

I think the judges are going to be really looking for a high-energy,

lots of fun, but with a lot of technique in there as well.

It is a lot of arms. A lot of turns and a lot of moves.

If we can keep all the elements in it, then it will be great.

Our first dance this week is the foxtrot. I think it will be a pure

classic ballroom special. It is all about the timing and the smoothness

of the timing. I kicked your knee! There are some pivots. Sometimes it

goes really well and I think it is amazing. Other times it goes out and

the whole thing goes downhill. I need to keep small and on the spot.

It is Kevin who swings around me. I stop you and I need to encourage

you. This foxtrot could be the difference between going to the

final or going home, so I better get it right, hadn't I and do it

beautifully! Looking good, ladies and Patrick. We will see how they

are all getting on with their second dance later. Over the past week we

have spoken a fair bit about the professional dancers' desire to win

the title. They have spoken of the praise, the glory, the respect that

it would bring them. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about the It

Takes Two Pro-Challenge. Who will be the winner? Please welcome Kevin

from Grimsby and Janette Manrara. Hello, my lovlies! Take a seat. You

and your clammy palms. We have been to see how many, we want the most

Drunken Sailors. Kevin, you have never done this before. Does it make

you more anxious or less? I am very eager to please. We are new. It was

my first Pro-Challenge. I don't want to be rubbish. Janette, your Aljaz -

how is he? He's ex-seated about the semi-final. -- excited about the

semi-final. He's got 61 before. Do you want to beat him? Yes.

Definitely! No question about it. Kevin, we will see how well you got

on. Good luck, Marine! Here we go! I am feeling more nervous about this

challenge than most Saturday nights. I am winning this. You are known as

the jive king - do you feel it has put you unner di in pressure --

under any pressure? The fact we have spoken about it has put me under

pressure. Thanks for bringing it up! How much would it mean to you to get

the world record? More than anything else in the world right now. Are you

ready? Just about! For the record - three, two, one -

go. Five, four, three, two, one... Stop!

Did that feel longer than 30 seconds? A lot longer. It felt like

30 minutes. It looked pretty good from where I was standing. You went

really fast. Grit and determination. An amazing effort.

Thank you. I am exhausted right now. I gave it everything I had. I will

never life it down if Karen gets it. How fast! You were doing it so fast

- your feet were a blur and in a Christmas jumper as well! How

confident do you feel having seen that, Kevin? I would, but I am sat

next to Janette and she's really fast. It is that Cuban fire!

Janette, how do you feel right now, having seen Kevin's action now? I

definitely didn't win! Shall we find out? Yes.

Here's Janette! I think what will be tough is the

stamina. 30 seconds of Drunken Sailor is a long time. I think I can

do this for the girls. Come on, ladies!

Hello. Hi! How are you feeling about this challenge today? Very nervous.

Do you think you could be the fastest? I don't know, you know. I

am more classically trained. I am a lot lighter on my feet, but not

quick on my feet. We'll see. Good luck! Please step to your mark.

Are you ready? For the record... Three, two, one, go...

Five, four, three, two, one stop. Well done!

Thank you! Looked pretty good to me. What did you think Looked good to me

too. You looked down the whole time. You were focussing on your feet. It

was a competition! You did really well. Well done. Thank you. I hope

I've done enough to get the record. I don't think I could have done

anything more. It would be quite the honour to be the Cuban American who

has the title of the most Drunken Sailors in 30 seconds. Well done

Janette. Well, looking at that there, do you think Janette that you

have beaten Kevin? No. I still don't think I did. Let's remind ourselves

ow how things stand -- ourselves how things stand at the moment. At the

moment Anton du Beke with 72. I love how everyone is so surprised when

they see it. That is how it stands. In order to win, you have to have

scored 73 or above, OK? Good luck, guys. It is the moment of truth.

This has been building up to this - the last 25 weeks!

Time to find out who has won the Pro-Challenge 2013. I can tell you

at this point, one of you did 79 Drunken Sailors. The other 77.

Wow! However, there were some

disqualifications. One of you had two disqualifications. The other had

a huge 14 voided by our adjudicators. This is so tense.

Please, may I have the gold envelope? Here we go - I can reveal

this year's Pro-Challenge and new Guinness World Record holder is...

It is Kevin! Well done, Kevin. Let's take a look

at the leaderboard. There you are - up the top there. Du

Beke will be devastated. You beat him by five. Congratulations. Here

to present your certificate we have Liz, from Guinness World Records.

Welcome, Liz. How impressed were you with our professional dancers? I was

so impressed. Kevin gave it 110%. He was the most nervous out of

everyone, bless him. You are so deserving of the title. Here is your

certificate. Kevin, from Grimsby - a world record holder, ladies and

gentlemen. Where will you keep your certificate? Right next to my bed.

