Episode 2 Strictly - It Takes Two

Hello. We will be chatting to the charming Tim and Natalie. Also, the

gorgeous Pixie and Trent. Check out the shorts! You look amazing. Also

tonight, it will be the... Oh! Hello. Thom and Iveta. I'm going to

have a lie down! From London, this is Strictly: It

Takes Two. Please welcome your host, Zoe Ball!

APPLAUSE Hello. And welcome to It Takes Two.

As always, we will be bringing you bang up-to-date with the Strictly

backstage gossip, the tears, the tantrums, the twirls and the tangos.

Karen Hardy is here to shed some light on any choreography quibbles

from Saturday's show. First to join us on the sofa, it is pop princess

Pixie Lott and new boy, Trent Whiddon.

APPLAUSE # Girls just want to have fun. End

# Welcome to the show. Total props for

a seriously jumping jive. It was incredible. You certainly impressed

the judges. Let's remind ourselves. Another great debut. I do feel,

though, because you have so much ability, I could have seen a lot

more leg action and bounce. I can't wait to see what you will do next.

What I'm saying is, it wasn't perfect. It was great. A lot of

energy. Lots of content. I thought that was terrific.

7. 6. 7 7. When did you first watch it back? I

tried to watch it on the way home in the car. It was like a little

YouTube clip and they were so blurry. I got my friend to get her

mum to film on her phone. When it came through, it was so pixelated!

Get in! Sorry. I couldn't see it. It was worth the wait. And Craig said

he thought something happened. Was there something? It was. They are

going to show it now! Oh man! That was the little bit I was dreading. I

was fine in the rehearsals. On the day, I was like, Trent, that bit, my

foot kept going sticky! I was, like, I don't know, freaking out. There

was a high kick. And I was nervous. It is so fast, I couldn't get the

high kick in. It takes a while to get unthere. -- up there. You have

got long legs? I freaked out. So I thought it would slip by the judges,

but it didn't. The thing is, that was the tiniest bit. The standard is

so good, they will be quite picky? I didn't realise they would be on the

first week. I know. Everybody was so good that they were forced to do

that. Shall we get to know Trent a little better? We don't know much

about him. Have a look at this. I love your jacket. I'm a dance

champion from Australia and I'm super-excited to be here on

Strictly. Since I was a kid, I have trained in ballroom, Latin, jazz,

hip-hop, ballet, you name it, I have done it. I love dancing because that

is where I am free to be myself. Becoming a professional dancer was

ridiculously hard. I have come to take the Glitterball! That is

fighting talk. He is serious about this. How difficult was that routine

for him to give you first week? Jive is notoriously difficult and the

speed of it. Was that difficult for you to learn? Jive is a really hard

one. Apparently, they are all hard. I have to wait and see what is in

store. But I think because it is so I have to wait and see what is in

fast and, like, after every time I would do it, I would get so out of

breath. Sitting on the floor... I collapsed each time at the end. But,

yeah, it is really fast and also when Darcey was saying, "I want to

see more bounce." It is like that bounce that you have to capture.

There is a lot in there, you have the nerves, the energy, the speed of

it and the bounce. You two will be great. Next week, the waltz. How is

that going? Have you tried it out yet? What do you think? We had our

first trial today of learning the routine. Yes. And I think it's a

beautiful dance. I really, really want to get it right. I feel, like,

Darcey would like this one. She is like a ballerina. So, I want to make

sure that we don't let her down. It is so hard with the posture and now

I know how technical they are, I can't do any slip-ups. You did the

waltz. Ian always used to say, he would push my head up. If he has

terrible breath, you will be fine! That is one of the tips we are going

to use. I love your energy. You two are adorable. Welcome to the show,

Trent. Good luck with your waltz. Pixie and Trent. Thank you.

APPLAUSE Now, if you like us are already

missing the glitz, the glamour, the sparkle and the Spandex and can't

wait until Saturday night, we have a treat for you now. This is a look

behind-the-scenes of the most glamorous shoot in town. Roll the

titles. Action! It is my first step with my

scary teacher. I don't know what I'm doing. We

shoot it against a green-screen because I can replace the background

with the ballrooms and the scenes which make up the title sequence. If

we mess it up, we are looking rubbish for the whole series!

With the cheesy grin. Of course! Get away! It's fun. It is like starting

a brand-new job and you don't know what it is about. Trying to look as

effortless and stylish as possible. Whether I do that is another thing.

That was so sharp, I almost cut myself! I'm loving my first day as a

Strictly couple. It is like I have a temporary girl, maybe for a few

months! Action! I'm in Janette's hands. She is the boss. I'm happy.

