Episode 21 Strictly - It Takes Two

Bryan Adams fever has hit the It Takes Two studio, after his show

Jeremy and Karen are rocking out to Summer Of '69.

And I can hear Jay and Aliona getting involved with

MUSIC: Everything I Do.

And it sounds like Ainsley and Natalie are finding their

MUSIC: When You're Gone.

Live from London, this is Strictly - It Takes Two. Bulk your host, Zoe

Ball! Hello, and welcome to It Takes Two,

coming live to your telly box This weekend, the ballroom was

practically bursting But, unfortunately,

the ballroom bubble did actually burst for Ainsley and Natalie, as

they jived out of the competition. Let's hear it for Ainsley

and Natalie! Our group have had a boat and yours

was the best x it dance we have seen, what a tune.

Thank you. You looked surprisingly happy but where you devastated? Of

course I was sad I could not continue with it.

But happy to be part of a wonderful set up, that Strictly bubble is

incredible to be involved in. Natalie, everybody else, it is such

a well oiled machine, you feel elated, this is great.

We have had so much love for you online, Lawrence says, Ainslie is a

legend, he was terrific to watch, I am sad to see him go.

Vanessa Feltz on the radio is gutted. How was the jive?

A great stars to go out on. So much energy, did you have fun?

Absolutely. Last week when Natalie said we would be doing the jive and

we went through the routine, oh, my word, I couldn't do it. I had the

blues. It went on and on. I was thrilled. I

had to get into it. The more the week went on, and Natalie said it

had been the best we had been at that stage of the Cobb edition.

Our strongest week, our most rehearsed. -- stage of the

competition. I was really happy with the way it

went. Heartbreaking to go home.

Natalie, heartbreaking for these celebs how hard is it the you as the

probe? It is really hard. I have been

really upset the past couple of days, I have had a little cry.

We were at the hassle for Halloween, and the team kept me

focused. I am gutted. I have had an amazing journey. It is

sad to see it come to a sudden end. You know, the judges said there

wasn't enough technique. I apologise to you for not giving a

proper jive. Don't be so silly.

I have never enjoyed so much putting on my training trousers every

morning. I have really loved it. We have gone to the funfair, these

roller-coaster rides, this is what it is like.

The trepidation, fear, joy, going up and down. It takes you over. That is

what Strictly is like. One minute you are positive, then you are

tense, then you relax again. It is wonderful, the journey is lovely.

And then the fair leaves town. Let us look at your Strictly story.

You are going to Ready, Steady, Dance with Natalie!

It felt like Christmas. Natalie, I am on my way to you.

We are doing a fantastic tango for the first week.

It is the longest I have seen you do not smile.

Just one eyebrow. No one is going to mess with your

tomatoes, you did a brilliant job. A bit of a shimmy. The hips.

Are you wearing full penguin outfits?

We can't tell you. There was nothing frozen about that

performance. Another opportunity to put it right.

We need to be in this 24 hours a day.

I really enjoyed it, I really did. You expressed a real charm.

It is in your body, it becomes part of your life.

I want to do you justice, give you the best experience and keep you

here as long as possible. Jami and the.

He was such a gentleman, a dream to work with.

You too, Natalie. Thank you. We have got you a little present. I

knew this would happen. We have got you a book with all of your scores.

What was your favourite dance, watching that?

So many, I love the idea of doing the waltz with Natalie. Out of the

five dancers, four were full on. To do the waltz was very calming and

showed I had another side personality -- another side, some

versatility. Who would you like to see go on and

win the trophy? There is so much talent on board,

Jay and owner special, the girls, Anita, who can forget Helen.

Everybody is steadily improving, so to pick one and say they stand out

is wrong. Semifinal day, come back and I might

give you a tip. Oh, yes. It has been amazing to watch you dance

together, we will miss you. I just want to say the love on

social media has been fantastic and I want to thank all of the fans are

keeping us here for so long, thank you.

Ainsley and Natalie! It is too much.

Now, we all know how much work our couples put in to making

Strictly a spectacular show, but the work doesn't stop there, oh, no!

It's a tightly run ship and, below deck, an army of dazzling ship mates

work around the clock, proudly flying the Glitterball flag.

Ever wondered how Strictly works, it would never get on TV without our

backstage crew. Strictly show days and bustle days

go like this, Friday, rehearsal day. Sitting day.

And tanning day. What are you doing in here, get out!

Look at the schedule. You have a fitting. That will be at

1:50pm. The first thing I do is, I looked at

the schedule and I'd take a picture. I am Claire, the live studio owner,

I keep everyone on schedule and get them into the studio on time.

We do all the work on screen and get the glory, but without the people

here today, the show would fall apart.

We are the camera assistants, there are 11 cameras, we are here to make

the show run smoothly. I have never had physio in my life.

This, this, you don't want me to start.

It is going to be fun. As long as I get the steps right.

Sorry, mate, have you got your past? I am the dancer. You still need a

pass. The amount of work that goes into it

is unbelievable, imagine the most awesome cake, and there's hundreds

and thousands on top, know what I mean?

