Strictly Come Dancing launch show

Strictly’s back, we’re back, everyone’s back…well except for a few of our favourite professionals.

What do I think of this year’s lineup?  Quite a good lineup even if the average age is apparently now 45.  There’s a few people (as usual) that I have no idea who they are but there does appear to be more potential here.

So first partnerships are Scott Maslen and Natalie Lowe and Scott doesn’t appear to know where to put his lips.  Matt Baker is up next and is paired with Aliona Vilani (something she doesn’t look entirely ecstatic about surprisingly).  Finally Peter Shilton (I’m predicting Kristina Rihanoff), but no he get’s Erin Boag.

The transfer to ‘the tower’ seems a little bit awkward and far too staged but hey, this is Strictly after all.

Now to meet the new professionals Robin Windsor, Artem Chigvintsev and Jared Murillo.  First impressions are Artem and Robin have good promise, though Robin looked a little shaky, however Jared looks completely out of his depth in the first dance and will certainly have to step it up if he wants to prove the producers were right to drop the established professionals.

Now our first female celeb partnerships are Michelle Williams and Brendan Cole – a very promising partnership on paper, Pamela Stephenson gets James Jordan, watching Jared in the lineup further supports my theory that he’s not at home up there but I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t pair him with Tina O’Brien…not a bad guess it turns out!

So some VT showing the celebs trying their first group dance and a few potentials but not really enough shown of each celeb for me to comment on.

Our next round of partnerships; Paul Daniels and Ola Jordan; Patsy Kensit gets Robin Windsor; and Goldie is paired with Kristina Rihanoff.

Let’s see how Jared performs in the next group dance…complete with a flying Vincent and Flavia and a leaping Brendan Cole.  Someone’s definitely been working with these guys to make it more of a show than a ballroom demo and I must admit it’s not a bad choice in this instance.  Didn’t get to see much of Jared but he is starting to look more at home.

So we’re over halfway through our celeb partnerships, who’s next?

Kara Tointon proves she’s starting as a beginner when she thinks her Salsa with Mark Ramprakash is actually a Samba, so Artem has his work cut out for him! Jimi Mistry has Flavia Cacace and Gavin Henson is left with Katya Virshilas – not a bad girl to be left with.

For once I agree with Alesha…you can’t predict how all the partnerships are going to work until we see them actually dancing.

Our first look at the ‘Strictly Show Dancers’ and I’m hoping to see a reason why they’re on the show.  A good performance but I’m struggling to see what the point is when the preceding pro dance was more of a show dance.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Ian and Darren but they’ll need to step it up!

Our final two pairings are Felicity Kendal (a personal boyhood fave!) with Vincent Simone and Anne Widdecombe is ready to get her claws into Anton Du Beke (a no brainer based on his past partners).

I really can’t call this one just yet; it’d be nice to see how their training is coming along.  After seeing the group dance, Gavin and Peter have a mountain to climb, but Anne should have public support.  Felicity is looking promising as is Pamela.  Jimi will be interesting but Matt and Scott show a bit of promise.  Out of all that I’ve seen so far I’m tipping Matt, Pamela and Felicity to do well.

What did you guys think of the opening show?