Episode 22 Strictly - It Takes Two

It's Tuesday. Coming up, after a big fright, Audley and Natalie

squeaked through. They're here in a moment. No cape fear for Alex and

James in the paso. I'll chat to them later. And she doesn't fall

for scare tactics. Karen Hardy is back with choreography corner. Plus

Ben gives us his view on the weekend's outfits. This is It Takes

This is Strictly It Takes Two. Please welcome your host. It's Zoe

Ball! Hello and welcome to It Takes Two.

For some of the couples, the Halloween special wasn't as scary

as they thought. For Audley and Natalie, big smiles turned into a

bd dream when they landed in the bottom two. They are here next, but

here is how they got on with the jive.

Bad dream. You are completely and utterly

physically unsuited for this dance, I'm afraid. You really got into the

spirit of things. Big smile, great personality, terrible footwork.

not going to be disappointed for you. I commend you. Well done.

Bad dance. It was over too quick. Yes, 18 and a half stone, toes

pointing, dodgy knee, I went for it. The judges were tough on me this

week. They are looking at the technical aspects and everyone

knows if you look down at my feet you ain't gonna be happy. Keep it

real. Craig, it's going to be today when something happens and

something will go bump in the night!

Please welcome Audley and Natalie! Hello, guys, welcome to the show.

Well done on surviving is. Thank you. How did you feel on Saturday

night? I felt relieved. Yeah? in the bottom two again, you know,

second time, you know, and dance the dance to the best of our

ability and the best of my ability and to be in the bottom two again.

But the competition is getting very tough. It is, it does feel like

it's gone up a notch and there is a lot of pressure on everyone. Even's

delivering amazing performances. keep bouncing out there and getting

there somehow. We are at the half way point. Did you expect it to be

here this far in? After the first week, I exceeded my expectations.

We are still in it and more to come in improving it. Let's talk about

the jive. It's been well documented by everyone that it's a hard dance

for the boys and that maybe it wasn't your best dance. Look at

that! Beautiful! Look at those kicks and flicks. So light on your

feet, I thought. Natalie, are you glad to see the back of the jive or

do you think he did great? Absolutely. Audley went back to

America, no excuses, but it was definitely a difficult dance, you

know. You were great, we performed, had an amaidsing time. That was

probably one of my best nights this series -- amazing. The energy was

up, the crowd were amazing and you did really well, spieled and

entertained the crowd. -- smiled. Everyone loves your smile. You had

to go back to America last week so you only got 11 hours of training.

Did that put the fear of good in you on Saturday before you went on

stage? Definitely, I was concerned about how much time we put in and

my knee was playing up as well. But, you know, you've got what you've

got, get out there, make it work, no excuses and make it happen.

That's what we did, put in our best performance. We had a great session

today. I see a great improvement. This week when we're down! Speaking

of fighting talk, like a big fight, dancing has rules that need to be

followed as well. Take a look at Waltz, foxtrot. Salsa. Love my

dancing. Let's dance. Stop talking! Do you see my on my toes, Craig. Is

my feet flat, Craig. Craig, you can't down mark me. Look at that,

Craig, I can walk on my toes, look at that now, I can walk on my

toes... I'm a wandering man. Imagine all the people... I'm

looking great. I'm a genius. Mwah! Can you take position? I can't go.

Don't argue with me. Can you remember your steps, please? Why

didn't you say that then? questions? No. Fighting talk! Now,

Viennese waltz this week, what are the rules in dance club this week?

A lot o the judges have said they haven't seen a lot of swing and

sway, which is what you need to cauth in the Viennese waltz. I

don't want it to be one dimensional. We've worked on the footwork and I

want to work on the upper body so it seems effortless and light.

you taken that on board? I have no choice. He has to, that's my

fighting talk! And she's the boss and she's going to tell you how it

is? Yes. Good for you. What are the strengths and weaknesses that you

really need to focus on? Again, rise and fall. Just strengthening

the ankles and the knees and the frame and the posture, you know.

You're improving every week, but there's always so much and so

little time for so much technique that's involved. So we are doing a

lot more hours as well. Yes, are you? Yes. Good. I'm whipping my

whip like that. All hours of the morning if we have to. The frame's

got to be right, the fingers are going to be closed, the rise and

fall will be good, the swing will be right, the head will be to the

left. Tick, tick, tick. Technically, it's tick, tick, tick... You have

to sleep like that as well, Audley. Good idea, I might do that. Good

luck with the Viennese waltz this week. Audley and Natalie!

Just by all the ghoulish goings on, one woman had her eye firmly on the

choreography this weekend. Let's meet our good witch. It's time for

Please welcome choreography spice, Karen Hardy!

