Oh Blackpool you say? Well why not. Did anyone actually count the number of times it was mentioned during the weekend? Still, the lights looked good, the floor was sprung, and the Pet Shop Boys were there! Seriously, I loved this dance so much, it’s some of my favourite group dance work in a while!

Anyway, on with the competition!

Chris & Dianne - American Smooth

The extra dancers were much more of a hindrance for Chris than anyone else, which is interesting, and in one of the It Takes Two conversations he mentioned that if he’s always worried about making a mistake because he wouldn’t know where Dianne was to pick it back up again. No mistakes this time, and although the big band version of Jump was distracting, the dancing was great - smooth, in and out of hold effortlessly and synchronised with the other dancers. He was so happy at the end!

Montell & Johannes - Salsa

I know Montell doesn’t enjoy wearing heels and clearly took the opportunity to wear trainers for this, but it made the dance feel very flat. It came across as not having enough energy, especially against this song, and that Jojo was having to do a lot of the work. The lifts were good though and maybe it was better in person as the judges seemed to like it more than I did.

Sarah & Vito - Couple’s Choice

Always fun to see a different style for Couple’s Choice - not just street dance or contemporary bare-footed stuff. Potentially making the best use of the extra dancers. This could have been ridiculous but it was brilliant. Too perfect, apparently!

Wynne & Katya - Charleston

Struggling with the swivel, he’s been talking about that all week so understandable. It did feel a bit stop start and maybe tiring a bit towards the end, but such performance and a great effort. The lifts! Katya continues to boggle the mind.

Pete & Jowita - Cha Cha Cha

Little skit that Gorka’s too sexy for his shirt. I think this dance is one that suffers for Pete’s lack of timing, he does that absolute best he can and really owns it, but you could tell he was uncomfortable and latin doesn’t sit well on him. He’s in tune with his surroundings though, guessing Craig’s four before it happened!

JB & Lauren - Quickstep

Bonus JLS in the intro VT. Medium good dance, it suffers slightly because it just wasn’t that interesting compared to the others we’ve seen so far. The partnering with Lauren seemed a bit more comfortable but he looked most at ease in the moments by himself. Think this one was overmarked.

Tasha & Aljaž - Paso Doble

Annoyingly good. Not much to say about this one, there were a couple of moves in there I don’t think we’ve seen before, which is always fun. It could be two professionals dancing, even if Craig doesn’t think so.

Jamie & Michelle - Jive

It seems a waste to have Jamie coming down from the sky on a big bottle of ketchup - he clearly was raring to get dancing but had to wait! It was good when it got going though, great energy, lots of fun. Wasn’t sure what the ‘story’ was though, why were the extra dancers other bottles of condiments? Best not to overthink it.

For the first time, the leaderboard all fitted on one screen, with Sarah and Tasha joint top and Chris close behind. Towards the bottom of the table, Jamie, Wynne and Pete. I’ve been predicting Wynne all this week, but really wasn’t sure who might join him, it feels like it could have been anyone other than the top three. If pushed, I would have said JB only because it was a forgettable dance in a week of memorable dances.

In the end it was Montell who had to dance again but it was Wynne’s time to say goodbye. I feel like Pete is coming towards the end of his journey, and Montell has been in the dance off a couple of times now so potentially only has a couple of weeks left too. But it’s getting harder to call!

Next week, the sambathon. Oh boy.