Episode 58 Strictly - It Takes Two

Hello and welcome to Wednesday's edition of It Takes Two.

They smoothly paso'd their way into the final - Sophie and Brendan are

here! Our wedding couple tied the knot on

Friday. Were they able to pull off the big dance? Natalie's here to

tell all. And as we look forward to Saturday's

finale, Ian's back with a bumper Wednesday Warm Up.

This is Strictly: It Takes Two. Life from London, this is Strictly

It Takes two. Please welcome your host, Zoe Ball!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Hello and welcome to Wednesday's It

Takes Two. Just three more sleeps until Saturday's final and our

couples are all training hard on not one, not two, but three showstopping

dances. I feel a Wednesday Warm Up coming on. I think that's what it

is. It's my favourite man apart from my husband, Ian Waite!

CHEERING And there's Ryan Gosling and a few others. Ian, it is the

final on Saturday. It is. Ened our last Wednesday Warm Up. I know! It

is sad. On Saturday the couples will be tackling a dance picked by the

judges and a show dance, and after that we lose one couple and the

three remaining finalists will perform their own favourite dance

from the series and then we'll have a winner. Let's look at the show

dances. So exciting. No rurals. They can do leaps, jumps, props, anything

they like. How important is it? Is very important. It will be the

second number, the it will be just about when people vote. The votes

open up after the show dance, so it is best that you are in people's

minds and they are thinking wow, that was amazing. Unleash the wand,

if you would, Sir. Ho, ho, ho. Thank you! Abbey and Aljaz are doing their

show dance to Guns N' Roses. Brilliant. We can't listen to it but

we can look at their training. We are not showing the tricks and

stunts. It looks like it is a paso doble. They are normally very

dramatic. No doubt this will be, and a rock song, so it will be adding to

the drama. I want to point out she's using her skirt here, a lot of

skirtography - new word. She needs to do that really positively and

really emphasise it 100% if she is going to do that. It's a show dance,

so they've got to go for it. I'm hoping Aljaz will be wearing a slash

shirt and top hat. But it is unlikely. They are dancing to

Steppin' Out With My Baby by Fred Astaire. It is very Fred and Ginger,

a lot of side by side stuff. . They've got canes, and who wouldn't?

I want toism ties how great their matching arms are and their matching

legs. Brilliant. Top students. This is what they need at this stage. She

needs to patch him perfectly, especially in the side by side.

Brilliant work. Susanna and Kevin are doing their dance to the Moulin

Rouge version. It will be emotional. Something that will connect with the

audience and make them vote. All of this stuff is solo, intricate

armography. Beautifully done by Susanna there. Earlier I notice

because it's a waltz that they are bringing back the pivots that they

did seven weeks ago. Or was it week seven? They were pivoting all the

way around the floor. It is a great feature in this number. If it works,

bring it back. Sophie and Brendan are doing their show dance to a

Whitney Houston classic, Wanna Dance With Somebody. I danced to it in

series two with Denise Lewis. And what happened? In those days it was

called the freestyle, not a show dance. Did you win? No, we were

second. Let's look at this clip. Sophie needs to work on her core.

She needs to be positive and needs to be a little bit more - in a way,

to lead him more, to take control, go for it and be a little bit in

front of him. I know we say follow, I want her to follow but I want her

to take initiative and go for it. She did on Saturday. Please don't go

far. We'll have a second dose of Ian later on.

CHEERING So, as we've just seen, the couples

are working hard for the final. But it was their impressive paso and

American smooth that booked Brendan and Sophie a place. I'll be chatting

to them in a moment, but first here's a reminder of Saturday's

semifinal. You gave power I haven't seen you give to a dance before. For

me it was starchy and looked a bit of Spanish line. The content, the

passion and the intent in delivering it was incredible, Sophie. You've

done what one of always asked of you. Come out here and kill it and

you did it. Let's do another dance. A beautiful

flow to it. There was an elegance and a sophisticationment Sophie,

this is your dance. Those three lifts from the top the middle and

then the bottom, it was so grateful. You came in and out of them

seamlessly. Your best performance to date.