I'm on his lap! Cut! So, at the moment, we are behind-the-scenes on

the idents, the bit where they say this is Alison and Aljaz. She really

enjoys dancing. It should be a good series. I'm making the lights smash!

He makes me laugh so much. I really struggle to do anything without

giggling. Definitely going to need to work on my kicks. He is showing

me up! APPLAUSE

Weren't they beautiful? He's big, he's brave and he's got great ball

skills - three things that will not help in the ballroom! They do make

him a hell of a catch! We are delighted to welcome Thom Evans and

Iveta Lukosiute! APPLAUSE

# What a man # What a man. #

I enjoyed your wonderful waltz at the weekend. It was stunning. How

did it feel out there, Thom? It was amazing. I was happy to get through

it. I felt like I kind of let my nerves get the better of me. It was

such an amazing experience, you know, the band, the audience,

awesome. It was. You got carried away. Then the judges said that

perhaps you played it a bit safe. Was that a bit of a blow when you

have had that lovely moment and you hear something like that? I think I

- I looked quite - I slightly messed up a bit which Craig picked up on.

I'm happy to get through it. It was such a lovely experience to dance

with her. She makes it very easy. Iveta. She is hot! We love her.

Let's remind ourselves of your performance at the weekend. It was a

bit careful in places, but I do understand that. You want to get it

neat and dainty. It was so kind, so caring. You tried so hard to get

everything right. I found it almost moving. I think you let Iveta down

slightly when you did that promenade turn with her. But I did love it. 5.

6. 6. . -- 6. Good job. Week one is done.

APPLAUSE She said good job. I have missed

you. I'm so excited to see you again. Craig was saying that maybe

Thom didn't take control. I find it hard to believe that Thom would not

take control of the situation. What did you think? I think Thom did take

control and he was there for me all the time. I think for the first

dance he had a very tough job to do because he had to be not in the

comfort zone, half his arms, leading the lady, know where to go, think of

the footwork. And also not look at me for comfort. I'm the only friend

on the dancefloor. He had to look at a different direction. He's been

told to. It's a very tough job. I'm very, very proud that he

accomplished all the things we worked on, so he was there and he

didn't let me down and he did amazing and I am very proud of him.

That was like an Oscar speech! I love it. She is right. After, when

you dance, you get to look at each other. With ballroom, you have to

look off. Whenever I have danced with a girl in the past, I like to

look at them. If we were dancing, I would look at you. Stop! And it

was... Not if, when! I'm kidding. Any way, how is training going

together? How is it in the training room? Is he a good boy? Does he

listen to you? He's a very good boy. He listens. He does everything I

say. Yes, he is a very hard worker. He is very attentive. Very focussed.

He is an athlete. So I think our training is very similar, so it is

very easy for me to work with Thom and I'm sure it's vice versa. The

sportsmen and dancers, they have a similar mentality. We have had a

look into your training room. It does seem that Iveta, your dance

analogy gets lost in translation. Have a look. Star Trek ears. Like

Star Trek ears. All the time. It is like holding twins, use your inner

thighs, like magnets. In the movie theatre, when you go excuse me,

excuse me. Like a fruit punch. I do like a fruit punch. It looks like a

Martini glass. Legs like an expensive car, what do you call

them, the balloon starts like... Deflating. Don't deflate! APPLAUSE

Iveta, you make me die laughing! Doesn't it help? It does. I like the

way my favourite is where she says body. It is like from a Bruce Willis

film, Die Hard. This week, from the waltz, to the salsa. It is a sexy

dance. It must be hard to make Thom be sexy(!) How is it going? Are you

crying? I am. I cannot wait to do the salsa. For me, just the up tempo

song will really bring out the sexiness in me as Bruno was talking

about. I felt like the waltz, it was hard to do that, especially in the

first dance. I can't wait. Let it rip! Come on, Thom! It will be

brilliant. Are you promising? He is a very fun guy. In salsa, you will

get to see his fun side of his personality besides the sexiness and

his looks. I am looking forward... I love you two! Good luck this

weekend. Thom and Iveta! APPLAUSE Null it is time to take a

closer look at those Saturday night performances and who better to talk

us through the good, the bad, the down right dis-aaa-strous, it is the

queen of choreography herself, Karen Hardy.

Oh and a shimmy! What more could you want? Pillows are back! If they

offend you, you can turn them around. That's an interesting shot.

Is that me thinking about Craig? Clearly! Let's talk about Saturday.

We will talk about the opening to the show, the gorgeous Mark Wright.