Congratulations. Congratulations Janette. Thank you to everyone who

took place. Kevin is our Pro-Challenge winner!

Who is looking like a winner the training room as well? Let's see how

our couples are getting on with their second dance. My second dance

this week is the American smooth. I have been dying to do this dance. It

is so elegant and classy and it just looked beautiful. I feel safer and

my smile is coming back. Wow! Dizzy Lizzie!

We have to do lifts in American smooth. Every single time we do a

lift, there is a noise coming out of her! It is hard to do a lift when

you cannot see it. It is like kick your leg up there - do that. We

don't have it right yet. By Saturday, hopefully we will.

My second dance this week in the semi-final is the American smooth.

We are doing a foxtrot-based American smooth. We need to dance

like we're floating on air. I always like lifts because they

feel quite exciting. They can also bring about a little

bit of pain! Are you all right? They actually hurt quite a lot. The

result is they are so beautiful. In order to get the look of it being

effortless and create the beautiful lines, it has to be technically

spot-on. The things which maybe I didn't get right in the past, that

cannot be there any more. My second dance this week is the

paso doble. The paso doble is a very controlled dance. It is like you

gather all this energy and then you go - definitely intense with a lot

of lines and control. It is a conscious act of being arrogant. A

lot of holding the frame and trying to get that right attitude in the

body. So, a lot of work. This week it will be tough. Every week is

tough! For me, it is! I just have to push him and

hopefully everything will come together on the Saturday night.

My second dance is going to be Argentine tango. Three, four - don't

turn out your hips. It is a very difficult dance. It whats a

different technique to it. There doesn't seem to be anything

that I can apply that I have learnt so far.

Push down and relax. Oh I'll have trouble with that. It is like

completely forgetting what you were doing for the past 11 weeks and

starting from scratch. Relax your arms. There's a fine line between

being in the way and getting it right.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, I lost my balance!

Sorry! But it will be all right on the

night! Our second dance this week is the

salsa. Obviously there's a lot of hip movement.

You do the dance hips and I can't do them. It has to be a big party and

go out there and blast it. Although it is fast and furious, it is up my

street. It feels like a clubby dance. Your natural instinct goes

bang - that is what' we'll do. I want her to -- that is what we'll

do. I want her to shake her hair around like Beyonce. There's going

to be no holding back in this salsa. We make sure this one really sizzles

on the Strictly dance floor. That is how the dancers are looking.

How will they look on Saturday night? Of please welcome costume

designer and general genius, Vicky Gill. Hello. Can I just say -

everywhere I go in the supermarket, people are me is Pasha single and

how bril cant are the costumes and can they borrow them. -- brilliant

are the costumes and can they borrow them? We make our way over to the

first dress, which is Anya's waltz dress, dancing Patrick on Saturday

night - to Unchained Melody. This is probably the only pass tell colour

she's not had this season. She's gone through the mints and the

yellows. It is a light dress. We only have one layer of stretch lace

and one of this lace. Just for you. And many booingle beads in gold,

silver and lilac. Lots running through. It will have lots more. A

lot of the dresses are not finished this week. There are two. You cannot

possibly know who will get this far... . So we run out of options.

With veto do it week on. You will see more crystals by the time you

get to Saturday. Shall we Drunken Sailor across to the other side... I

think they look a bit like this! This is Abbey's samba dress. Is this

for you? You can hold that. Here we go! You would have thought we had

rehearsed this. . This silhouette we use for her titles and press shots

early on. We have not seen her dance or perform in this shape. It is nice

to make sure we bring it back for samba. We need feather and movement

for her. The reason it is pale blue is we hoped to do a denim feel. They

are dancing to George Michael, Fate. It is not really Strictly denim. I

am sure one day you might make it happen. I did one in blue feathers -

it brought me a lot of luck. Let's go to the ironing board. Susanna is

doing a foxtrot to Frankie Vallie, Can't Take My sap Eyes Off -- Can't

Take My Eyes Off Of You. I love that shoulder detail. It will be very

delicate and light. There is a story by the sounds of it in the routine -

hence the colours. Sophie is doing an American smooth and it is a real

classic. Again, for her, a real classic dress, which she wears so

well. It will not be on set. Again we have light grey crystals.

It will be put on a nude base. Between all these layers of beading

it will be picked up and be much lighter. Her skirt is light. Light

grey. It is quite art deck co. Natalie doing an Argentine tango and

you have gone for a classic style. In terms of the silhouette. The

frill on the bottom would not necessarily be Argentine tango. I

felt if we brought the hem line up for Natalie... She has great legs. I

felt the sheer George get would work. What do you call that - it is

an interesting line - that bust line. It is Vicky's take on it.

We put it at the under bust point, because Natalie is small on her

waist. We want to accentuate the beautiful body.

