Strictly Come Dancing

After what must have been quite a stressful week for Seann Walsh and Katya Jones, following the pictures of them kissing, despite both being in long-term relationships, that were printed in last weekend, they could have blown it on Strictly last night.

It would have been easy to blame any disappointing moves on the distractions of the week. But, with huge grins plastered on their faces throughout, they managed to impress the judges and score a respectable 28 points for their Charleston.

It took a while to get there. First, Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly opened the show with a quip about it being “a quiet week … other than the odd headline”. This light-hearted mention was the least-veiled reference to the scandal, but the awkwardness was tangible throughout the show.

The BBC’s shameless scheduling was blatant – knowing extra viewers would be tuning in just for the car crash factor, Seann and Katya ended up being the penultimate couple to perform, with all that jolly dancing and banter that we normally enjoy now feeling like unsatisfactory foreplay ahead of the main event. Or perhaps we’re being cynical and they popped them on late so that most kids would be in bed on the off-chance that they went to second base on live TV.

And then, finally, it was time. Putting us beaky-nosed gossips in our place, Daly introduced the duo with the words “it’s been quite a week but tonight it’s all about the dancing”, and on the ensuing VT of rehearsals footage, it was strictly business too, with both Walsh and Jones clearly working as hard as ever on their choreography and taking the show