The judges said it had too much energy. Is that possible? You

The judges said it had too much never have too much energy. Week

one, all that energy will be building up. You have to let it go.

one, all that energy will be For me, this was a chance for Karen

to really show off and pressurise some of the competitors. This is

what my man can do! Potentially, it wasn't too much energy. There could

have been a lot more content. OK. What did you think of his

caterpillar? I loved it. For those of us that remember Darren Gough

doing that, that was brilliant. Technically, like Mark, not as

strong, but he captivated the audience. That is what we will see

with another Mark and Karen. OK. Aljaz and Alison. The judges loved

Alison's energy. She was wonderful out there. A few comments on flat

footwork. They are picky. This is a woman that is a real woman and I

have chosen the step here, the Cuban break into the back, her energy, her

rhythm. Rhythm, if we remember, means a regular occurrence of

accented beats. Her body just oozes rhythm. It just keeps ticking away,

so talking about ticking away, I will get up and tick for two seconds

on our little dancefloor! Come on. We will look at those Cuban breaks.

What we normally get week one is this. And we have seen some of them

do it. Oh no, not Alison. She had the lovely feet going. She had the

ticking of her body, the body was oozing and she was just loving it. I

could watch you do that all night. We have to move on. The feet will

improve. They weren't complaining, they were saying it needs improving.

Good stuff. Let's talk about our wild man and his serious tango,

Steve and Ola. His muscles were a massive talking point amongst the

judges. Can there be such a thing as too big? Never! Look at these

muscles. Now, we are talking about a tango here which does mean the hold

comes a bit further around the lady, so rightly so, he's got this hold

right, he's crowning a little bit. Look at the pivots. To control Ola

takes a strongman. -- strong man. I think that will grow. Later on in

the ballroom, when the tail suit is on, he needs to round back a bit.

Bring on the muscles. Thom and Iveta. The judges said he played it

a bit too safe? I will never say anything bad about this man. The

looks alone. Look at him. What we have to remember, waltz week one for

a man is never a winner. Look at this. This beautiful standing spin.

The team work between them already. The connection between the two of

them. Maybe it was a bit quiet, but watch out what is going to come.

It's a sportsman. You teach a sportsman technique, they store it

and they will use it time and time again. They will get stronger and

stronger and that is what we will see with Thom. OK. Sunetra and

Brendan. Bruno says she has a wonderful bendy back. Her hold was a

bit wobbly. It is really hard to demonstrate. I have been working

closely with Scotty in the editing room. He has done a lovely piece of

work. She was really strong. This is a feisty lady. We will freeze here,

can you see where the wobble started to kick in? We have the frame that's

wobbling and Brendan's hand has had to come right the way around her

back. What will happen, as they go into the next step now, she will try

to recover, but there is a lovely slow motion that I have picked up,

see her hand wobbling around? She pulls it back. She recovers. She

corrected herself. Great. She pulls that top line in. We must not

overlook this lady. She a tough character on her TV show. We will

see great things from her. Go, Sunetra! Let's talk about Gregg. And

his cha cha cha with Aliona. Stop it! There were good bits in it. I

love you, Gregg. Tell me what you made of his performance. I think

this is a case of the cat's got the cream. Look at the bit I have got

here. He just cannot take his eyes off of Aliona. He is all gooey. When

we know him in another show, he is just bullying and, you know, he's

got to get on and - he can't take his eyes off her. He's got to start

practising what he preaches. He has to get tough. He has to pull in.

He's got to give Aliona a run for her money. She will get much more

excited then and then we will have a feisty two. OK. Frankie and Kevin.

This was a beautiful moment. Bruno was so moved he was almost crying.

Would you agree. Stunning? This is week one. She's been on tour, poor

Kevin must have been running around all over the place. I have picked up

this piece here. We are talking about the top line. She does a

beautiful top line. She does the head roll and manages to maintain

that gorgeous line and, oh, I just - what was accompanied with this, was

not only the technical strength but the emotion and the pure innocence

of it. It was just beautiful. We don't normally see it as gorgeous as

that on week one. I know. Stunning. Well done, Frankie. Simon and

Kristina. Huge amount of choreography in their jive. Simon

did so well. The judges did pick up a little it bit on Simon's lack of

point and retreat in his feet. What more can you tell us about that? I

am here to defend our celebrities today. He was fantastic. If any of

those judges start picking on him, they will have to contend with me!

This kicking, I normally show you side by side. He is kicking in hold

and then he's building up to a trick where normally the girls will go

through the legs, but, no, he goes through, he does a flick as well.

