It’s time for Strictly Come Dancing to put an end to theme weeks

Strictly Come Dancing is just about on the right side of naff that it’s still watchable.

Since Josh Widdicombe, Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe replaced Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman as hosts, the tacky jokes are coming in thick and fast – although, unlike Strictly’s harshest critics, I actually find them quite charming.

But even I am struggling with one aspect of Strictly – and that is the theme weeks.

Last night the judges, contestants and even hosts went all out for Halloween – with the exception of Josh, who presented the entire show in a plain green suit and was subsequently blasted again by viewers on social media for looking like ‘he doesn’t want to be there’.

I like Halloween as much as the next homosexual, but I don’t think Josh should be critiqued for his lack of enthusiasm for fancy dress.

Especially because so far we’ve also had Movie Week and Icons Week. The judges spend the entire show in suitably themed costumes and, to their credit, usually look quite sensational. 

But taking Craig Revel Horwood seriously when he’s giving feedback to a contestant dressed as Liam Gallagher is, at the very least, extremely off-putting.

The contestants, too, revolve their entire routine around the theme: they’re dressed as a character, which has no doubt been selected for them, as if they weren’t already out of their comfort zone ballroom dancing in front of millions. 

I appreciate embodying a character is another skill to learn, but last night was a prime example of when some benefit from theme week more than others.

Graeme Hall – aka The Dogfather – opened last night’s show dressed as something between Shrek and a zombie to perform a samba to Coconut, with his look, routine and the song all feeling so out of sync with each other.

At the other end of the scale though, John Nellis and Katya Jones’ tango, in matching latex, was absolutely mesmerising. But the most frustrating flaw of theme weeks is watching a great routine ruined by fancy dress.

Last night, the victim who suffered the most was Delta Goodrem, whose Viennese waltz with partner Kai Widdrington was one of the best I’ve seen on Strictly.

She makes every single routine feel completely effortless, their chemistry is possibly the strongest of any couple this series and, after spending most of her career sitting at a piano, I’m still floored that this talent of hers has been cast aside until now.

But it could have been so much better. They performed their Viennese waltz to Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, a song that is as visual as it is an earworm.

It’s closely associated with the film Ghost, particularly the moment Patrick Swayze’s spirit wraps his arms around Demi Moore while she has her hands on the pottery wheel.

It is still by far the sexiest scene in film history.

Delta even began her routine with the pottery wheel because how could she not? Only she was dressed as Morticia Addams and Kai as her doting husband Gomez because presumably Ghost was more appropriate for Movie Week than Halloween Week. 

I firmly believe that had she worn a short black wig and white shirt dress, with Kai topless in a pair of jeans, it would have been one of the most memorable Viennese waltzes we’d ever have seen. 

Instead, I feel like Goodrem was done dirty because the theme takes precedence. Earlier this month we had Icons Week. Again, it worked for some contestants better than others.

It was a miracle for Shaun Wright-Phillips, who was blessed with performing a James Brown medley and got to channel a singer who had clearly been in his bones from an early age, while others were visibly uncomfortable.

Dame Sarah Storey left the competition that week, largely because she couldn’t capture the spirit of Shania Twain in the video for That Don’t Impress Me Much, where there just isn’t the same level of characterisation compared to The Godfather of Soul.

At this stage of the competition, Strictly Come Dancing is still two hours long. The confines of Halloween Week, particularly, really do drag on when you’ve still got 11 couples left to dance and every year it becomes more and more repetitive.

Ghostbusters has now been performed four times on Strictly after Lawrence Robb and Jowita Przystał’s tango last night, even though it’s far too goofy to be repeated more than once. How much of an impact can they possibly make with a song that’s been done to death?

Really, how many Halloween songs even are there? I’m not a Halloween Scrooge, far from it. I appreciate it would be strange not to acknowledge Halloween at all on a Saturday night when half the country is dressed as a vampire, a sexy cat or, if you’re Maya Jama, Sir Mo Farah.

But when the theme weeks start to affect the performances, it feels like they’ve gone too far.

Thankfully, Delta will be absolutely fine. I can’t imagine she’s at risk of landing in the bottom, even with the unnecessary twist tonight, which will see three couples in the dance-off.

She’s almost a dead cert for the semi-final at least.

But I do think we’ve been robbed of what could have been one of the best Strictly performances of all time because the daft fancy dress has taken priority over the dancing, which is frankly absurd.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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