Ultimate Strictly

This year, the couples will be dancing a new dance in the final, the Lindy Hop, so It Takes Two gave us a quick run down on what to expect. Based on jive and swing, it has a direct link to the Charleston. It should have swing out and breakaway with lots of lifts and air steps which are explosive, and both dancers have to lead their partners with strength and stamina. Len thinks it will be a fantastic addition to the final, and both couples will dance at the same time, so the judges will be able to directly compare the celebrities in a head to head situation.

Mid week review with Darren and Lilia. Interesting, Darren thinks the semi final is the hardest week of the series, and they should just go out and enjoy the final. Lilia was reviewing Ricky, and he's picked the quickstep for his ballroom, and she wants him to concentrate on the quality of movement. Darren looked at Chris with his ballroom choice of the foxtrot, and Darren wants him to look at trying to work on hands and face. Ricky's latin choice is the cha cha cha, and Lilia thinks his musicality and body movement is the best we've ever seen on Strictly. Interestingly, Chris is doing the Charleston in the latin section (which I'm not sure should really be allowed), and Darren wants him to work on getting the swivel in the feet. A quick look at the lindy hop, and Lilia wanted to point out that Ricky & Natalie have just as much of a partnership as Chris & Ola, and she thinks this can get overlooked at times. Darren looked at Chris's lindy, and said it really suited them, with loose arms and loose feet, bit of an advantage having done the Charleston.

Some Strictly Forum Questions next before it was time to find out some more scores on the Strictly Dance Machine Challenge, with Matthew and Brian joining Claudia, with Brian revealing that he and Ali are in training for the Christmas Special, and they'll be dancing a Viennese waltz. Back to the scores, with Matthew scoring 36,000 and Brian scoring 37,700 with them taking third and second place on the scoreboard respectively.

A review of the costume departments work this year next, with designer Zandra Rhodes and fashion journalist Hilary Alexander picking out their favourite dresses of the series. If she could take home one dress this year, Hilary would have Natalie Lowe's Argentine Tango dress from last week. Zandra would have loved to have designed a dress for Jade, while Hilary wasn't sure about some of Jo's early dresses because a darker dress might have worked better on camera. Hilary's best dress of the series was Ali's paso dress, and Zandra's was Jade's silver spiderweb samba dress. Next Hilary chose Laila's Charleston dress which was Cleopatra in a speakeasy, and Zandra chose Natalie Cassidy's quickstep dress. More choices, and Hilary chose Jade's lime green jive dress and finally Zandra chose Ali's tango dress with the clever striped beaded body.

Finally, it was time to hear from some of the celebrities who've had a shock exit from Strictly, Zoe from this series, Gabby from series five and DJ Spoony from series four. They all talked about how it felt to be voted out early in the competition when they'd been doing well. It was really love to see them all back, and while I think this has been one of the more successful series of It Takes Two, I wish they'd done more of these sort of segments, as I loved seeing some of our old favourites back in again! As all three had been partnered with one of the Jordan's in Strictly, it was no surprised that when asked who they wanted to win, they all picked Chris & Ola!

Tommorow will include the latest training updates plus a showdance Masterclass with Len

ETA: I've just watched the programme again, and I'm not sure if Ali & Brian are dancing the Viennese waltz in the Christmas Special, or if they were talking about it as their dance for the mega mix in the final this weekend.