Strictly in Blackpool, week 9 results: Wynne and Katya booted after months of tears, toil and controversy
There will be no encore for opera singer Wynne Evans after he and pro partner Katya Jones were eliminated at the conclusion of Strictly Come Dancing’s Blackpool weekend (BBC One). It was a trip north that went quickly south for the jolly warbler after his hobby-horse-themed Charleston failed to clear the hurdles with either viewers or judges. A bad neigh day all around, despite the duo’s best efforts.
Blackpool is where Strictly gains an extra jolt of fabulousness, and an intermission performance of David Bowie’s All The Young Dudes by Pet Shop Boys certainly added to the wattage during Sunday’s results episode. But not for the first time, the elimination evening lacked tension as a clean sweep of judges gave Evans and Jones the thumbs down, sparing Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe. Eight weeks in, the suspicion endures that Strictly is still weeding out the also-rans and that the business end of the competition has yet to arrive in earnest. Please, please, please, can we get to it soon?
Handed their marching orders, Evans and Jones went over the top, paying tribute to each other and to Strictly. Katya described her celebrity partner lighting up every room he walked into. Wynne talked about how delightful it was to practice with Jones every day. Strictly, he continued, was a “precious” thing that should be cherished. On and on, they gushed, though obviously, no mention was made of the “grope compare” internet controversy that came and went on in early October.
Evans, in particular, spent so much time on the Strictly soap-box, you wondered if he had started reading from an autocue. “Strictly is such a precious family that I want everybody here in this room and at home to look after it for the generations to come,” he said in closing remarks that went on longer than a Ridley Scott director’s cut. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.”
What was wonderful was the cameo by Pet Shop Boys, who re-imagined Mott the Hoople’s 1972 hit (penned, of course, by David Bowie) as an autumnal anthem – full of yearning and regret (much like Wynne’s speech then).
Results night can feel an afterthought after the epic goings-on of the previous evening. That was the vibe at Blackpool, though there was some mild excitement when judge Craig Revel Horwood defended rewarding Pete Wicks’s dance in super-tight pink PVC trousers with a mere four points – a stonkingly low return this far into the contest.
“I’m not talking about his outfit,” he told Claudia Winkleman, cross-examining him during her natter with the judges. “I was looking at the technique. It wasn’t great…He messed up several times. I’m just being honest. I love Pete. I love the fact he’s brave enough to come out in that outfit. He was going [about it] in the wrong way. It was a bit of a mess.”
Craig was more generous towards Wynne and Katya, praising the energy they brought to their Charleston to Les Toréadors by Georges Bizet – complete with Evans spinning Katya by the legs, having rode in on a hobby horse. “That routine was a real crowd pleaser,” Revel Horwood said, before adding the inevitable “but….my vote has to go to the best dancer.. and that is Montell”.
The rest of the panel agreed that Montell and Johannes’ bingo-themed salsa to salsa to Don’t Leave Me This Way by Thelma Houston scored higher for technique. The couple survive to twirl another day while it’s a long trip home for Wynne and Katya. They leave behind two months of tears and toil and one medium-sized controversy – a mixed bag, to be sure, but one the Strictly family is unlikely to forget in a hurry.