Strictly Come Dancing brings Blackpool to Elstree!

Strictly Come Dancing brings Blackpool to Elstree! Stars of the show lament not being able to take to the iconic Tower Ballroom due to COVID-19

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Strictly Come Dancing’s usual jaunt to Blackpool had to be cancelled this year – another pandemic-related spanner in the works for the 2020 series.

But Blackpool was brought to Elstree for Saturday night’s live show – as the dancers ‘brought the essence’ of the iconic ballroom location to the Strictly studios.

While the celeb contestants admitted they were ‘gutted not to be able to go’, they were sure to still put on a show worthy of the Tower Ballroom.

Homage! Strictly Come Dancing’s usual jaunt to Blackpool had to be cancelled this year – another pandemic-related spanner in the works for the 2020 series

The pros kicked off the show with a pre-taped routine, paying homage to the seaside town, before Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse took to the floor for the first dance of the night, to I’ve Got You Under My Skin.

Donning typical ballroom attire, the opening pair paid homage to Blackpool week with a classic routine. ‘It was almost like we were in the Tower Ballroom!’ host Tess Daly commented after the dance.

‘It was 53 years ago that I first danced at the inconic ballroom!’ judge Shirley Ballas said, gushing: ‘That was emotional – thank you!’

Co-judge Anton Du Beke was also impressed, branding the performance ‘heaven’, while Craig Revel Horwood critiqued Bill’s ‘ugly’ footwork but otherwise dubbed him ‘a revelation’.

Up next was Maisie Smith. She described being in the bottom two last week, and only narrowly surviving elimination, as ‘the worst feeling on the planet!’

She and Gorka Marquez danced the salsa, rectifying their iffy performance the week before, with Anton deeming it ‘marvelous’ and ‘terrific’.

‘Amazing isolation, incredible!’ Craig gushed. All three judges pointed out that there was an unstable landing at one point, but Gorka admitted fault for that, with the judges accepting this and awarding them a trio of 9s.

JJ Chalmers and Amy Dowden danced another classic routine to honour Blackpool to For Once In My Life.

Hoping for an improvement on last week’s scores – where they were bottom of the leaderboard – Craig was a little kinder to them this time, with Shirley exclaiming how ‘delighted’ she was by the performance.

They were given the highest score they have received this season – a 7/9/9.