Strictly Necessary

"Now," writes Jaywalker. "Marie. Should I allow myself to get sucked in? Have only just regained the luxury of British tv and seem to already spend most evenings in slack jawed stupor in front of Simon Cowell."

Yes, Jaywalker, yes, you must get sucked in! For a start, this blog (and by extension, my life) only really comes alive for 26 weeks of the year: 13 weeks of Doctor Who and 13 weeks of Strictly Come Dancing. The rest is just desperately treading water. (Though has anybody else been following Maestro? I am completely obsessed. I've been catching up on the ones I missed while on holiday, so am still lagging behind, but from now on I only want to go to concerts where I can sit in the choir seats - as you do can in the Royal Festival Hall, say - and see the face of the conductor. And Sue Perkins is a genius. And I have started playing my piano again as a direct result. But anyway.) The happiest readers of this blog are fans of both Who and Strictly, and are just waiting for that announcement that must surely come one day: "And now, dancing the Tango to the theme from Doctor Who, is David Tennant and his partner Lydia Kopylova."

But Jaywalker, Jaywalker. The outfits. The rugby players trying to do the rhumba. The gossip. The bitching. The off-stage romances that threaten to engulf all onstage. Tess Daly's belts. Bruce Forsythe's jokes. The barely-veiled sexism and racism of the judges. The amount of times any woman will be described as "a beautiful girl" if they are in fact overweight and / or old and everybody is too scared to mention it. The "journeys". The band, mutilating everything in their path. The outfits, for crying out loud. SEQUINS. There are simply not enough sequins on X Factor, though I will admit that Cheryl's hair does make up for that oversight this season.

And the dancing, the dancing, the dancing, the dancing, the dancing! Every year I start watching Strictly for the kitsch, and every year it's the dancing that keeps me watching. Some of these celebrities get so good - I'm thinking Alesha Dixon, I'm thinking Mark Ramprakash. And aside from that there's the professionals dancing together who are really quite incredible. Let's remind ourselves shall we?



Oh yes indeedy. Jaywalker, you will not regret it.

Bring on the dancing girls! (and boys...)