Slightly later than billed in previous years, here is my brief round up of the most recent Strictly season. Yes, the final quarter of 2015 was all about Strictly, or at least that is what it seemed like on the Beeb.
Broadly speaking, I enjoyed my third year proper watching the ins and outs of the glitzy dancing world that is Strictly Come Dancing. A lot of the classic elements were there, and there were some nice added surprises like there are every year, but sadly there were also a few flies in 2015's ointment that seemed that much more noticeable to me, the result being quite a blunting of the usual Strictly edge.
Let's start with the big positives: namely the dancers themselves and this year's crop of celebs. As usual they were a right mixed bunch - with everyone having a favourite. Again to me there were the lows of the Strictly cast such as Iwan Thomas (who I found very arrogant very quickly and who I feel deserved to go first) Anthony Ogogo (again slightly arrogant but who also didn't have much in the way of personality, or sadly ability) and Jamelia (who was bright and bubbly enough on the face of things but also came off as quite conceited). Happily however, the sour grapes were definitely in a minority amongst a cracking bunch, whose highlights for me included the brilliantly charming gentleman that was Jeremy Vine, the ever-smiling Carol Kirkwood, the insanely likable Ainsley Harriot, the demure northern lass done very good indeed Anita Rani, and the worthy winner Jay McGuiness. Oh yes, by and large the latest Strictly cast did not disappoint.
Back too were Tess and Claudia to host proceedings. Previously I have made no secret of how much I adore and admire Claudia Winkleman as a hostess, as she seems to be the perfect blend of sass, lunacy, beauty and charisma, and yet again she did not disappoint. This year however her counterpart, Tess Daly seemed to forget all manner of individuality and flare. The amount of cringe-worthy puns and one-liners week-on-week was startling and nothing but awkward. Based on this last series I would move for Claudia to take over main hosting and Tess to be relegated to the gallery pieces. The former seems ideally suited and the latter seems to have descended into the mindset that all you need to host one of the BBC's biggest prime time shows is to look pretty and to be ever-trying to find inspiration by rummaging through Brucie's back catalogue.
As the hosts returned, so did the judges. Here too there were some quite unannounced and unappealing changes and segues into the bitchy. Actually the most predictably true to form of the foursome was Craig Revel Horwood, who was his usual dry, acidic self but still with a certain likability. He was backed up by Darcey Bussell who was her usual languid, dainty yet slightly sassy self, by and large. But in the case of Len and Bruno, something was definitely going on. I have always smiled when Bruno Tonioli starts wafting and waving about the set in his usual exuberant manner; this is what we as audiences like about Bruno. However he seemed to be trying to outdo Craig in the sassy criticism, yet he just came across as self-absorbed and cruel (hearing Craig actually say - "that was nasty Bruno!" was a particular highlight). It was almost as if a producer had lent into his ear and said - "actually try to offer a bit more camp venom, maybe no one will notice".
An then there's Len. Again I have got on with the image Len Goodman presents; OK his cockney, lairy cheeky chappy persona grates a bit but his reign as the godfather of ballroom is always without question. Yet again, it seems like a producer has encouraged him to just be antagonistic for the sake of it. I disliked the obvious arrogance of new Italian dancer Giovanni from the start (as did many others I think) but I also disliked the out-and-out fashion in which Len tried to combat it early on. Also Len's constant bemoaning of his age, of the apparent lack of fixing on Strictly (not helped by the likes of contestants like Jamelia) left a rather sour taste throughout the series.
Indeed for me, what is generally a very loveable family show was often marred throughout this last series by the never ending waft of "controversy", scandal and nastiness that seeped in through the cracks and rapidly became obvious out in the open.
Yes there were many highlights, not limited to the superb dancing on offer, the brilliant music, showbiz glamour, and Anton getting into a final! But whilst the Strictly core was still just about tangible, there was a lot that stood out for the wrong reasons for me, and I really do feel that next time Strictly needs to reel it in, get back to basics and stay focused on the business of entertaining the public come the weekend.
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