Let's Dance for Sport Relief - The Final!

This week - they were in two minds over Alex's dress sleeveless/not sleeveless? Anyways, I'm thinking a top 3 of Rowland, Eddie, Laurie & Tameka, and I love all three but my gut feeling tells me Rowland ...

We have a panel comprising dance legends Frank Skinner and Rhod Gilbert, and choreography queen/ex-Strictly  judge, Arlene Phillips, who, contrary to reports is NOT making her return to the BBC as stated in numerous publications - because she judged two series of So You Think You Can Dance! Remember that? I did,  but clearly the rest of the media didn't *rolls eye* Moving on ...

All the contestants have honed and polished in the intervening weeks it seems, as all eight perform better than before, with my three favourites all delivering on the personality/timing/danceablity/smile inducing/rhythmical/ cool grooviness factor.

I did love seeing Frank and Rhod giving Arlene the low down on Firestarter and the subsequent descriptions of Myles: "Ronald McDonald in a fire; Terrifying love child of Krusty the Clown and Rupert Bear and Jean Simmons" I think he said Jean Simmons, I'm personally unsure where she fits into it!

Anyhoo, the results are in and bring with them over one million pounds, so well done everybody who made the effort to vote over the last five weeks! Out go Myles, Terry, Fatima and the Cubans, Eddie!! Noooooo, still at least the Earth is safe till the next Prophecy is unearthed; Omid is out and it's between Tameka & Laurie, Rowland and Dani & Tyger, all winners of their heats so we genuinely don't know who's more popular - it's Rowland! A good choice if I say so myself!

Here's our winner! And tune into Sport Relief on BBC One on Friday night for a lot of fun and games raising more money.

Let's Dance for Sport Relief: Week 4

Alex has had a word with wardrobe this week, much nicer dress ... the panel comprise former contestants Russell Kane, Jo Brand and Lee Nelson, who's a very naughty boy and had to be firmly controlled by Steve to stop him mentioning those unmentionable things on the BBC, drugs and sex.

Patrick Monaghan does his best Rihanna impression with Only Girl in the World and looks surprisingly female-ish in make up, reminded me of Cameron Diaz. If the stand up fails, I'm sure he'll find work as a drag artist. Very enthusiastic. Rowland Rivron is star of the show this week, dancing to Weapon of Choice - he even had props and nailed them, fabulous, brilliant timing, dead pan and cool, I loved it and I'm pretty sure, even before seeing the rest, that he's the one to beat.

Watson and Oliver do a very creditable version on Bolero on roller skates, Ingrid an accomplished skater, Lorna not faking useless at all! Suzi Perry and Otis Deeley are fab too, Livin' La Vida Loca - isn't it fantastic to see people so far out of their comfort zone and loving every minute of it? Brilliant fun and my next fave after Rowland. Fatima Whitbread and the Cuban Brothers with You Should Be Dancing is funky and groovy and the brothers are far too professional for this show!

Will Young is clearly gagging to appear next year as a contestant, with his strongly choreographed musical theatre piece to new song Losing Myself. Johnny Vegas appears to be speaking from my living room *looks around to check* Nope, not here but that sofa and cushion looked way too familiar! LMFAO with irresistible rhythms and completely mad - you wonder how they pitched themselves to music execs?

Who's out first then? It's Patrick and Watson&Oliver. Straight through - Rowland, no surprises there but a tough call for the panel between Suzi&Otis and Fatima and the Cuban Brothers - Fatima and the boys take it, thanks to Russell and Jo.

Grand final next week!

Let's Dance for Sport Relief: Week 3

And the first question to be answered is: Which member of wardrobe won a stash of money for sending Alex out dressed as Eliza Doolittle on school sports day? Sadly, I doubt we'll ever know.

This must be the most closely contested episode ever - all five of tonight's acts were completely fab, with Team Scolly (Scott Mills and Olly Murs) bromancing their way through Party Rock Anthem - very hard not to just watch Olly, he's so good - and who's in the box? David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff. They said it was planned ... if you weren't up and dancing around the room you couldn't have been watching. Arabella Weir relishing her Kylie skit and absolutely nailing I Can't Get You Out of My Head was brilliant, gutsy and fun, before Team Tyni (Tyger Drew Honey and Dani Harmer) channelled Team Cola's charleston with their showbizzy, theatrical and delightful take on Fat Sam's Grand Slam from Bugsy Malone.

Kirsten O'Brien, having given birth just ten weeks ago, became Rock Goddess to Jump for the night; that gingerbread man stood no chance. She didn't even seem out of breath - which is good, cos I think she'll need all her energy to get away from Tim Minchin who appeared to have developed a very serious crush  on her, leading Alex to sternly advise him that Kirsten's too busy! And Omid Djalili - beginning like Singing in the Rain then morphing into Fight the Power and a fantastic concept involving the London riots and referencing the big clean up with the brooms. For the life of me the hashtag escapes my memory! Someone put me out of my misery - #operationcleansweep? #riotcleanup? I'm just know I'm going to wake up at 3am this morning to remember it. Which will be extremely annoying! I think it was #riotcleanup ...

I went away to do dinner, come back, settle down for the last 20 minutes and the dvd had stopped recording. I hate dvds. Bring back VHS, I knew how to work them and I could see how much was left on the tape. Grrrrr. So, congratulations to Team Tyni, who made it through on the viewer vote, and to Omid for gaining the panel's unanimous thumbs up. Last heat next week, grand final the week after!

