It feels like you can’t move for seeing good press about The Outlaws, the recent comedy from Stephen Merchant. I finished watched it a week or so ago, and it was so good, I just wanted to add to the celebration of such a good show. Here are five things to love about it: The cast. From relative unknowns to the supremely famous Christopher Walken (how on earth did that happen?

Musicals week has arrived, and it’s one of those that all the couples say they were desperate to participate in… but we’re getting to the sharp end now and the good have to be even greater to get through. Also, this is the first week in Strictly history that Craig Revel Horwood wasn’t on the judging panel, replaced by Cynthia Erivo. It was fitting, as she’s a superb theatre star with plenty to add on the couples performances.

Recently, I watched Shang-Chi, the latest Marvel movie, and it was really good but I couldn’t have predicted the road it would lead me down. After watching the movie, I dug into the behind the scenes documentary that also popped up on Disney+ at the same time. It was a great look at how the movie came together, the thoughts behind updating the character and bringing some legendary martial arts into the Marvel world.

Just your regularly scheduled week this time, with plenty of excitement building up to musicals week next time out. My only thought from the intro sequence is to pity the colour balancing people, Motsi’s dress was something else entirely. On with the show, predictions this week have to return to Dan, unfortunately, and perhaps Tilly following last week. Talking of which, Tilly opened the show! Tilly & Nikita - Quickstep Nice concept, I thought the dance was a bit kicky, and I was really concerned that she was going to trip over her own or Nikita’s feet, which suggests it wasn’t as smooth as you might like.

Much is made of us being at the halfway point of the series, presumably because they can’t make a big deal about going to Blackpool anymore. The montage of contestants talking about how much the series means to them at the start of the show was using footage from two weeks ago (I’m assuming so that no one was painted green) but it really confused me. Going into the show, my prediction is either Dan or Adam to go.

Woohoo, Halloween! Actually, if I’m honest, I’m not normally that bothered about Halloween week - the costumes are always exceptional but as a holiday, it’s not that interesting. The only prediction I had coming into this week was that someone would definitely be painted green. I wasn’t expecting that to happen right in the opening Pro number, but there it was! We also had someone painted red, but hey, I’m getting ahead of myself.

It’s not the best time to get obsessed with maps and walking, given that the autumn and winter weather is starting to kick in, but I recently discovered the Get Outside section of the Ordnance Survey website. As the official mappers of the UK, they have plenty to peruse on the atlas and map side of things, but they’ve also made a big effort to encourage people to leave the comfort of four walls and a roof and make the best use of their products.

The drop out rate this week was somewhat reduced, but sadly Judi and Graziano weren’t able to perform due to testing positive for Covid. I’m sure it’s not outlandish to suggest they might have been in the bottom two this week after a couple of weeks in that position, so that left things a little bit more wide open in terms of who might perform well and who might be going home.

Coldplay have always been a divisive band, one of those who for some reason it’s cool to dislike them. I’m not sure if I’ve fallen either side of the debate, although their debut album Parachutes got me through some difficult times, so does have my esteem. I haven’t really thought about Coldplay for a while, but two things in the news recently have made me think about what this band is doing and where they’re headed.

It was a bad week for Strictly drop outs leading up to Saturday’s show. First, Robert and Dianne had to withdraw, which was a shame but totally understandable - health comes first! I hadn’t realised Robert had been through the heart surgery two years ago, so definitely the right thing to do. And then Ugo had to take a week out (hopefully!) due to a back issue - I’m guessing that high jump into forward roll over Oti last week wasn’t such a good idea?