Tonight wasn't about doing enough to get to the final but that we made it

to the semifinal. Please welcome Sophie and Brendan! Two such

super-stylish performances on Saturday night. We are starting with

the fire and the passion of your paso doble. Bruno said you made

yourself proud here. How delighted were you at the end of that dance?

It felt incredible. . That moment where we finished, I still had my

eyes closed and I heard the cloud erupt into applause is a moment I

will I will Treasury ture. -- treasure. Sophie had a dress

malfunction at the start, her dress popped open at the top, so she was

thinking about that... It could have been memorable for all the wrong

reasons. My Lord, it could have been extra points! Yes! The audience were

on their feet, the judges loving the drama you brought to that dance. .

Do you feel you've conquered any performance issues you might have

had with that? It was a big moment for me. That's been something I've

struggled with a bit over the weeks, so to have that aspect praised meant

a lot to me. It was something I tried... So much of the paso is

about the attitude and the drama, and it was there. Your American

smooth, Brendan coming down the bannisters like that, how did you

get health and safety to sign off on that? They never did, but true to

myself I did it anyway. I wanted a magical number for that person

smooth. It is very important that you take the audience watching on a

bit of a journey with you. You want them to be involved with everything

you are doing. With a gorgeous piece of music, you slide down the

bannisters, Sophie hit her position and we started dancing. It was a

magical moment on Strictly. We had two extremes of emotions on that

night. Very intense, and you got your first ten. Boy, have you had to

wait for that? It must have been to brilliant. It was so pretty, such a

good thing. I wanted a ten for me but for Brendan too. He's given me

every week the tools to get that ten but I wasn't quite hitting it. You

have been it hadding it for weeks, my dear. You have. And Craig was a

bit more reserved, muttering about you being out of hold. What do you

think when you hear, that come on, Craig, give them more than an eight?

Everyone's got their agenda on this show. It is a good score. It is! I

like it would be comparable to other things happening on the show. I

think they've been extra picky for Sophie and I, for whatever reason, I

take it as a positive, as I think they see something in Sophie that's

very capable and able. She's a magnificent dancer and a magnificent

person to be on the show. . They want the best for her. If it means

marking her down with an eight, fine. And we made the final anyway.

It is all good. You have been training I think for 78 weeks now.

Is that all? It is 13 weeks. Drive, drive. Soft, soft, soft. This is

serious. Hup! Switch. Come on, woman. Is there a way to make it so

it doesn't hurt? No. OK. But I'm prepared to have pain for my art.

Why are we doing it so fast? That's brilliant. Oh, God. Flip ing heck!

Heck! That's funny. That poor girl's been put through torture for weeks.

But it is worth it. This weekend the final, three dance Tass. First of

all the judges have chosen to see your Viennese waltz again, which we

are thrilled about. This is from The Sound Of Music. Are you pleased they

chose this, Sophie? Yes, this was a very special moment for me first

time around. It is such a lovely dance. It's the essence of Strictly.

I would never have done a Viennese waltz anywhere else? Why not? I

don't understand! It felt glorious, so I'm very much looking forward to

it. The judges were talking afterwards about your neckline. Is

that something you've worked on? Very much so. You want it to be as

perfect as it can be and you want the judges to be on your side. As

much as the public have allowed us to be in the final, the judges have

given their marks to get us there as well. You want them to be going,

that was the best thing we've seen tonight. It means a lot to you when

you've put in the hours. I'm hoping that, come the final, it reaches a

pinnacle for us. And it is that point where if we don't make it

through to the next point and don't get to do our Charleston... We want

to see that again. The quickly, will your show dance. Whitney Houston,

Wanna Dance With Somebody. Why did you choose that one? Because it is

Saturday night, it is the final, the we want the ultimate party track and

have a lovely time on that dancefloor. Can you tell us

anything? It's a dance. Thank you. That's all I need to know. And

again, we get to see that Charleston. If we get through to the

last bit. Everybody has to vote. Last time you got almost perfect

scores. That was week three when you did this. Week two. Will you be able

to improve on that? Who cares? I will be having a ball. We danced it

the first time in rehearsal as yesterday. I was blown away by it.

She dances like and I feel silly next to her, that's how good she is.

