Sunday Service: Week 10

We are properly at the business end of the competition. The post-Blackpool hangover can often be a disappointing week. This year's offering wasn't disappointing per se, but you can tell the couples are starting to get tired. While they all continue to be fantastic, and are putting in some great performances, they all lacked the X factor last night.

With Kym out with Covid-19 for the week, it makes the stakes even higher, so perhaps that is what gave this episode a level of anxiety, which was more palpable than usual.

Will & Nancy opened the show, with a very unusual take on the Charleston.  No 1920s theme, no flapper dresses or spats. It read like a Couples' Choice routine. Probably because of the suits. I wasn't keen on all that coloured trim, it looked chaotic. All that said, I didn't dislike the routine. It had some great choreography which was fun. Although there was a lot of stylised walks and runs that made me wish it was performed to One Step Beyond. Will was out of sync with Nancy a couple of times, which was a shame. But overall, I think it was good. I probably liked it even more on second viewing.

Molly is probably the most technically skilled and competent dancer left in the competition. I loved her tango. It was sharp, it had light and shade, fast and slow moments. It was absolutely packed with steps - there was no dead air here. Her technical ability is amazing, and her chemistry with Carlos really comes across on the dancefloor. I'm not really sure why she didn't get any 10s this week. Her biggest problem is that she has been so good since the beginning that people have lost interest. She absolutely deserves her place in the competition, and I really wish she was more popular with the voting public.

Ellie is starting to get left behind in terms of ability. Her jive was quite flat-footed and lacked spring. I remember when the judges would give you a bit of a pass if you were tall. They'd spend ages talking about how much more difficult it is for those with longer limbs. But no such pass for Ellie & Johannes. There was a mistake toward the end, which was a shame, and she needs to make sure she doesn't look at the floor. But I enjoyed the performance. It was joyful and engaging.

There was a lot to like about Fleur & Vito's rumba. Fleur's legs were brilliant. She really pushed into the floor, and her legs passed each other beautifully. And her shoes were actually the correct colour this week. I loved the chemistry between the pair of them. It was intimate and sexy. I just felt as though they hadn't spend enough time working on the upper half of Fleur's body. The undulations seemed to stop at her hips instead of resonating up though the torso and through to her arms. If the top half of her body had reacted to motion coming up through her legs, it would have been perfection.

I love Hamza. He is a lovely, watchable dancer. But he's a nice guy, and I felt he was too nice for the Argentine tango. He absolutely led Jovita, no question. Her supported and presented her beautifully. But the routine lacked the passion to make it a show stopper. Jovita was going all the heavy lifting on the acting front. And he really needed to point his feet. They looked like ugly coat hooks at times in the gancho sections and in the pirouette. It definitely was not a 10 dance for me.

I hope that Helen & Gorka were already meant to be a couple in this routine, because a receptionist ripping open his shirt when a guest walks up to the desk could easily be construed as sexual harassment, no matter how good looking he is! The routine was fun and bright. It lacked quality on the technical side. It lacked hip action, it had a lot of running steps (not the promenade runs, which were pretty good, but actual running), and the trolley section, which meant she was able to skip a few steps completely. But I enjoyed it anyway.

It's really hard to pick favourites now, as even though I was able to pick holes in almost all the routines this week, I still enjoyed them all immensely. I think my favourite this week was Molly, because I am almost always going to root for the most technically skilled dancer, as long as they have the performance to match.

I genuinely don't know who will be in the bottom two. Logic says Ellie, but she is a crowd pleaser. Literally any of them could be in trouble.

Don't forget the results show is at 6pm tonight!