We have lots of crystals and different sizes. You can see into

the spine and up the shoulder. It will look stunning. Two dances this

week. How many in the final? Three, I believe - she says! You will be

one busy lady. Vicky - isn't she amazing! I liked our dancing, even

if the critics didn't like it. Our professional dancers like to look

their best. Who overdoes the fake tan and who has natural beauty? Fake

tan - around here! The person who wears the most fake

tan... . We all wear loads of fake tan. Like a series of taek side

boards. They are all tan-tastic. That is easy - it would be Robin.

Robin! Robin!

Robin, definitely wears the most. We have to go for Kevin Clifton,

because he is lily white and he wears a lot of fake tan. I am so

pale that I have to wear so many more coats of tan than everyone else

just to look normal. I wear the most. Me personally - I don't do

any. All natural! Who is the best looking person on

Strictly Come Dancing? Not for me to say, is it? Me... No, not me!

Not me... Sorry! Of course it is Anton du Beke. Mirror, mirror, on

the wall, who is the fairest of them all... No, no, I can't possibly say

me! They are all gorgeous. I am putting

him in a heart, Aljaz. Very hand some. It is Mr Aljaz.

I think Aljaz is the best looking. Let's think about him for a bit...

They took the rough with their smooth on Saturday night. They are

here to tell us all about it - Susanna and Kevin. He's the

best-looking dancer on Strictly and also now a Guinness World Record

holder. He is a world record holder. Could

he get any more perfect. I met two teenage girls, they are called

Clifton - that is their surname. They are wearing glasses like him.

Standing ovations for your Argentine tango on Saturday night. Brilliant!

You go to the judges and they were pretty harsh. You did see upset when

you went to speak to Tess about that. How did it feel? A standing

ovation, which felt brilliant and four judges firmly stuck to their

seats and saying it didn't have enough passion. I am sorry, I am a

little bit crocky. It has been a really challenging week.

I'm not still tearful about the fact they didn't like it, just in case

anyone is confused. It was disappointing that they didn't love

it as much as we loved it. We really loved to dance that dance, didn't

we? Definitely. Have Have you watched and it back? The judges were

saying about it lacking passion and stuff. We felt we spent most of the

dance in each other's faces. I think Susanna is one of the most

passionate dancersvy never done. I am -- dancers I have ever known.

Your brilliant lean - talk us through it. I could not tell you how

it is done. That is a big secret. Is it magic circle type stuff. You can

see from me floundering about. In rehearsals I was twice that far. It

was going to be a good moment and it would not work on the night. I was

gutted! Susanna did some amazing distracting. Susanna saw it straight

away and went bang. Swingathon, you get voted off first. You didn't get

to start. We were so ready for it after the disapointment of the

Argentine tango marks and everything. We looked at each other

and said, right we need the points - are you ready? Are you ready? We

went, do you love me, five, six, seven eight, get out. You, Susanna

and Kevin - if you can't read it! I haven't even got my costume on and

she hasn't got her shoes on yet. We didn't get to do it! I am sorry. The

viewers saved you. That is brilliant stuff. Are you feeling the pressure

they have saved you? I felt so emotional because we were so clear

clearly - we did haven't the best night and then I had the best night

because the public voted to save us and it felt absolutely amazing. As I

said on the night, if I could literally go and knock on everyone's

door and say, I love you... Thank you individualally! It might take

you some time! After the swingathon, it is no surprise you might need a

lie down, as we spotted something in the training room. It has to be

said, there have been microsleeps. Two minute power nap. I am feeling a

bit tired. My eyelid eyelids close for a

fraction longer than they should do. You think I can't see it!

I am always back in the room! And one, two, three, four, five, six...

OK! Don't fall asleep, Susanna!

And she's down! She's down! Back in the room. The semi-final this

weekend. So exciting. Two dances - the first of which is the foxtrot.

How is it going? I love it. It is lovely, beautiful ballroom dance.

Kevin's gorgeous steps and choreography. And you have wonderful

music - Frankie Vallie. Is it great to do a classic dance to

a classic song? It is nice to have a classic song for each dance and nice

to have one that everyone can sing along to, hopefully! How were the

pivots of doom? They are becoming pivots of paradise. Yes! That is

what we want to hear. You are doing the salsa to this music.

Party dance - Junior Senior - I love it. Are you loving it? It is like

being at a club on a Saturday night. Who would have thought... The news

lot, they are the worst - I tell you. It is the party dance, the

semi-final. How excited about the weekend are you? And fingers crossed

will you get to the final now? Crazy excited. We are enjoying the two

dances we've've got. -- we've got.th Give it up for a world record holder

- and his incredible partner, Susanna and Kevin.

So fast! That is it for today. Thanks to all

my guests. Join me here tomorrow I will talk to Abbey and Aljaz. I will

catch up with Sophie and Brendan. Plus, my Friday panel, Chris

Hollins, Chris Parker and Lewis Smith. See you tomorrow night. Well

done!