In this room are literally the best in the business.

Nearly Showtime. My job as floor manager is to get

those pros and celebs on the sword ready for the live show.

Two minutes before we go live. From the BBC, this is Strictly come

dancing. Greg, our floor manager will be

bringing out a calendar in time for Christmas!

It's not only our couples' dances that have been getting attention.

The Strictly dance has been catching on with performances across

the nation, including none other than Dangermouse and Albert Square.

But now, we want to see your attempts!

Send us your version of The Strictly, and you could win two

Strictly, in Blackpool, on the 21st of November.

for full terms and details on how to send us your entry.

After a little stumble last week, my next guest took to the dance

floor in full fighting spirit on Saturday night, and it certainly

worked it's magic on Len, as he likened him to Samson the warrior!

Flex those muscles, it's Jay and Aliona!

Our football dance for you, you were brilliant on Saturday. You started

on your own with the paso doble. Was that terrifying or did you relish

the challenge? It is completely different. A lot of

the time I feed off what she is giving me. To feed off yourself is a

different feeling. I am just thinking about that!

Aliona, you have such confidence in Jade to stand him on his own, and he

brings it every time. The safe thing is he is still facing

me and we are doing the same steps. That was the safety net.

Yes, I think as the weeks go by, Jay is getting more confident with his

steps, character, himself, on the dance floor.

I can trust him more. I am interested to know, to take

what happened last week with the stumble, how do you turn that around

and make him confident again? I do not think his confidence went

anywhere after the stumble with the quickstep. Each dance is different.

Each dance is really different, on its own. You take each week

separately. The dance finishes, next week, next dance, a fresh start. I

love it. Eight points higher, well done.

Darcey said, best arms ever. That is an accolade.

You have obviously been working, it is integral, that shaping. There was

a lot of work. I tend to slump. We focused on doing that.

The fact she maybe do push ups! You are giggling about that. How

many? Ten. The whole week? Or every ten

minutes. She makes me do them real. Harry had

great arms. You know the real way of doing it, and I used to fake it. You

have to live up to Harry Judd. No pressure. Last week we made you

do paso doble faces. Look at our Aliona. Like that.

What is that face? That is what she's doing when you are not

looking. Darcey says she wants you to bring character into your face.

How is the acting coming along? Naturally with me there is a

disconnect between how I feel and doing that with my face. I will try

to work with it. Everybody's harshest cricket is

their mother, what did Maureen think of your paso doble?

She thought it was great, she said we smashed it. She said she can't go

into town anymore because people stop her.

So she needs security! countdown to my favourite show of

the series has commenced! Halloween! We don't to like a make a fuss here,

nothing scary in the studio at all! He didn't even flinch! You are going

to have to to try harder than that! It was like a gentle caress! It is

the American Smooth for you to this weekend, a foxtrot American Smooth.

What can you tell us. Aliona, how do you make that scary? Our theme is

Little red Riding hood. That's me. Jay is the wolf. It is quite a

quirky number. It is a very cheeky foxtrot. It is a lot of fun, with

quite strong characters. Good luck for Saturday.

Now, every queen has certain duties they must honour, and choreography

Unfortunately, this means she's away attending to important services to

But, fear not, she's left her Choreography Corner

It's former world ballroom champion and five-times British champion,

And she is the birthday girl! Thank you for coming to do this. Happy

birthday. Four boys have left the competition first. No girls have

gone. This is the first time this has happened. What do you think of

the standard of dance? The level is so high, you cannot tell who will go

out next. I loved your dancing in this import. Let's look at our

couples, starting with Carol and Pasha's waltz.

Craig said that they lacked energy, and never quite met

What does he mean by that, and what does she need to do to improve them?

She did do a lovely Viennese waltz, but I do agree with the judges. Her

free arm is a bit empty. There isn't enough energy in there. She needs to

imagine she is in a massive bowl of thick custard and she is going to

reach through it and touch the edge of the bowl. So there is some kind

of resistance when she is taking her arms out. She can practice that by

somebody pushing her arms down while she pushes them up, so there is

energy in there, or if she is on her own, she can time one of those

elastics you get in the gym to a door handle, and then she can pull

out her arms. That will give resistance. Good tips.

They were joint top of the judges' leader board

Bruno said that they are on the fast track to the top.

What was so good about their quickstep?

Helen is fantastic. She has a great understanding of moving her body

weight around the floor. She can keep up with Aljaz. The only thing

stopping her getting a 10 is the gapping. You can see a big space

between them. What has she got to do? Is there a demonstration? She

has got to have clear contact points on her body and Aljaz's body. She

has to have her right hip just to the left of where Aljaz's belt

buckle would be. When they turn to prominent position, when they both

go forward, she has got to be like a hinge on the door, and kind of role

away from him, still attached to him, but roll into that position.

