Oti’s too fabulous for Cheryl’s show

A NOTE of cheer amid the ongoing gloom. Oti Mabuse is to return to Strictly this year — sing a thousand hosannas! There was a concern that having an after-work drink with her celebrity dance partner Kelvin Fletcher might have erupted into a full scale Curse-of-Strictly purging and sacking, but Oti has survived the show’s moral police. The fact that she is back as one of the pro-dancers suggests the meeting was as innocent as she insisted all along. Good. For Oti is a fabulous dancer, a terrific choreographer and for me, one of the enduring highlights of Strictly. She is a generous expert who always makes her partners look good — although I am afraid there is one sausagefooted clodhopper who is beyond redemption. Not on Strictly Come Dancing — I mean Oti’s occasional dance routines alongside Cheryl Cole on rival show The Greatest Dancer. Poor Cheryl looks like a panicked, drowning kitten when trying to keep up with Oti’s feline grace. I’m afraid it’s a no from me.