Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly Come Dancing 2013, first live show, review

Michael Hogan reviews the first live show of Strictly Come Dancing 2013, in which the first six celebrities took to the dancefloor.

Fake tan has been liberally applied. Sequins have been sewn onto unforgivably tight Lycra outfits. Glitterballs have been hung, buffed and polished. Now the curtain is well and truly up on Strictly Come Dancing 2013, as this year’s stars made their full dancefloor debuts.

It’s something of transitional year for the hit hoofathon. Strictly is now in a new home, relocating from TV Centre to the bigger and shinier Elstree Studios, plus five of the professional dancers are new arrivals. This 11th series launched three weeks ago, when the 15-strong cast were unveiled and paired up with their pro partners. Many pundits were underwhelmed by this year’s celebrity line-up. Could they make up in dancing ability and entertainment value what they lack in star power? On the evidence of this opener, quite possibly. We got to see six of the couples strut their nervous stuff – the other nine must wait until tomorrow night – but the standard was surprisingly high for a first effort.

Former Coronation Street actress Natalie Gumede has a stage school background and dance experience, so became the shortest price pre-show favourite in the programme’s history. True to form, she flew straight to the top of the leaderboard with an accomplished Cha Cha. I have a feeling, though, that the voting public might not warm to her. Try as she might to play down her previous training, Gumede might just be too good. Viewers like to see a “journey”, a visible improvement, a few ups and downs. It could be a case of Denise Van Outen syndrome – the TV presenter was arguably the best all-round dancer in last year’s contest but only just scraped into the final due to her unpopularity.

Still, this was certainly ladies’ night, as women occupied the top three positions on the leaderboard. In joint second place were the two jolly hockeysticks types: newsreader Susanna Reid, after a jive so energetic that it left viewers out of breath on their sofas, and feline-faced popstrel Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who performed an understated, sweetly romantic waltz with a Breakfast At Tiffany’s theme. Starkly contrasting routines but both proved more likeable than Gumede.

“Big-boned” actor Mark Benton was the surprise package, far exceeding expectations with a nifty tango full of attack, attitude and comedy facial expressions. Soap hunk Ashley Taylor-Dawson fell short of his predicted standard, with a stiff Cha Cha lacking in content. Panto villain judge Craig Revel Horwood described Taylor-Dawson’s floor work as "feral".