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It’s been a tough week for Strictly Come Dancing. After two professionals’ exits cast a shadow over the start of the series, Wynne Evans and Katya Jones found themselves at the centre of a fresh controversy surrounding two short clips from last week’s live show. In the coming days, they rushed to apologise and insisted they were joking around, with Jones labelling the saga “absurd”.
Still, plenty of viewers had wondered if it would be mentioned in this weekend’s live show. In the end, just like the pre-series drama, it went unaddressed (unless you count Evans sheepishly remarking “I do love comedy” while being interviewed by Claudia Winkleman).
Its omission didn’t matter at all, though, and soon became a footnote of the episode. This week’s Strictly Come Dancing instead celebrated two of the things that make it so great; its diversity and inclusivity.
Having provided plenty of laughs, swipes at Craig Revel Horwood and some of the most impressive lifts of the series so far, Chris McCausland this week put his serious hat on for a Waltz to the anthemic “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. The comedian, a Liverpool supporter from the city, was clearly desperate to get this one right. And it couldn’t have gone much better.
McCausland lost his sight when he was 22 and while the judges are committed to critiquing him exactly as they do the others, his achievements are undoubtedly more significant given the challenges he overcomes in training. His professional partner Dianne Buswell can’t show him the moves, and he can’t swot up on YouTube or watch performances back.
In one particularly poignant moment on Saturday, McCausland was left to dance under the spotlight alone. As the camera panned out, Buswell came into view and he confidently yet gracefully strode alone towards her. It was a moment steeped in emotion, heightened even further by the gravity of what McCausland is achieving on the show. If I wasn’t already in tears from the routine, then hearing him ask Buswell if he “did okay” as they embraced afterwards would have tipped me over the edge.
The second of tonight’s highlights came courtesy of Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe, as they danced a Carnival-inspired Couple’s Choice. The routine celebrated both Douglas’s Caribbean roots and her partner’s upbringing in South Africa.
In their VT, Douglas explained the dance was also a homage to her late grandmother, who gave her “the spirit of dance, love and movement”. The performance (complete with outfit reveals) was joyous and uplifting, with Douglas properly shining on the dancefloor for the first time this series.
“All I can say is Nana is looking down on you and she has sprinkled her magic dust on you because you were exceptional,” Shirley Ballas told the Gladiators star.
The show is at its best when celebrations of diversity and inclusivity are front and centre. Doing so is nothing new for Strictly either.
In 2022, Hamza Yassin celebrated Afrobeats with a dance that saw him become a serious contender (he went on to win). Rose Aying-Ellis, who lifted the Glitterball trophy in 2021, invited viewers to learn what dancing is like while deaf as the ballroom fell silent during hers. Two years earlier, Will Bayley – who was born with arthrogryposis, a condition affecting his joints – danced a routine which told his story of spending extended periods in hospital as a child. And just weeks ago, Punam Krishan made history with a Bollywood dance.
These moments, not the controversies, are what Strictly is all about.
