But the ballroom is about to get even scarier this Saturday as it’s Halloween Week.
Here’s everything you need to know – from the songs and dances that the 11 remaining celebrities and professionals will be dancing to, to what time Strictly’s on this weekend and who the music guest is.
The musical guest this week will be Steps. Don’t worry, we’re excited too.
What’s happening with AJ Pritchard this week?
Strictly Come Dancing professional AJ Pritchard has been forced to withdraw from full rehearsals due to illness – leaving celebrity partner Mollie King to practice with a back-up dancer.
Thankfully, yes! The scores will go back to being out of a total of 40 points as Bruno, fresh from a week’s rest, makes his triumphant return. It’s just as well, because the judging panel of Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas and Darcey Bussell just wasn’t the same without him and his flailing arms. Although Craig did give us a perilously good impression…
What are the songs and dances for Strictly’s Halloween Week?
So it’ll be interesting to see how she fares in a dance as high on energy and fun as the Charleston, which couldn’t be further away from the sort of performance they put in last Saturday.
Gemma Atkinson & Aljaž Škorjanec – Jive to Ever Fallen in Love by The Buzzcocks
Last Saturday was the first time that Gemma Atkinson and Aljaž Škorjanec’s scores haven’t climbed up and up and up. But maybe that was just because Bruno Tonioli wasn’t there…
So far, Gemma has more than proved herself in the ballroom and she had something of a breakthrough with her Charleston in Movie Week. Something tells us that partnered with the Jive – one of the best crowd pleasers in the Strictly canon – this is going to be a smash hit with the judges’ scores.
The thing that’s earning Mollie King and AJ Pritchard their top marks doesn’t seem to have much to do with their dancing – it’s all about their chemistry! Shirley can’t seem to get enough of it…
But this week, they’re going to be faced with one of the hardest dances – the Cha Cha. We hate to say it, but as Mollie’s been quite stiff in some of her routines up to now, we’re not coming to this performance with the highest of hopes. Although we are crossing our fingers that we’ll be proved wrong…
Poor Susan Calman had a bit of a bump back down to earth last Saturday. After riding high on a score of 30 (out of 40), she found herself at the bottom of the leaderboard with 16 (out of 30) for week five.
What we do know about her foxtrot with Kevin Clifton this week is that it’s going to be Game of Thrones-themed. Which automatically means it’s going to be amazing. Basically, cancel all your plans and make sure you’re in to see this!
However, eliminated Brian was dancing to a Tom Jones song when he exited the competition. So does this mean that Simon could see the same fate this Sunday night? If so, it’ll prove the very unscientific theory that Strictly fans don’t enjoy a bit of Tom Jones.
Uh-oh. The dreaded Rumba. Debbie McGee might have aced this dance last week, but suffice to say that down the years it’s proved to be the undoing of many a male celebrity.
Perhaps EastEnders actor Davood Ghadami and Nadiya Bychkova will break this perception and wow everyone with a super sexy number?
Or maybe he’ll just distract from the hip action and synchronicity by taking his top off?
Claudia Winkleman was very excited to point out that Nirvana had never been danced to on Strictly before. But we don’t think that’s going to hold back Aston Merrygold…
The weeks in which he’s excelled have been the Latin rather than the Ballroom, and we have a sneaking suspicion that combined with Janette Manrara‘s choreography, he may well knock Joe McFadden’s Paso into a cocked hat. We can almost smell the four 10s from here…
Jonnie Peacock and Oti Mabuse might not have knocked everyone’s socks off with their Quickstep last week, but the improvement in his dancing capabilities is palpable.
However, he’s another celebrity who, like Mollie, is having to to go war with the Cha Cha this week. It’s notoriously one of the harder dances for the celebrities to master, but if anyone can do it, surely Jonnie can.
Holly City’s Joe McFadden and Katya Jones have slowly but surely been creeping up the leaderboard week-on-week, and although you’d have bet your last quid on Aston Merrygold being the second celebrity to land a 10 from the judges following Alexandra Burke’s Jive, it was actually Joe who took home the perfect score from Shirley on Saturday night.
Last week, Alexandra Burke revealed that Nelly Furtado was one of her favourite artists, so she’s already onto a winner when it comes to learning and enjoying the routine this week!
From a viewer’s perspective, Alexandra’s dances are always showstoppers. But so far, she’s being prevented from consistently landing the high scores owing to her pigeon-toed footwork which seems to be something of a bugbear for Shirley.
We’re amazed that the judges were able to score Ruth Langsford‘s Samba last week because it seems almost inconceivable they were even paying attention, what with Anton Du Beke‘s sleeves and trouser combo. It turns out he didn’t get confused about when Halloween Week was – that was just his Samba outfit, a costume so hilarious and bafflingly distracting that viewers didn’t know where to look.
Not that it did much good, as Ruth joined Susan, Brian and Simon at the bottom of the leaderboard with 16 points. Surely, it can’t get much worse than that?
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Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturday 28th October on BBC1
