Standing ovation for jiving Danny
RED Dwarf star Danny John-Jules and his Welsh partner Amy Dowden jived their way to the top of the Strictly Comed Dancing leaderboard last night – and notched up the first 10 of the series.
The pair, who had ranked midtable so far, received a standing ovation from the audience and all the judges apart from Craig Revel Horwood with their energetic routine to Flip, Flop And Fly by Ellis Hall.
Their perfect 10 from judge Darcey Bussell gave them a total of 37 points out of a possible 40.
And despite Revel Horwood not standing, he was the most complementary of all the judges, telling John-Jules simply that he should have “saved that dance for the final”.
At 58, Danny is the oldest celebrity in the series and has been paired with professional dancer Amy Dowden from Caerphilly.
Charles Venn and Karen Clifton’s choice of James Brown’s’ Get Up Offa That Thing also proved one of the night’s successes.
Their street style routine was especially popular with guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro who said it had made Venn “a contender to win this thing”.
He said: “That is my jam, back in the day. All that, I loved it. Great choreography. It’s hard because street, people always want to try and figure out what the technique is. The technique is fun.
“Have a good time and boy, you were jamming. Fantastic, I loved it, You are now a contender to win this thing.”
The other judges were equally complimentary. The pair scored nines across the board giving them a cumulative total of 36 out of a possible 40.