Judi and Graziano’s [dance] was a bit flat-footed for me. I felt that she had a really good swivel, but she missed a few steps, which were the mistakes that the judges noticed. But for me, it lacked content. I would have liked to have seen a bit more Charleston in there – there was a lot of posing. But that being said, what a great performance with bags of personality. She’s just so fun to watch.

The rest of the dances

So, Dan and Nadia – that flow and smoothness across the floor. I’d like to see Dan take advantage of his height and show us his length of stride and width of his arms in hold. He still has the most potential for me.

I really enjoyed Sara and Aljaz’s performance. They embraced the character of the performance and there was lots of Samba content executed with bounce and rhythm. AJ and Kai were one of my favourite performances of the night –  such good posture throughout with fantastic lifts that defied gravity. As for Robert and Dianne, Quickstep always has a lot of content for me. Because it’s so fast, you can actually fit more steps in and sometimes he goes ahead of the music. But the frame is improving week on week and so is the movement across the floor.

Greg and Karen had a very strong character-driven dance. But I’d like to see the dance travel around the room more as the Paso Doble is a travelling dance – more shaping in the body would help to enhance the performance. Tilly and Nikita, for me, needed more retraction in the legs when flicking in the jive action. Performance and energy levels are always very good. Rose and Giovanni had superb body contact throughout the performance with very good ‘flower in a vase’ shaping in the frame, and they glided seamlessly across the floor – simply beautiful.

Ugo and Oti danced a Couple’s Choice. I wasn’t sure what dance they were actually performing – which does make me wonder whether they did a good job or not. Ugo looked much more comfortable in this genre. There were brilliant acrobatic skills and it was a joyous fun dance. Actually, my niece Clara will love this one. She really loves Moana. I agree with Craig that it was flat-footed at the beginning but it got better and better throughout the dance. They’re ones to watch.

With Adam and Katya, you could see the amount of effort and detail in Adam’s dancing. The lines were excellent but occasionally there were turned in feet. And the rumba is notoriously difficult for the male celebrities to make it look smooth and seamless throughout – it looked a bit disjointed in places.

As for Katie and Gorka, Katie played a great character but I would like to have seen more Foxtrot throughout the dance. Her feet were lifting off the floor and they need to caress the full floor as the steps are taken. For Rhys and Nancy, no doubt this was the performance where Rhys could show off his skills as a dancer. This was definitely his style, although I think he will master all the styles in future shows, and I think he’s going to be brilliant.

John and Johannes’s performance was a “masterclass”

John and Johannes, well, this was a powerful, strong and dramatic Paso Doble. It was a masterclass in how same-sex couples can dance together in total synchronicity. I was literally jumping off of my chair and giving them a standing ovation at the end. I loved it.

I do feel that John and Johannes have kind of done their strongest dances. They’ve done the Tango and the Paso Doble, which are strong powerful dances, so they’re doing these strong dances early on. We’ll see how they get on with the more flowing dances and the dances that might not suit them so much. Will they be able to give us the subtlety and the softness of something like a Waltz? We have yet to see that. So I’m really interested as if they can do that, then I think they will go all the way to the final.

Are 10’s being given too early?

I think the difficult thing is that when couples are performing so brilliantly, at this early stage, well, it’s very unusual. So I think the judges are left with no choice but to give a 10 if they don’t see any mistakes and if they love the dance.

Strictly High of The Week

Well, I have to say personally, my highlight was AJ dancing to The Bodyguard. For me, she is just the most brilliant dancer. She has the most gorgeous poise. And let’s face it, she has the body of a goddess. She looks like a professional dancer. She has poised elegance, and she has stamina, which we’ve seen in the jive. This was just beautiful and I was so impressed with the lift work because she was like a feather. I think Kai must be very strong as well, but he’s obviously taught her very well on the technique of lifting and picking up your body. So yes, they would definitely be my personal favourites this week.

Strictly Low of The Week

Adam being at the bottom of the leaderboard, as I really enjoyed that dance. I loved the theme, I thought they looked phenomenal, and I was so impressed with his usage of his body – he committed to it 100%. Yes, there were places where he was disjointed and maybe turning feet but the rest of it was so good. I wouldn’t have put him at the bottom. Who would I say should have been? With Katie and Gorka, I wasn’t surprised that they went home because I felt that there wasn’t enough Foxtrot content in there for me. There was a lot of acting, but not enough of the actual dance.

Ian’s Top Tip

Well, for any of those celebrities doing lift work, I would say my tip is for them to learn how to prepare, to lower into your knees, prepare and lift your body into every lift – which is what we saw from AJ.

Ian Answers…

Did you think it was Katie’s time to go? Would you have agreed with the judges in choosing her over Judi?

I think when it comes down to the last two, my personal preference was Judi and Graziano. The Charleston was much more entertaining. It’s always very difficult when you’re comparing something like a Charleston, which is full of personality, to something like a Foxtrot. They’re so different, how do you compare them in technique and style? But for me, Judi was more entertaining than Katie, sadly.

If it was on showmanship and body rhythm, Judi would have got a 10! So if you’re putting that in amongst the technique, then maybe she would have got a four for the technique, but then putting it all together, you would give her a six – so I understand where the judges are coming from. Sometimes the showmanship of performance can take over the bad footwork. Somebody could do a really good technical performance, but it’d be completely flat and have no showmanship at all. I think maybe the showmanship gave her those extra points.

Waite’s Week

So I’ve just come back from Shrewsbury and I shall be hot-footing my way this afternoon to The Orchard Theatre in Dartford, where we’re going to be continuing our tour, The Ballroom Boys Act Two, with my little sidekick, Vincent Simone. We’re having a ball on tour at the moment. We’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks now and we’re touring until the end of June next year. It’s very much a variety show with lots of banter, lots of classic ballroom dances, lots of Vincent’s Argentine Tango, obviously, world champion that he is. It’s just a really fun show, so we hope people come along.