They love you. Karen, on Saturday, we had coffins, vampires, bats,

forget all of that, choreography overall, good or bad?

98% brilliant! That's high! couple of little ones fell through

the cracks but in general, what a great Halloween weekend. Let's talk

about Jason and Christina and their quickstep. Bruno said great core

rog ra fi. How risky was this bit at the beginning -- choreography.

So risky. Even though she's on the stage, look at that, it's like

magic. Like telepathy. But in our world, it's the perfect partnership.

The chemistry and timings together. She was able to work him across the

dance floor and it's so powerful. This is what we always go on about.

Two people dancing together is the skill of ballroom dancing. I love

that quote. There are little things you put in there, tongue-in-cheek

from Kristina. Did you see her? I thought it was a first class

performance, back up on top and rightly so. Rightly so. Holly and

Artem. This was high risk and a perilous concept. What were the

hazards of this ballet American smooth? It's quite simple what the

hazard was. This is so great, it's so original and unique. Look at the

sweeping across the floor with the smoke, she's got the beautiful top

line, she's graceful and elegant and it's balletic as well. It's so

different, you would either love it or hate it. So it's a huge gamble

here by Artem. But, the legend of choreography here, we've seen so

much over so many years and to keep bringing out something fresh and

new like that, I don't think anybody ever thought we'd have

Tchaikovsky playing on the screens here! In the same week as AC/DC.

Exactly. It's so diverse, brilliant! Just to larify one thing.

Len was nit-picky about it. Just remember, American smooth, what's

meant to happen is that in hold, out of hold, back into hold out of

hold. The only thing that ah tenl did is that he did everything in

hold at the first half then everything was out in the second

half. But if it meant a standing ovation from Princess Beatrice.

haven't mentioned that there was Royalty there. Wasn't that amazing.

For me, first class unique and I just loved it.

I thought it was amazing. Good, good, good. Harry and Aliona. Len

thought that the chair routine at the begining was crisp, but he

wanted more in hold and then Alesha gave them a ten. What were your

thoughts? Really clear on this and I want to let everybody know at

home to let them judge. Look at this content I've chosen here.

Isn't it powerful and strong. It's very tango and easy to understand.

17 seconds is about how long they did. Is that all they did? This is

where Len's coming from. I've said before, this boy is amazing, we do

not want a show dance every week. What we want is to see that great

tango content, so the strong arms are up, getting down into the knees,

the strong head flicking, but we want to see it for at least a

minute, a minute and 20 seconds. However, he is still a phenomenal

dancer, but for me, that was a first class show dance, not a tango.

Show dancers are in the final. Otherwise there is nothing to look

forward to. I can see where you are coming from. Lulu and Brendan and

the paso, Craig commended Brendan on the thee ath rickality of the

dance, splendid -- the Another rickalty of the dance. --

theatricality of the dance. We had these amazing costumes and

Brendan's favourite dance, he loves the paso. Did you see what she had

in her dance. The sticks. Love it. Originally, I'm sure the design was

to make it look more like bat wings, but what it did here, in paso, one

of the strong elements we are looking for, big shapes. So there's

our lovely Lulu whose arms finish here, suddenly looking like she's

eating that floor alive. This was brilliant. I loved it! Now, what

she's got to be careful of next week, there's going to be no flying,

no bat wings. Just little old Lulu back on the dance floor. But if she

suezs the energy she felt in this, and put that into her next dance,

we'll see stronger and stronger performances. She'll fly without

the strings. Chelsee and Pasha and tango, the judges thought it was

really good? This man has been so clever. Look at this head flick and

again. Into the next group of steps and a head flick and another. Now,

the reason I'm saying that, I want everybody to learn more and more at

home, because you are the judges. Yes. Now, tango, every week if I

said cha-cha-cha, hip actions, Samba, bouncing, if I Satan go,

strong head flicks, very, very strong. -- if I say tango. This is

where Pasha is being clever, choosing the elements he knows the

judges are going to want to mark. He's then bringing performance

within the ballroom dancing scene. Great hold, she was up there,

looked amazing. They're a good balance. Well done. The one man

this weekend to do proper cape action, Robbie Savage. How did Ola

use his talents in his paso? Because she put everything in there.

She put cape action and a trick like this fly ing around the dance

floor. Next he'll leap through the air and we'll have the grand finish

on the judge's desk. It was amazing. Simply again, another professional

being very clever. Technically, we all know Robbie's not the strongest

in his technique, but hey, let's put up there lots of flash and

razzamatazz while Ola keeps working away at the technique underneath

and this will get stronger. She kept paso choreography in there,

the dance was excellent and accurate. It was just again the

Robbie show and I loved it, thought it was great. I loved it too. Anita

and Robin, our devil woman she was on Saturday. Craig loved the

routine, Len was liking a lot of tango content. Now, there was a

moment when she went wrong? Just there, right there, a tiny little

step. That just goes to show, these celebrities are on the edge all the

time. So like a deck of cards, if you pile them up and make the

pyramid, you pull the middle out, it comes falling down. That's the

feeling for the celebrities. Every moment they go on that dance floor.

