Stuck at home, prohibited from human contact outside our bubbles, TV audiences have found solace as well as gaiety in this year’s series
Cometh the hour, cometh the tango danced to Metallica’s Enter Sandman by comedian Bill Bailey and his partner Oti Mabuse. Other highlights of Strictly Come Dancing in 2020 have included the touching chemistry between TV presenter Ranvir Singh and her partner Giovanni Pernice, and the deadpan verdict “G-O-A-T” delivered by judge Craig Revel Horwood (“It normally stands for greatest of all time,” he explained to a bemused audience). Strictly has long occupied a prized spot in the nation’s home entertainment schedule. But with this series, its 18th, the show has surpassed itself. With viewing figures topping 10m, and cinemas, parties and theatres all out of reach, the show has been an oasis of glitter in a desert of a season.
The physicality of Strictly has always been part of its appeal, and this has been strengthened under pandemic conditions. To an audience confined at home, prohibited from touching anyone outside our bubbles and unlikely to have formed new bonds of friendship or love, the spectacle of 12 celebrities – now whittled down to four for Saturday’s final – twirling, lifting and clutching each other has held a particular enchantment. The whoops and cheers from fellow contestants that the couples have had to rely on, in the absence of the usual studio audience, have heightened the impression of warmth.
