Strictly Come Dancing Rankdown (WINNER REVEALED)

[*Diana]

Steve Backshall

 

 

 I guess I'll do this write up. Because this is another man who lasted far too long on little to no talent and unlike some I don't even think he was likable so it extra didn't make sense to me LOL. Steve Backchall is British naturalist and wildlife television presenter who danced with Ola Jordan. Ola has had much better partners so that sucks she got stuck with him and lasted so long. His highest score is an American Smooth which I am notching is a usually the best ranked dance for a lot of crappy dancers. I wonder why? anyway that was his "best dance" and he still only got some 8's. He never (thank goodness) got any 9s or tens.

 

Saving: Victoria Pendleton

Edited April 23, 2021 by *Diana

[*Lily]

I’ll do Jamie’s writeup.

[taylorkat]

Chizzy Akudolu

 

 

Chizzy Akudolu (born Andrea Chizoba Akudolu) is an actress that was one of eight performers to win the BBC Talent Initiative in 2002 that lead to her first role in a sitcom called 15 Storeys High.  She has had television roles on EastEnders, The Inbetweeners, and Silent Witness. She has also performed on stage as well before taking the role of heart surgeon Mo Effanga in Holby City in 2012.  Chizzy danced on the fifteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing and her partner was Pasha Kovalev.  She lasted long enough to dance only two dances - a Cha-Cha (21), and a Foxtrot that scored even less (16).  Her lowest individual score was a 3 and her highest was a 6.  Although she wasn't very good, I remember liking her and wished she would have been better and lasted longer.  Also, her name is fun to say. One last fascinating fact, she has a brown belt in karate and is an experienced calligrapher. Well, that's two facts.

 

Save Vick Hope

Edited April 23, 2021 by taylorkat

[taylorkat]

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Edited April 23, 2021 by taylorkat

[taylorkat]

edit

[*Lily]

Jamie Laing

 

I like Jamie and while he wasn't a favorite of mine on Strictly last year, I still enjoyed watching him for the mostpart. Best known for starring in the reality show Made in Chelsea, he made his brief debut to the show in 2019 where he had to drop out to an injury following the launch show, and was replaced by eventual winner Kelvin Fletcher. And you couldn't help but feel bad for him as he had to sit in the audience on premiere night and watch Kelvin & Oti SLAY their first dance.

 

I was glad Jamie got the chance to come back and I would have liked to have seen him with Oti again initially, but it all worked out in the end as Bill/Oti was an excellent partnership and I think Jamie worked really well with Karen. They started off a little rough around the edges and then over time improved and had some real fun routines, in particular, their Street and Samba numbers. Jamie appeared in the dance-off a total of four weeks out of seven... most of the time I think the judges made the right call (as much as I loved Clara and she was maybe my main fave, she weakened over her last couple of weeks and the judges made the fair decision there). However I would have rooted for Ranvir to be saved over him in the semi-finals as he was on paper the most obvious fourth placer. At least we can presume because we'll never know in Strictly finals the real results anymore, and Maisie seemed to get a bit of a boost in popularity after her dance-off appearances. All that being said, Jamie is fun, and I do feel like he would have been worthy of a save in these noms... but I'm not mad to see him go either.

 

Saving Bill Bailey

[*Wallace]

Very surprised but happy for Chizzy and Jeremy making it this far. Neither were very good dancers but were fun/enjoyable personalities who I did really enjoy on their time on here (and Chizzy deserved better on her season).  

 

Aww Jamie. I did contemplate going back and forth on saving him, as I liked him and John about the same amount. But I did want to save an older season type contestant. I do pretty much agree with Lily's thought son him.

[*Wallace]

Jeremy Vine

Jeremy Vine is a television presenter and journalist, who competed on the 13th series of Strictly Come Dancing with Karen Clifton (the same Karen Hauer of course). As I briefly mentioned, I’m very pleased with Jeremy Vine making it this far and lasting this long in the game.  When realistic, he probably should have gone a lot sooner than this. Jeremy is one of my favorite bad/trainwreck dancers on the show, and I really enjoyed his partnership with Karen. Karen always makes the best out of her partnerships and always makes sure her partners have fun. Jeremy lasted 8 weeks and made it to 9th place. He didn’t outlast anyone too great or anyone I was too big of a fan of, so I was fine with him lasting so long.

 

Week 1: Cha-Cha to “September” scoring a 19

Week 2: American Smooth to “Happy Together” scoring a 17

Week 3: Charleston to “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails” scoring a 24

Week 4: Jive to “Splish, Splash” scoring a 20

Week 5: Waltz to “She” scoring a 18

Week 6: Salsa to “Thriller” scoring a 22

Week 7: Tango to “Go West” scoring a 21

Week 8: Quickstep to “Going Underdog” scoring a 21

 

Jeremy landed at the bottom the leaderboard two times - on Week 4 and Week 8. A lot of his dances were some fun trainwrecks, such as his Cha-Cha, Jive and Tango. But i would realistically say my favorite dances of Jeremy’s were his Charleston (his best one) and also enjoyed his Salsa and Quickstep. I will post his Salsa and Best Of videos below.