Let's Dance for Sport Relief: Week 2

On the panel, former champ Rufus Hound, former contestant Iain Lee and the dad dancer legend that is Vic Reeves.

Eddie the Eagle is Austin Powers! He just is: goofy, pitched perfectly, this is fab! No surprise that he has timing, you wouldn't chuck yourself of a bloody big hill without it, would you? Feel good, great style and rhythm, plenty of choreography and big smiles all round from everyone! A star turn!

Myles Jupp has to follow that and I'm a bit partial to Myles - fabulous stick work to Firestarter, if he doesn't win this, there's a place from him with the Medway Baton Twirlers. Alice Barry is from Shameless, she gets everyone bobbing about to Outside, especially Steve Jones when she did an *ooh er missus* on his nether regions. If a bloke did  that to a woman, he'd be forever damned, sacked and vilified on Twitter forever more. Ava Vidal and her jazz dancers gets us into a swing mood with Get Happy, I love that song!

The Towie pairing of Amy and Harry show some real dance talent with Me Against The Music , in fact, only switching on as I did halfway through this, I'd no idea that Harry was a girl,  I just kept thinking how like Brittany from Glee he looked! He's either naturally very talented or he's had a serious amount of training! Was it just me hoping that Ed Sheeran would give them a slap to Shut Them Up properly in the bar? Alexandra Burke going for the Jessie J Look, which is even less flattering on her. Who advises them, seriously?

Results in and first out is Alice, followed by Ava. Straight through is ... Eddie the Eagle, yay! And after saying Towie were the best, the panel put through Myles! But as far as the final is concerned, it's Eddie versus Laurie and Tameka so far!

Let's Dance for Sport Relief: Eastender's Tameka and Laurie through

The return of my favourite feel good show and there's that bird feather skirt again, this time on Alex, with a bit chopped off. Am I to assume that feathers are in, then? Is Nancy Dell Olio's feather boa to blame for this worrying trend?

Judges for the evening are those well known dance masters Graham Norton (Father Noel Furlong in Father Ted - remember Riverdance?) Greg Davies, who's very tall and Ballet Rambert trained, and Keith Lemon, whose turn as Baby in the Dirty Dancing routine stunned both critics and fans alike.

Five contestants, and Eastender's Laurie and Tameka are possibly set to become the first lady winners, storming through to the final with their Lady Ga Ga/Beyonce Telephone routine - timing, attitude, rhythm  in a proper full on routine, unlike Terry Alderton who also made it through, just for wearing a dress and having nice legs, following a less precise Tina Turner strut to Proud Mary. I say that, it's pretty much what Tina Turner does so ... Keith put him through at the behest of the studio audience after Graham voted for Tony and David and Greg left the decision to him by voting for Terry.

Tony Blackburn and David Hamilton gave an energetic performance to Salt'n'Pepa's Push It, with Tony Blackburn clearly loving every minute - he really gets what these shows are all about. Darren Gough was cursed with being the single male not dressed as a woman and doing a proper dance - Gym Mambo from West Side Story -  he's still got the moves and Craig R-H will be so happy that he mostly remembered his hands! Ulrika was too softly softly for the Roxanne tango but Angelos, who, up till now I couldn't see the appeal, turned in a magnificent performance that begs to see him, in his own persona, on Strictly! Strength and attitude and hopefully a personality out of character.

Next week, Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards. I can't even begin to imagine.

Let's Dance for Sport Relief 2012

Contestants for this year's charity dance fest, which begins on Saturday evening at 7pm, have been announced.

Flying solo are: Former England cricket star and Strictly Come Dancing champion, Darren Gough; 1987 Javelin World Champion, Fatima Whitbread, now best known for having a cockroach try to squat up her nose in the last series of I'm A Celebrity GMOOH; Tyger Drew-Honey (Jake from Outnumbered); comedian and actor, Miles Jupp; Tracy Beaker actress Dani Harmer; comedy group The Cuban Brothers; former ski jumper Eddie (the Eagle) Edwards; comedienne Ava Vidal; comedian Terry Alderton; actress and writer Arabella Weir; actor, comedian and writer,Omid Djalili; comedian Patrick Monahan; writer, actor and musician, Rowland Rivron; 

Duos taking part are: Amy Childs & Harry Derbridge (T.O.W.I.E) Angelos Epithemiou  & Ulrika Jonsson (Shooting Stars); Tony Blackburn & David Hamilton; Scott Mills & Olly Murs; Lorna Watson & Ingrid Oliver (comedy duo); Laurie Brett and Tameka Empson (Eastenders Jane and Kim)

The show will broadcast over five weekends, with the final contested on Saturday, March 17th and musical guests include JLS, Will Young, LMFAO, Tinchy Stryder and Pixie Lott.

Keep up to date with all the news and gossip at the official website here.

Strictly Come Dancing Snippets

I see some people getting their knickers in a twist over the judges salaries - even though the vast majority of their earnings comes from other stuff! *rolls eyes*

Glenn Hoddle's guilty pleasure is our favourite dance show! Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up ...

Robbie has been offered a part in a touring musical, Hooray for Hollywood - the promoter recognises a crowd puller!

Russell will be dancing in London's New Year's Day Parade with Flavia.

Let's Dance for Sport Relief will be back next year, with Alex Jones and Steve Jones presenting.