Good luck this week. Three incredible dances. We'll see you on

Friday and in the meantime, get working! Sophie and Brendan!

CHEERING Now, we may have already mentioned

that this series of Strictly reaches its finale on Saturday. But fear

not, there's a special edition of Strictly on Christmas Day. We took a

sneak peek as they were filming their big opening number. Take a

look. So here we are Lapland UK for our special Christmas show. Still

glitzy, but with my very nice spotty boots. I'm going to dance my way

around the beautiful forest. It is a very exciting trip. The main reason

for it is to reveal the six celebrities on the Christmas show.

We've got huskies, Santa's sleigh. It is going to be fantastic. I'm

slow getting Strictlified, is that the word? I do need more glamour in

my life, so you find me here on day one of filming the Strictly shaving

out of a bucket! Here I am with a snow machine I've not really used

before. I think that's two settings. Either very little snow or foam

party. And, action! Lots of energy. I've got Robin looking after me and

we are bringing our own brand of special Christmas magic.

We had a bit of high jinks. We did. I had a whole bucket of snow for

lunch. Your lip gloss was amazing afterwards. That's cute. Love it.

The pro dancers, when they do it, it is classy. But when you are not

really that person, you feel like Hugh going... And that's less cool.

We are about to do the final sequence, a big dance number,

two-and-a-half minutes. We've got the celebrities, the pros. We've got

the lights and we've got moonlight. It will look magical. Now we are

getting into the evening you can see how pretty everything looks. It is

snowing and there's twinkly lights. Wow! Look at that! ! Isn't it

pretty? Look, we can do fake snow. Let it snow, let it snow, let it

snow. Once we've met on the celebrities, the everybody dances

towards the finale, on the ice Rick. -- ice rink.

When I came to Strictly I was in awe of how useful the sets are, and

Strictly puts the show into business. I'm trying to keep warm.

And in the next couple of minutes we have to take our jackets off and

dance. Show business style. We've reached the end of the day's

filming, and we are going to do the finale. It is going to be so

incredible you won't believe your eyes but you've got to wait for

Christmas Day, like a beautiful present ready to unwrap. So It Takes

two, turn this off! Three words - Rufus Hound's tattoos.

I say! And you can watch Strictly's

Christmas Special on BBC One at 5.00pm on Christmas Day.

So, Mel and Gordon's big day finally arrived last week, and of course all

eyes were on their first dance. Did their two months of intense dance

training pay off? Here with her final report is Miss Natalie Lowe. !

CHEERING Hello my darling. Hello! We've seen you get quite emotional

during this process. How were you on the big day itself? I'm emotional

now. My heart's pounding, because I haven't seen the dance back, but it

was the most magical day. I was emotional, proud, honoured to be

there. It was the perfect wedding with in every way. A I got emotional

watching this film earlier. This is how their day started.

Mel and Gordon's big day has finally arrived and I can't tell you how

excited I am. All the guests are arriving. . I'm going to get my

seat. I'm feeling really excited today. We've had done the planning

and had all the stress. It is nice that it is here at last and we can

properly enjoy it. When I first saw Mel I was just

blown away. Simply stunning. Melanie and Gordon have made their marriage

vows to each other. They have declared their marriage by the

joining of hands and by the giving and receiving of rings. I therefore

proclaim that they are husband and wife.

APPLAUSE My favourite part of the ceremony

was the very end, when they walked back down the aisle hand in hand as

husband and wife. That was just beautiful. It feel quite surreal

that we are now husband and wife, but it is a great feeling. Too. I'm

a bit nervous, because the church is done but we've got the dance to do

tonight, so the pressure is on. Isn't it beautiful? And Gordon was

in a kilt! Weddings always make me cry. That was the easy bit. Yes.

