I quite liked the intro to this week’s Halloween show, particularly where Krishnan got to have a go on Dave’s keyboards - what an honour! Anton wins the costume competition amongst the judges, Shirley’s was a bad choice as it restricted her ability to talk, and Motsi’s hair was flipping about all over the place. But the contestants had great costumes throughout, although is it a rule that someone has to be green at least once a season?

Of course this week we are without Amanda Abbington after she announced her withdrawal from the competition. That means the floor is starting to look quite empty when the couples come down those stairs, but at least this week the costumes filled some of the gaps!

Angela & Carlos - Paso Doble

This was a superb start to the show, very dramatic and engrossing. Must have been quite hard to dance to that music, classical doesn’t always give you the vibes you need to put in a good performance. But this was great, a sideways slide that showed core control, and maybe just the occasional wobble but otherwise fab.

Adam & Luba - American Smooth

I’d forgotten how annoying the opening VTs are when they try and do a skit. Remember when Strictly was like this all the time? Ended up skipping most of the VTs after this. Anyway, this felt like a long dance which is never a good sign but it wasn’t bad, much better in hold than out of it.

Zara & Graziano - Charleston

Oof, I found this quite hard to watch. It’s no lie that Zara has come on so far from where she started and the character on display was brilliant, but the dancing was less good. It felt quite slow and not very bouncy. Good swivel though, which is what she wanted!

Layton & Nikita - Tango

This was a weird one, it was a good dance and looked great but I couldn’t quite fully focus because the version of the song was really distracting. And by distracting I mean not good. The backflip at the end was insane. Interesting debate amongst the judges on whether this is a ballroom and latin competition or not.

Bobby & Dianne - Cha Cha Cha

How did Dianne do the move being dragged along the floor and twisting round at the same time!? Terrible song but entertaining dance, good hips, good rhythm, pretty entertaining. I’m not sure the straight leg was there the whole time. It’s the second week in a row that Craig has said it was technically poor but he still loved it. Random scores: 6-9-7-8.

Krishnan & Lauren - Viennese Waltz

We’ve made progress in that Krishnan wasn’t counting out loud or through gritted teeth, but he was concetrating so hard that there wasn’t a lot of room for character. Also Lauren looked weird with long hair! Mixed comments from the judges and Sue Barker in the audience did not look happy about Shirley’s criticisms.

Angela & Kai - Charleston

I didn’t think this was a great charleston, adorable obviously and the characterisation was fun but the dancing wasn’t top notch. The judges loved it though, and the marks were really high. No one could take Kai seriously in that getup though, right?

Annabel & Johannes - Tango

Not bad but a litle bit dull really - not sure if that’s the characters or the choreography? I was mostly listening to the awesome INXS song - really well sung! Good comments though about how she has improved and the fact I found it boring is the reason that Len would have loved it.

Nigel & Katya - Cha Cha Cha

Really good, great character, great tricks. Potentially not enough hips but so good. When Nigel is on it and good he’s great, but then he’s there with the mistakes again. Still, he always keeps it going. Harsh comments but good scores.

Ellie & Vito - Salsa

Never seen anyone come on as an actual glitterball, have we? Good tricks, she’s not quite as graceful as some of the others. Feel like Vito was working quite hard in this. But great musicality, character, good transitions. Lots of energy, great one to finish on. Chandidlier is Vito’s word of the week.

I’ve got to be honest, overall I didn’t really enjoy this episode - the rollercoaster of the dances was okay, but the Halloween stuff took over in all the wrong ways and the judges seemed a bit all over the place in their comments and marks. Never mind though, we’re mid-way through the series so things will start getting seirous now and people will start mentioning the B word.

Ellie, Layton and the two Angelas were at the top of the leaderboard, with Krishnan and Zara at the other end. I thought it might be those two in the dance off, but it turns out Adam wasn’t safe in the middle of the table and the red light fell on him. Zara was the one to get voted off though, but I suspect Adam isn’t going to be too far behind. Second half of the series coming up, let’s go!