What I want to briefly pick up on, the risk that Robin took by putting

all that tango content in there. Now, of course, the judges went, we

still want you to work on your top line. Now, Robin is giving the

judges a chance to be critical about ballroom dancing because

that's what he's giving them. So, every week now, the judges can look

and say yes, that's improving, I can see it. But if we keep getting

show dances from too many of our celebrities and professionals, what

can the judges mark - absolutely loved the week. We've got your

point, no more show dances, more dancing on the floor, but overall,

Karen Hardy happy. Yes. We are happy to have you. Please come back

next week! APPLAUSE

Now, Anne Widdecombe may have been a fleeting dream for Jason don von

on Saturday, but here, she's a real presence and has been putting of

your questions to our pro dancers. It's Widdy's Question Time. Geoff

would like to know which animal do you think you most resemble?

Sfrpblgts a chimpanzee. Because I'm light on my feet and very smart.

Really? Very hairy. No, no, we don't need to know about that.

Thank you. A cheetah. Really? panther. Irbgs I look like a

bulldog and dance like one too. Agreed. A cat. Rrrrrr... Terrifying.

Powerful and graceful. I lake to think of myself as all those things.

Dream on. If you've a question for our Widdy, head to the Strictly

website. My next couple seem to be having an

odd effect on Craig, all cold after their rumba but all steamed up

after their paso. Alex and James are here but first here is a look

at how they got on at the weekend. I quite like the ytd of Dracula

chasing innocent virgin blood -- the idea. You played that extremely

well. Too much wafting for me, but I thought it was terrific. Well

done. You had a knock last week, but you have picked yourself up and

you're back on form. One happy Dracula hfplt What a happy woman in

white! I'm just made up with the score. What was it? 31? Well done!

Yeah, well done! Give me a kiss. Don't bite! Please welcome Alex and

James. So good to see you so happy after

that performance and what have you done to Craig? He had a proper hot

flush after that, Alex? Well, it was a complete turn around wasn't

it? It was a bit worrying. Craig said it was erotic. But we'll go

with it. Take it? We'll take it. It's positive. That's good. A

viewer says "OMG, it was epic". was easier because James

choreographed a lovely story and there was a narrative running

through it so it was easy to get into character somehow. I'm scaring

myself just watching it. Behave. thought you were enjoying yourself.

I was. I am good, aren't I? I surprise myself sometimes. Because

we look so scary, I mean he looked proper evil. I didn't have to act

as much as I thought because I was genuinely quite scared. If you

could look properly evil every week, it would be perfect? Great for the

quickstep. Being properly evil. Last week, your confidence took a

blow, but after this show, surely it must be sky high now? Ooh, not

sure about sky high, but it's definitely better, so looking

forward to starting the new dance, well we have started a little bit.

Oh, it's tiring. The quickstep. It's exhausting isn't it, so full-

on. It's basically running a lot of the time but elegantly done. Let's

talk about your stunning frock on Saturday. Len said a lot of wafting

but, I have to say, we all loved the wafting. Was it difficult to

dance in, because there was a lot of it? It was surprisingly quite

heavy, the dress and all week, we'd been working on how you waft a

skirt. Now who knew it was so difficult. We stkpwhr we don't

really wear skirts that need wafting. It's easy. By the end of

the week, the bingo wings had gone temporarily so the skirt was heavy,

but I thought it was nice, it looked pretty. You looked good.

Looked good on the slow-mo of Len's Lens. Beautiful. You had a lot of

input into that, James. You put your hand over James's mouth, were

you worried about the back chat? With know James Jordan by now,

don't we. We didn't want a repeat performance, but I think the judges

were complimentary this week. I think just you looking at them with

those red eyes was enough anyway to scare them. Stop it! It just went a

lot better than week before, generally speaking. Alesha said

breakthrough performance for you. agree. Bit of character. You went

for it a bit more, let yourself go. Yeah. You've got to believe in

yourself, you've got to. I think that's the difficult bit. I still

don't think I can dance which is the basis of this competition.

you can, look, you are still in the competition. I know. You are

getting rally good scores. Do you see what I have to deal with.

Everyone else believes in you, you have to believe in yourself. I like

the sound of this week's dance. is it going? Hell to begin with!

