Strictly Come Dancing 2020: week four – live

Ranvir’s rainbow fraggle dress is fabulous, but sadly all the buttons have fallen off Giovanni’s shirt. These things can happen, hopefully he’ll be able to dance through the inconvenience. It’s a little stiff and stilted in places, Ranvir needs softer knees. But bags of attitude and absolute filth. Love it.

Next up it’s RANVIR AND GIOVANNI! This week they’re dancing the Cha Cha to ‘Oye Como Va / I Like It Like That’ by Santana / Pete Rodriguez.

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Ranvir could win Strictly this year, this partnership is dynamite. So far we’ve seen them dance a Quickstep, a Paso and a Foxtrot – am very keen to see how Ranvir gets on with letting her hair down for some party Latin.

Craig David is doing the Terms & Conditions. I love Craig David with all my heart.

Scores: 8,10,9 – DRINK. There it is, first ten of the series. *sighs glitter*

Shirley is hot hot hot hot – it was powerful, musical and HRVY had amazing leading skills. Anton thought had great fluidity and armography. Craig wanted cleaner and more fluid transitions (THANK YOU) but the lifts and timing were brilliant.

Anton is basically Len, but shoutier.

There’s something rather sweet about HRVY, and man that boy can dance. He’s got great hip action and bags of energy, and even though the transitions in hold could do with a little more flow, he’s absolutely smashing the side-by-side stuff. Good start to the show, enjoyed that very much.

First up tonight it’s HRVY and JNTT! This week they’re dancing the Salsa to ‘Dynamite’ by BTS. For those of you who aren’t down with the kids, BTS are a huge K-Pop band with seven members. Basically they’re Gen Z’s answer to Madness. There’s a joke in here somewhere about ‘I like driving in my Kia’ but this VT isn’t long enough for me to give it the finesse it deserves.

Out come the stars! Out come the stars! Clara, Janette and Ranvir have ALL the fringing (DRINK x3) and Maisie has clearly upset the wardrobe department.

Out come the judges! Claudia is already taking the piss about how Anton ‘reluctantly accepted the invitation’. I love Claudia.

TESS AND CLAUDIA DRESS WATCH: Tess in a black velvet shroud, Claudia in…actually I’m not even sure what that is. Is it Halloween again?

And we’re off! Everyone is having an amazing experience, but it’s harder than they thought. How easy did you think it was going to be? Have you never watched Strictly before? Note to self: ask Clara Amfo where she gets her sports bras.

Are we all ready for Judge Anton? Loins girded? Brace position assumed?

This week’s Strictly Come Bingo: a slug of cooking sherry for an occurrence of the following:

• Retraction
• Swivel
• Fringing
• A rogue 10
• Anton saying ‘marvellous’

Question of the day: How is The Hit List still on TV? I love a music quiz but this one manages to be both hectic and tedious.

This celebrity special has Dev Griffin on it. He’s a Radio 1 DJ. That makes him the biggest Hit List ringer of all time.

Evening all, and welcome to this week’s Strictly Come Dancing liveblog! We’ve made it to Week 4, but it’s starting to feel a bit like the wheels are falling off the Strictly glitterbus; Katya and Nicola have had to leave the show after Katya contracted Covid, and Motsi is in quarantine after having to make an urgent trip home to Germany.

She’ll be back in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime Anton is filling in as a guest judge because apparently 2020 hasn’t been traumatic enough. Send thoughts and prayers to the good ship Strictly, and with any luck we’ll hold the show together until Christmas with a combination of glittery sellotape and crossed fingers.

Kick off tonight is at 7.10pm, so please sprinkle goodwill and happiness in the comment box below. See you in a bit!