I mistimed Ann Widdecombe’s dance: I’d already got a cup of tea before she came on. But as worked hard at getting down to the tea leaves rather than watch her, I had a vision of the future.
It was a very specific vision, the kind of vision you get only by accidentally treading on your Sky+ remote and starting playback of the finale of America’s Dancing with the Stars. But it came to me like a vision of Christmas future because this year’s finale there had many a similarity to what we’re facing here.
They had three people in their finale: Jennifer Grey, Bristol Palin and Kyle Somebody. Kyle Somebody plainly made a big impression on me. Jennifer Grey was rather irritating somehow but she could and did dance. And Bristol, daughter of Sarah “Which is north again?” Palin was the Ann Widdecombe.
That’s a little unfair. Bristol Palin can’t dance, she has no music in her, but you watch for a moment and all you think is that she’s just young. Have another go in the future, bless.
But she made it to the final off the back of the public vote: she needed to get votes from ill-informed people who can’t see the evidence of their own eyes so, actually, she was fine there. You could’ve predicted she’d make it to the end.
The problem was with the judges and this is where it’s scaring me. If we vote Ann Widdecombe into the final or perhaps even to win, we have ourselves to blame. But if the judges copy what appeared to happen in America, they will start giving Ann better and better marks.
We’ve already seen Len switch to the “it’s fabulous entertainment” side. And this week we saw votes that bore more relation to how we’re near the end of the series than to the quality of the dances: Pamela did not deserve 10s, even my previous favourite Kara did not deserve her 9s.
Kara made a disappointing start because while the steps were there, the musicality wasn’t. Nobody had that this week, nobody.
They’re just all jiggered from their jigs, aren’t they?
If I look up now, by the way, I can see the spines of two Titanic books on my shelves. Up in my office I’ve probably got another four. Two weeks ago, I touched a piece of the Titanic’s hull at the Las Vegas exhibition. A real piece. The real hull. The actual metal of the ship. It was a moment like an electric shock.
And still I couldn’t keep my attention on Ann and Anton’s Titanic-themed dance.
2 comments:
I did feel that the dancing wasn't that great this week and the Charleston didn't really deserve those two 10s. It's definitely going the way of Dancing with the Stars where the value of the judging doesn't appear to be that important. But then it's what the viewers want.
There's always a week where people underperform. It just isn't always so wide across the board.
I know that there are mitigating circumstances but Scott was rubbish and did not deserve those marks. I agree that Pamela and James did not deserve those 10s but Alesha and Bruno do give them away like they are going out of fashion.
I'm not sure what the judges have against Matt and Aliona. Sure it wasn't perfect but they never seem to love him the way they should. Or at least the way I love him.
Gavin and Katya should have gone. They have been consistently poorer than Patsy and Robin and Saturday was truly cringe-worthy.
Maybe next week.
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