She has got to stay attached to Aljaz all the time? What a

nightmare! OK,

let's talk about Jeremy and Karen. For the second week in a row,

they ended up at the bottom How can they get higher up? Jeromy

is so focused and he wants to do well. His attitude is perfect. Karen

has made videos of him at home asking if he is doing it right. Look

at his left arm. It is perfect. He kept it up the whole dunce, he

didn't let it group. The waltz wasn't an energetic, entertaining

dance like the other ones he's done, so he needs to have a bit more

confidence in it, and not look at Karen all the time. Keep his head

forward and use them long legs he has. Lower into the knees and stride

across the floor. Darcey said that Anita has really

got the others fighting Do you think she has what it

takes to go all the way? She definitely has. What I love

about her is that she is so focused, and she's up for anything. Gleb

gives her some daring and difficult choreography, yet sleep pulls it out

of the bag every week. What she did there was a little bit of head

Griffey, which I love in the ballroom, being a ballroom girl. I

am going to show you it. I have names for these steps, when I teach

my kids, we have names for them. What she did was the stair and then

the Dracula. And she made a really simple step, which is just one, two

and up, looked really interesting. She went like this. No, stair,

Dracula. That's why she's a champion. I've got loads of head

moves. There's the washing machine, the sleeping beauty... I am really

excited to see if she uses that one! OK,

let's look at Jamelia and Tristan. Len said Jamelia is more comfortable

with the Latin rhythms, and that she Jamelia is a fantastic Latin dancer.

She pulled out an amazing charleston because she was so confident and she

knew what she was doing. In the ballroom, she is still a bit unsure,

so I would like to be more confident in her position. She has to know

about the two curves and lock that into her body. Another

demonstration! Curve won. She has to get her ribs and slide them over to

the left, without tipping. You keep your shoulders and your arms

parallel to the floor and you slide over to the left. Obviously, not

looking at Tristan. You imagine he hasn't cleaned his teeth! Curve two.

Some people think it is like this, but that's a bit like a duck. You

have to lift from your bra strap. Lastly today,

it's Kirsty and Brendan. They got their highest score

so far with their Viennese waltz. That is the best dance she did. She

has nailed the position. Her knees are softer, so the movement is

softer. She did the perfect work on the fleckerl. Thank you for coming

in. Lovely to have you! Finally tonight,

Bruno said their waltz was "by the book" on Saturday night,

although he also said the book went Well, we're reprinting that book

tonight because, thankfully, I loved that your smile shone

throughout that waltz when you are on the floor on Saturday night.

Through all of the dancers you have done, where is the waltz? It isn't

my favourite dance, because I found it rather constraining. The reason I

wasn't smiling was because my mouth was the only bit of my body I was

allowed to move. You are locked. Karen just said, don't look at me!

Hold your arms up! So, I was like, the smile is allowed. And I was

enjoying it. The last 24 hours we just began to get on track with it,

or so we thought. It was a lovely dance with my friend here. We love

your friendship. You are so close. And of course, Elvis Costello left

you a message. We know you are a massive fan. It was a genuine

surprise. I didn't know that they had been in touch with him. He

said, don't take any unnecessary risks. I took that to heart. We have

had a problem in the past where I have done and unauthorised wink. He

goes off-piste? I want to know about the wink! When Bruno said that was

from the book 50 years ago, I thought, I could blame Elvis for

that, because I played it straight. The waltz needs to be played

straight. I thought you were elegant and romantic. And you kept that

smile there! I was like, look at those teeth! The thing is, you have

such a great friendship. Do you get nervous for Jeromy before he goes

out, thinking about everything? He is constantly practising. I am quite

secure that he is going to get all the steps right, and his timing and

everything. We go out there and we enjoy ourselves. We do not think

about the pressure or anything. The only trouble comes just before

performing -- performing. A couple of weeks ago, I said is the first

step left or right? And I panicked. That is quite common. You think,

what is the first step? I said, just relax, and it will come to you. They

call it muscle memory, and it is something I have discovered through

the context. Your muscles remember even if your brain temporarily

forgets. Len was saying that you dance to your height. Has your

height ever been a hindrance? You cannot drive a mini. It is quite

good at conferences -- concerts, because you can see over everyone's

heads. I met a great Natalie Lowe once, and she said, dance to your

height! She had -- I had a smartphone posture, which All Blacks

have, looking down. Karen says it's me over and over again. Do I talk

like that? She says, dance to your height. And I think that goes for

the whole of life. We all of us spend too much time looking down. Or

I will flat you in the back! It is Halloween. You are dancing the

south. What can you tell me about this weekend's performance? We are

practising this. It is a salsa thing. There was that action going

on as well. It is going to be a bit scary! Spoons, forks, the whole lot!

Hip action. I say those two words. Let's see the eyes. It needs to come

through the hips, as the judges said. How scary my hips are, I don't

know! Good luck this weekend, Jeremy and Karen!

A big thank you to all of our guests.

Join me tomorrow, when I'll be chatting to one of the couples

who were joint top of the judges' leader board, Kellie and Kevin.

And this week's survivors, Jamelia and Tristan.

Plus, we'll be finding out what spooky songs

our couples will be dancing to in this weekend's Halloween Special!

# There's nothing you can do that can't be done

# Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game