 

 

 

 

Saving: John Barnes

 

[*Diana]

Anastacia
Cherie Lunghi
Ed Balls
Danny John Jules
Dr. Ranj Singh
Ranvir Singh
Thom Evans
Max George

[*Lily]

Save Cherie

[taylorkat]

Save Dr. Ranj Singh

[*Chris]

I am torn on saving a few of them. 
 

Gonna wait on Wally to save first  

[*Wallace]

1 hour ago, *Chris said:

I am torn on saving a few of them. 
 

Gonna wait on Wally to save first  

LMAO As am I.  

 

Lol I'd say I'm torn on Ranvir and Thom. And you?  

[*Wallace]

Bad Chris for not choosing before me.   

 

But I'll be saving Ranvir Singh.

[*Chris]

32 minutes ago, *Wallace said:

LMAO As am I.  

 

Lol I'd say I'm torn on Ranvir and Thom. And you?  

Same  

[*Chris]

I’ll save Thom!

 

Ill do Max writeup.

[*Lily]

I’ll take Anastacia’s writeup.

[*Wallace]

42 minutes ago, *Chris said:

Same  

Lmaoo hilarious how we had the same people in mind.   

 

 

Lmao I always miss the write-ups i wanna do.   Hmm I'll take on Danny's.

[taylorkat]

That means I get to write about Ed!
 

[taylorkat]

Ed Balls

 

 

Ed Balls is a broadcaster, writer, economist, and former politician from Norfolk who served as Shadow Chancellor from 2011 to 2015.  Every April 28th is officially "Ed Balls Day" because of some Tweet, which I didn't know about.  He was fined for running a red light and failing to stop during a car accident back in 2012-2014.  I see he needs to polish up his driving skills as well as his dancing skills!   He was the winner of Celebrity Best Home Cook in January and February 2021.  He competed on the fourteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing and his partner was (first time pro at the time) Katya Jones.  He lasted much longer than he should have, dancing several subpar dances, which include a Waltz (21), Charleston (23), Samba (24), Paso Doble (16), American Smooth (18), Cha-Cha (26), Quickstep (27), Salsa (25), Jive (23), and finally, a Tango (23).  His lowest individual score was a 2 and his highest individual score was an 8 given by Len, which I am surprised about.  I recall one of the dances where I thought he was going to drop Katya, I was flinching at the screen! I have to admit, I did find him more entertaining than I should have.  I don't think people should stay on the show based on that, though.  He definitely overstayed his welcome.  I almost saved him, but I didn't because I thought this was a fair area for him to leave the rankdown.  I forgot to mention that Ed placed 6th, which is Katya's second highest placement on the show with Joe McFadden being the first.

 

Save Dr. Ranj Singh

Edited April 24, 2021 by taylorkat

[*Lily]

Anastacia

 

Icon! I was beyond excited to see Anastacia cast on Strictly. A supremely talented artist who had a number of hits in the UK and an excellent career in music. I loved so many of her songs in the early to mid-2000s and it was super exciting to see her appear on the show! I do think her run was a little hit-and-miss on the show. She was partnered with Brendan, and started out ok however got injured early on, which led to her being in the first dance-off against Melvin. However, due to her injury, she was unable to dance again which meant it went down to overall votes, leading to Melvin's elimination. This had some controversy at the time however I was excited to see Anastacia get the chance to continue on as I did not want to see her leave first.

 

Anastacia was kinda in the middle of the pack for the rest of her time, until her elimination in Week 6. This is one of those instances that I do maybe put down to the partnership - because one week where Brendan was unwell, Gorka filled in and I think this was Anastacia at her best. She looked far more comfortable in her performance here, and almost a completely new dancer to what we had seen before. I really loved this routine and I'll link it below. I do like Anastacia, however in these noms I do feel that she was a fair cut. There were maybe 3 people I was rooting for to get through these noms and they all did, which I'm glad to see.

 

Saving Cherie Lunghi

 

 

 

[*Wallace]

Danny John-Jules

Danny John-Jules is an actor, who participated on the 16th series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2018, where he was partnered with Amy Dowden. Danny lasted 8 weeks placing 9th place. Danny is a really interesting contestant for me. On paper, Danny has a lot of the makings for someone that I should root for. He’s an older black man and a ringer with past dance experience. I felt like he had a lot of high expectations going into the season, and was viewed as kind of the male equivalent to Debbie McGee when he was casted. Sadly, Danny’s run as a whole was underwhelming and not as strong as I was expecting. 

