The Keep Dancing Podcast

It’s semi finals week and we’ve got the whole podcast gang on at once. Chaos reigns and hilarity ensues. Which thing is not a thing? Who is launching a range of body washes? Who is wearing the wrong trousers? And have we got the right finalists?

It’s the shortest show of the Strictly year and we’re off to the musicals, darling. We’re also very cross about the animosity towards two of our leading ladies in various dark corners of the internet, so buckle in.

Also covered:

- Mollie King’s playlist for her crush https://open.spotify.com/user/ellielabelle/playlist/2FdhhgNu5v1i1R4HfzbXny

- The difference between a sticky wicket and a shoogly peg

- For some reason we bring up the mild childhood trauma that is Philip Schofield as Joseph

- Christine in Phantom never getting her gusset out

- We imagine the horror of a 50 Shades Musical

- The weirdest training VT ever

We pick up the pieces after Susan and Kevin are knocked out of the competition and it looks like we’ve got a new winner elect. Also featuring:

- Do you need a risk assessment to go up a girder in culottes?

- Who is dressed as Alan Partridge?

- Debbie sends Ellie into a polysyllabic meltdown

- A dismissal of the ‘thon’, if we must call it that

- Blubbing

Blackpool time comes around again and we begin by deconstructing the iconography and symbolism of Northernness as displayed in Strictly.

- Which podcast team member hasn’t actually seen Strictly Ballroom?

- 90s memories flood back with Debbie’s alleged samba

- Deep confusion about Davood’s Paso

- An in-depth discussion of acid house fashion

- A highly recommended google image search string

With Ellie, Ann, Emily and Lisa

One Lift Short Of An American Smooth

After Strictly finally take Mum’s advice and ditch the theming and comedy VTs, the Keep Dancing Pod team have gone mad with power. We swoon over Susan’s emotional connection with the public, decide which dance is which Sweet Valley High character, ask which pro should retire first, liken ballroom dancing to manned spaceflight and coin the phrase: ‘Debbie, but with real pigeons’. Also, we are introduced to the concept of ‘Chip Spice’.

Yes, this is the point in the series where we begin to get peculiar.

Ellie is joined by Lisa, Anne and special guest Meg.

After a troubling, yet exciting week the Random Theming Crisis of Strictly 2017 claims a big name in nailed-on finalist Aston Merrygold. Ellie, Emily and Mum Julia analyse the dances, the frocks and the hoopla. There is quite a lot of hoopla.

We lost some of the podcast during recording, and then found some of it during editing. So Ellie frankensteined the two files into a single show and now we’re here for the hoopla. Apologies if there are any logical inconsistencies, spooky time travel interludes or unexplained half jokes. Or more than usual anyway. Ellie is joined by Lisa and Jon to lurk in the shadows and discuss Halloween week.

Tonight’s burning questions:

- Does Anton du Beke have a pair of jeans?

- Are the Reithian values are disgust, delight and defame?

- Some people don’t like music, which makes it hard for them to dance

- Has Ellie discovered the human facial expression ‘smiling’?

- The medium sized dragon is back. Why is it emblematic of everything Strictly stands for?

- Do they play Kylie at the Polo?

- Why isn’t Alexandra Burke a global megastar yet?

- If Blondes have more fun, why do only Brunettes do the Charleston?

- What does Smells Like Teen Spirit mean for the Strictly Christmas Special?

Strictly is working its way through the stragglers, like raptors in Jurassic park. In this week of random theming and random Bruno disappearances, we struggle with AJ’s dock, adore Jonnie and Oti’s supermarket sweep and come up with a new and exciting theme week that involves a Charleston to the theme to One Foot In The Grave. Ellie, Lisa, Ann and Richard also go on a lengthy digression about steampunk. Visit www.keepdancingpodcast.com for news and back episodes.

Is it really never too early for a ten from Shirley? That's just one of the questions we seek to answer this week.

Ellie is joined by Lisa, Ann, Richard and new voice Jon for almost 2 hours of Strictly analysis, deconstruction and general larking about. With pirouetting bananas, inexplicable doorframes and Charlotte obtaining her freedom.

Movie Week! We take our film criticism very seriously indeed and get into Jonnie's posterior positioning, swoon over Susan's samba, debate Debbie in-depth and get swept away to the Russian romance of Joe's VW.

And who will win Frock of the Week? Or for that matter, Wig of the Week?