Fantastic. When - so everyone is clear, we don't overextend when we

kick. He did it perfectly. You keep the feet lovely and soft. Otherwise,

if they are too rigid, the timing of the kick will go wrong. So he kept

it lovely and free. If he had a bit more time, we could have had that

retreat that they talked about. A little bit higher. They are

nit-picking because it was so good. Standards are so high. Yes. Jennifer

and Tristan. Jennifer was marked quite low, where did she go wrong? I

think it came under the nice category. In marketing, you want to

be fantastic or a di-sa-ster. She's so nice. And it means you will fall

in the middle and she gets tense. This is really hard. But it is a

wake-up call probably to her. I am hoping next week she will come back

and go I realise how hard this show is and I'm in the running for it.

That is her one week chance to get up and fight back. Thank you so

much. Look after yourself and your precious cargo. See you next week.

APPLAUSE They love you a lot. Having

accumulated the most hours of training last week, our next pair

had mixed reviews on Friday but they did make Bruno cry with joy. Please

welcome Tim and Natalie. APPLAUSE

# It's about the money # The money. #

Hello, my darling. Welcome, legs! So lovely to have you back. Hello,

chaps. Claudia said I would love you. Look at you. You are gorgeous.

You are so far away. Whose legs are you talking about? Well, your legs!

And look at your socks! They are marvellous. Shall we remind

ourselves of your incredible performance at the weekend? Wasn't

that fantastic? It was. It was cheeky. Fun. Surprisingly

entertaining. If you can sell this, you can sell anything! Your gait, my

entertaining. If you can sell this, darling, is extremely wide. Looked

like you were wearing a soiled nappy.

You come out full on with personality and you gave it

everything! 3. 5. 5. 5. We got three 5s. We did!

APPLAUSE Tim, the nation absolutely loved you

out on that dancefloor. Even yourself, when you came off, you

were like, that was fantastic! It was. It was so good. To do the whole

thing without falling over, it was an achievement! Were you hoping the

judges would agree with you? Naturally. He who punches first,

survives. Most of them agreed. They did. Most of them agreed. Well, one.

You entertained everyone. Everybody - the judges did enjoy it. Craig

came in with a comment and by your own admission, it was a little bit

below the belt? I felt anything connected with the underwear should

not be mentioned on this quality of show. Never mind about that. That is

history. And in fact if you unpick the embroidery of what he was

saying, he was criticising some steps and kind of legs being in the

wrong place which is perfectly fair, I think. Fair criticism. Yes. Taken

on board. We will improve. We will. Sorry, I will improve! She can try.

Lovely to have you back on the show. Thank you. We missed you last year.

It is wonderful to have you back. They were talking about Tim's gait.

What is wrong with Tim's gait, if anything? Can it be fixed? Anything

can be improved and worked on. I was so proud that we got through the

routine and we had an amazing time doing it. We have got a great dance

this week, which will help improve that. And we have been working loads

on technique and we will take anything that the judges, especially

Craig, as constructive criticism and take it on board. And do as much as

we can, really. That is what is so lovely about this girl. You can only

go forward, onwards and upwards. The exciting thing for you, Natalie, is

when you are in the training room, Tim comes in with some of his own

moves for you to try out. His unique moves! Have a look. Tim has got this

cool kind of quirky freestyle, it is so awesome! It is something I have

never seen before. I love it. Like Mick Jagger but better! Funky! I'm

known for being incredibly sexy and confident(!) You do come alive when

you've got... Rhythm! APPLAUSE

You are fast becoming a favourite. This week, you are doing the waltz.

How is it going? We havele only just started. And I'm trying to get to

grips with my hold. That is my beg problem at the moment. Yeah. What do

you mean, yeah? To come from a cha cha, where you have not had to think

about frame or anything, it is difficult. Like I say, it is early

days! I'm trying the hold. Then the business with the feet. She said the

most important thing is the hold. So we got to grips with the hold. Then

she said what about the feet? I said you never told me anything about the

feet! I cannot wait, ladies and gentlemen. It is going to be

wonderful. Tim, Natalie, good luck with your waltz. You are terrific!

Tim and Natalie! A massive thanks to all of tonight's guests. Tune in

tomorrow, I will be joined by Scott Mills, the cha-cha-mazing Caroline

Flack and hoping to keep his emotions in check, the gorgeous Mark

Wright, plus their professional partners and my old mate will be

here with his Wednesday Warm-Up, Ian wait. Will you join us tomorrow?

Yes? ALL: Yes!

That went Alfie Wickers

is the baddest teacher. There is no way you would actually

put our lives at risk.