 

Week 1: Foxtrot to “Top Cat Theme” scoring a 27

Week 2: Cha-Cha to “Beggin” scoring a 28 

Week 3: Paso Doble to “The Greatest Show” scoring a 28

Week 4: Viennese Waltz to “I’ve Gotta Be Me” scoring a 27 

Week 5: Jive to “Flip, Flop and Fly” scoring a 37

Week 6: American Smooth to “Spirit in the Sky” scoring a 30 

Week 7: Quickstep to “Freedom” scoring a 22

Week 8: Samba to “Feels Like Home” scoring a 27 

 

I felt Danny had a stiffness and static quality to his dancing where it felt very stop-and-go, jerky and didn’t really flow. I felt this with a few of his dances such as his Cha-Cha, Paso Doble and Samba. Danny did have a number of ups and downs on his journey, as listed above. I did find his Viennese Waltz very good, underscored and felt that deserved a few 8’s. That was my 2nd favorite of his. But Danny deserves absolute credit and praise for that Jive! He produced an amazing and outstanding Jive that was easily the best dance of his run. It was also such a surprising moment how Danny got the first 10 of the season over stronger dancers in Ashley Roberts and Faye Tozer. Danny’s American Smooth getting all different scores from the judges is something that always cracks me up - although that dance was more of a 7 for me. Sadly, Danny experienced a dance disaster with his Quickstep where he made one wrong step at the start of the dance and then that threw him off that entire dance, to make multiple mistakes and he never got his proper footing back in the dance. Then he delivered a meh Samba and got eliminated. I was ultimately fine with his elimination. Even though you could make a case he should have outlasted people like Graeme Swann & Kate Silverton (and can even add in Lauren Steadman), all of whom were less talented dancers but much more likable.

 

Another thing that made it tough to warm up to Danny was his partnership with Amy. Danny came across kind cold and thinking highly of himself (not sure of the right word to say). There were a lot of negative stories in the British papers about their partnership and him treating Amy rudely and disrespectfully. I remember it was such a big thing that they briefly addressed it on Strictly: It Takes Two, where they said it was just a short moment of disagreement between them and they got on after that. I’m not sure if it was a case of the press completely blowing this story up (which with The Sun, that’s what they do) or Danny & Amy downplaying it. I want to say it’s the former since, the British press can be really cruel and juice up stories in a more dramatic way. But after their elimination, Danny skipped his & Amy’s Strictly: It Takes Two elimination interview, where Amy did the interview all alone. It was so awkward and not a good look. So all of this has me feeling kinda awkward about Danny, honestly. Its a shame the show wasn’t a great experience for him. :( But I did find a recent article where he addressed the rumors.

 

“The Red Dwarf star was believed at the time to have fallen out with crew members and his pro dance partner backstage before being eliminated, placing seventh overall in the competition.  

 

But speaking about his time on the show with online series Strictly Speaking, Danny maintains to this day that it’s not the case.  

 

However, he added that the reasons behind a ‘disagreement’ came down largely to Amy getting an injury, which was hidden from camera, and he was then penalised for. 

 

He said: ‘There was no fight. There was one difference of opinion in six weeks. One difference of opinion.  

 

‘I’ll tell you exactly how that difference of opinion came, it was very simple. For two weeks I didn’t have my partner because she had an injured leg.  

 

‘No one knows because they don’t put that, the one thing they keep away from the public is injuries.”

 

Link: https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/03/danny-john-jules-claims-truth-of-strictly-come-dancing-fallout-with-amy-dowden-was-hidden-from-cameras-13220681/

 

Ah this is all so interesting. So Amy had an injury that prevented her from teaching and dancing with him properly and Danny had to learn the routines from someone else. That could explain why his dances didn’t always work out. This elimination does ensure that Karim Zeroual is Amy’s last standing partner which is deserved so yay. I will close this out with some of my favorite dances of Danny's.

 

 

 

 

 

Saving: Ranvir Singh

 

[*Wallace]

LOL Gigi’s write-up on Ed Balls was so entertaining to read through. “I recall one of the dances where I thought he was going to drop Katya, I was flinching at the screen!” - my favorite part. And oh wow I remember this was his American Smooth to be exact, with all of those botchered lifts. But ooh my, did not low about that red light speeding accident he was fined for.

 

And also agree with everything Lily said on Anastacia. She was such a big get for the show and I was excited to see her on there. Sadly her injury and partnership with Brendan did hinder things and made her run on the underwhelming side. I do think Anastacia would have done better with a different partner, as she did have her best dance with Gorka.

[taylorkat]

1 hour ago, *Wallace said:

LOL Gigi’s write-up on Ed Balls was so entertaining to read through.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[*Chris]

Working on my writeups shortly; been super busy today.