It Takes Two – Monday 18th October

I never got a chance to watch any It Takes Two last week so I thought I better watch this week.

On Monday’s episode will be Paul & Ola; Craig Revel-Horwood; Peter & Erin; Pamela & James.

First up a VT showing the celebs and pros arriving at the studio for rehearsals and talking to the cameras.  We meet Jared’s family who have come all the way from Utah to see Jared & Tina, only for Tina to have chicken pox!

Then it’s time for Paul & Ola…well Ola anyway as Paul is apparently in Manchester for a show so will be joining on the phone.  Ola discussed with Paul before she choreographed the Rumba and they agreed that not making it a sexy dance was probably the best route.  Ola performs a magic trick, which needs a little work in her performance and then it’s time for Paul to join on the phone.  He reveals he’s busy in the coming weeks so this was actually the best outcome for him and then he has to ‘watch’ his highlights over a phone line.

Len is then treated to a VT showing him as a little cranky from Saturday night before Craig is brought on (unshaven and not looking tip-top himself!)  Len also joins on the phone and justifies his scoring (only giving Pamela an 8 due to the floor spin that he felt detracted from the feel of the Rumba, and the same with Matt Baker in his Quickstep).

Craig talks about his 4 for Michelle “That’s all I felt it was worth”.  A major thing being her hip action and shoulders, and agrees with Len’s comment on her heels being too high.  Jimi is in the firing line next, with Craig talking about him over-moving (especially his shoulders).  Craig likes Ann’s progress and can see that she’s applying herself to the dances even if “Technically it’s abysmal”.  He loved Scott’s Quickstep, not as gifted as Matt but with a showbiz pizazz.

Now Claudia is going to talk to Pamela & James.

Pamela confesses that she pushed for the spin at the end after James felt they didn’t need it.  Pamela just felt that she should keep up with the other big moves that other celebs were pulling off, now she thinks she’ll just listen to James in the future.

It’s revealed that their next dance will be the Tango and I look forward to seeing some training footage, Pamela is definitely the one to beat at the moment.

Finally we’re going to see Peter & Erin.

Erin was so happy that her and Peter got through the routine.  Peter felt that Bruno wasn’t quite as constructive, with comments the previous week, as he’d have liked.  Claudia shows, via VT, how much football analogy they use in their training…quite a bit it seems.  They have the Charleston on Saturday, similar to the Quickstep so could be another good one for Peter, though might struggle if they have a lot of time apart.

Erin reveals that she hasn’t covered Charleston before herself, and with two lifts in it it could be an interesting performance!

The episode finishes with the training video of Tina & Jared so that we can see what was unfortunately missed…not too bad but does need to watch her hip action on forward walks – needs to straighten her legs.