Because it's so tiring. Even you, you were out of breath. Because I'm

carrying you around the floor, that's probably why. I'm just

saying. Yep, but it's so quick, it's like basically as you said,

doing a marathon. It is constant running, it's exhausting. A lot of

steps. People have said, have you lost weight doing Strictly, and I'm

like no, but this week it's the breakthrough week. You don't need

to lose weight. We are half way through and great improvement from

the judges, they're saying that, it'sen couraging. Do you think you

could give Matt Baker a run for his money? Ah... Who's that? So last

year, who's he?! Matt was excellent and I mean, he set the bar really

high. Does he give you tips? does, he does. He said, I don't

want to say too much because I don't want to step on James's feet

and tell you something that maybe is... Hm. That's different to what

James has taught you, but he's really encouraging and he

understands and he makes doing Strictly on the One Show possible.

He's like a fifth judge so I know the judges on the Saturday night,

Matt Baker on a Monday, but he said the paso was the opportunity to

show aggression and that's what we needed. Thaurbgs Matt, glad you're

happy. Good thuck this weekend -- thank you, Matt.

Brendan and Len confirmed what we thought, the costumes and make-up

were fantastic. Time to talk top of Here to give their expert opinion

on this week's outfits is ooch rnagh o Hagueen and Ben Delicey. --

Oonagh. Thank you for coming in. Ben, you have designed for Kate

Winslet, Rachel Weiss, Angelica Houston. Who stood out for you?

Alex in the white confection of very fluid fabric. It really did it

good, I loved the dance. She looked glorious. Yes. And she looked

confident. Len was saying there was a lot of dress wafting for his

liking, perhaps too much. But with a dress like that, how can you help

but waft it, Ben? That's the whole thing with using that fabric, it

was very fluid. It had gosh, how many metres? You want a fact, don't

you, 16 metres. There we go. Eight panels that were flared. A lot of

movement. That plunge here and the plunge on the side and that high

thigh was just about the right side of being dangerous. And a nice

glimpse of flesh through. But not too much. Subtle. Tasteful. We like

it a lot. And what fabric is used to create that effect? We were

discussing this earlier, first we thought it was tule but it's not,

it's something with much more drape to it and it's a power mesh.

There's something called power mesh?! You don't have any?!

It's a stretch Jersey, but under a microscope, you would see tiny

holes and it's light because if you have 16 metres of fabric it's heavy

but it was light. She wore it so well. Top marks for her. What about

Anita, our devil woman? A little glimpse of her outfit from our head

designer last week. Bruno said on Saturday, don't trust the Scarlett

woman with the devil in disguise. Did she pull it off? I think she

did. With the skirt, because it wafts and has got so much volume to

it, you can put a food wrong and you wouldn't really see it. That is

a traditional kind of bottom. To me, the top was actually at odds, the

top of the dress to the bottom of the dress, but she pulled it off.

Yes. The details on the top half then? We were saying the top was

reminiscent of the Queen -- McQueen in his recent collection. It was a

sequin-based mesh and then over the top, these small and delicate

stones that were put on it. Not all over b, not on the bottom, this

idea that you don't want to flatten the whole look. Give me a fashion

fact about her dress? A fashion fact - 5,000 crystals on that top

part of the dress. Fact! The hem took the longest, half a day.

for the hem. This is a great picture of it. It's been wired.

It's very time-consuming. A lot has gone into that one frock, but she

didn't go traditional with the horns? You know what I think, she

did do that eye lash thing and I think it would have been too

deliberate to do the horns, so she's done her own - she's great

actress so didn't need the horns to sell the point - she has these

cornet toe horns in the bag there so those of you who want them go

and ask for a cornet fascinator. Well done to Anita. Chelsee in her

dress, a bit of a drama at the end, a possible wardrobe malfunction

which happens to the best of people. How do the designers ensure that

doesn't happen, that you don't have those moments of malfunction on the

dance floor? Well, you can never ever get it completely right. In a

dress like this, which is barely there to be honest, I guess you

could have put a corset inside and mounted the stretch of velvet on

top. No-one would have been the wiser for the viewer. That might

have made her feel a bit more secure. I think the dress on its

own really was a great success. But as far as Chelsee is concerned, if

she felt vulnerable, it may have affected her dance, so corset with

boning would have been the idea. that's what I want every day,

corset and boning. Sub structure. I've got mine on! We all need it.

Talk more to me about the detail. I'm loving the heart on the front

of the dress? Yes, it's very graph if I can. The idea was it was fun,

bubbly. Again, the heart is Moschino and the heart goes off,

it's A symmetric and it's echoed in the lacing, it was not meant to be

conventional, it's meant to be cookie like Chelsee herself. Even

the plunge is A symmetric. It's haematight. What is that? That jet

stone. Not quite a jet black colour. I think it's an ironoxide. Another

amazing fact. I love hearing that. Thank you both. You've been divine.