Just the big dance to come. You've been working with them for months

now. Did you feel confident they were going to nail the performance

in front of their family and friends? I really did. The day

couldn't have gone any better. It was a great vibe. The family and

friends were extremely supportive. Everyone was egging them on to do

well and to do their best, to enjoy the moment. I knew they would. Did

you manage to cram in any last minute rehearsals? Yes, we did two

or three run-through and things that Gordon wasn't really getting, it

call came together at the right time. I think everybody is dying to

see this. This is Mel and Gordon pulling off the biggest wedding

dance you've seen. My mind was going at 1 million miles per hour. It was

really terrifying knowing that everybody was there and that was the

big moment. # Some people wait a lifetime for a

moment like this #. When we finished the waltz, everyone

thought that was it, and then people realised we were doing more. It was

electric. I had never experienced anything

like that. To be up there, to be the people that everybody was looking at

and cheering on was astonishing. For two people that had never danced

before, I'm so proud they could pull out that performance as well as they

did tonight. MUSIC: My First, My Last, My

Everything. It means everything to me. 12 weeks ago we were like a

normal couple. Our wedding day was incredibly special anyway but this

has just made it so much better. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Oh my goodness. I thought it was going to be good but never thought

in a million years it would be THAT good. They were having the time of

their lives and look happy on that dancefloor. I give them a ten. I've

just performed a Strictly dance in a Strictly dress, on Strictly - it is

a dream come true. CHEERING Come on, Mel and Gordon.

I'm so proud of them. We saw that lady saying she thought it would be

good but not that good. How good was it to sit there and see people's

reaction to it? Just watching that back, it is so overwhelming. They

did so well. You taught them well. Which part of the dance did you

think the crowd were most impressed with? I think when Gordon went into

ballroom hold. People weren't expecting that. They can relate that

to Strictly Come Dancing and when it went from the waltz into the cha-cha

and the lifts, everyone was so loud and encouraging. They were so good.

Are they going to keep up the dancing? I think they will get a

chance to do this again. You've worked with all kinds of dancers on

the show. How special was it to work with Mel and Gordon? I didn't get to

come on Strictly this year, so for me it was the most rewarding and

fulfilling job I've been given. You did an incredible job Natalie. Thank

you for showing us. Merry Christmas! APPLAUSE So, from one big day to

another - time now to look at even more dances we can enjoy in

Saturday's Strictly final. It's time to welcome back Ian Waite.

Here he is. Darling Mr Ian Waite. It is all very emotional. The wedding

and then my last Wednesday Warm Up. What are we going to do on

Wednesday? Come round and we'll do the show with puppets. Why would the

judges choose a certain dance? They are picking a dance that they loved

but they think the celebrity can improve on. They might have had

something which with Sophie's neck, or something that might not have

been so good, that they can improve on. Brilliant. One last time, the

unleash the wand. We can't look at Abbey and Aljaz's

judges' pick, because they've been working on the show dance, but they

are doing their waltz from week one, which was stunning. Natalie and

Artem, the judges wicked their cha-cha, from week one. She got 31.

Surely 12 weeks on she will have got the hip action nailed? It is

difficult to tell, because on this clip they are doing lots of swivels.

From what I can see, it is really slick. The only way you can do that

is if you have the right connection. What I want to show you is she has

dropped el Bose into the -- elbows into the body.

Push down and survive el back. In and out of the connection, like

that. That's a good work-out. Try that at home. The quickstep, how is

it looking for Susanna and Kevin? I think they will be pleased to be

doing this dance. First time around Susanna was slower than Kevin and

didn't match his foot patterns, but now she's more accomplished as a

dancer, this is a great number for them. I love the song and the

character. Anything with Gene Kelly has my vote. It is a fun number.

Sophie and Brendan, the judges have chosen their Viennese waltz, from

musicals week. My Favourite Things. She's really worked on her neckline.

They are looking really good. She really has taken it on board. She's

stretching out to the corners of the room. Over the rainbow. She is

looking over the rainbow. If you look here, and it is not easy to

get. I want to zoom in and show you how to get that. The you've got to

get the shoulders down. And she's got to think long neck both sides of

the neck. And she's got to be looking out over his shoulder. Over

the rainbow and out of the window. It's been a joy to have you warming

up on Wednesdays. Ian Waite, my master and commander.

CHEERING. I'm going to miss him. That's it for today. A big thank you

to all of my guests. Tomorrow, Susanna and Kevin join me on the

sofa along with a special panel made up of our finalists' friends. Plus,

Vicky Gill drops in one last time to give us a sneak peek of the amazing

costumes we can expect for the final. See you at 6.30pm. Goodnight.