Strictly Week Four: Football stars make it through to week five!

In the aftermath of Movie Week and the lead up to Icons Week, week four of Strictly Come Dancing brought some incredible performances from all the contestants, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Karen Carney definitely brought their A-game. 

Karen was first to perform tonight, as she tackled a quickstep set to ‘Marvellous Party’ by Beverly Knight. She described the routine as a “showstopper” and said that she and Carlos “have an absolute blast” when they perform it. Kaz also stated that for this dance they had “taken on board the judges feedback” from the previous week by “adding some finesse to the routine”. 

After their routine, in which Karen had a small slip, the judges gave their feedback, which was overall very positive. Mosti commented that Karen “looked elegant” and “more settled now” as the weeks have progressed. Shirley said that this dance was “an improvement” from the tango (which was Karen’s last ballroom dance). Anton stated that the dance was “absolutely marvellous, really professional, really focused” and that he “really really enjoyed it”. Craig was the only judge to comment on Karen’s slip but said that “slipping happens to the best of us, but recovery is important” which she did well. He also commented that her feet were “slightly sickled” and that “there was a tiny bit of gapping”, but complimented her charleston style steps and said that he “cannot wait to see [her] do a charleston”. 

When talking to Claudia, she talked about how it felt to open the show for the first time and about how she and Carlos wanted to “kick it off for everyone to have a marvellous party at home”. They also talked about how some of the Lionnesses came to watch Karen perform on Saturday night; in attendance were current players Beth Mead, Lucy Bronze and retiree Rachel Yankee. Carlos stated that Kaz absolutely nailed it, and the judges’ scores reflected this with Craig awarding them a six, but the rest of the judges giving them a seven each, leaving them with a total of 27 points (9th on the leaderboard overall. 

On the other hand, Jimmy was performing his couple’s choice dance to a medley of Caribbean music. In his introduction, he described how he was born in Surinam and that his family were “quite poor”. He even went on to describe how he “used to play football on the street”. He said with this dance he wanted to make his children “understand where dad is from”. One of his daughters commented that this week was “quite emotional” for them as a family as it was a “really beautiful tribute to [his daughters’] grandparents, to Jimmy’s mum”.  His daughter also commented that seeing “how hard his mum worked” was the thing that gave Jimmy “the work ethic he has today”. Jimmy ended his part of the video by saying he will “never forget where [he] came from”. 

The judges were overall quite complimentary towards Jimmy and Lauren’s dance, with Motsi saying that he is “improving every week” and that he is becoming a “role model” to many young people who are following along with his Strictly journey. Shirley noted that he and Lauren became “out of sync in the middle” of the dance, but she also said that Jimmy has “become one of the best entertainers” in this year’s Strictly cast. Then, Anton said that the dance was “joyous and fun and [he] just thought [Jimmy] was magnificent.” Craig suggested that the dance “needed to be broader” as Jimmy is one of the taller contestants, but he also complimented the “commitment” that Jimmy brought to the dance. 

Jimmy said that he was “over the moon” when talking to Claudia afterwards, and he and Lauren pointed out several ‘easter eggs’ within the stage design and props in the dance. The boat was named ‘Natalie’ after Jimmy’s wife, the cocktails being served at the bar were named after each of his daughters and there were several references to his football career. In terms of the judges’ scores, Craig awarded the pair of them a six, Motsi and Anton awarded them an eight each, and Shirley gave them a seven, leaving them with a total of 29 (leaving them in joint 6th on the leaderboard).

Luckily, both couples made it through to the next week of the competition without having to face the dance off. It was unfortunately former rugby player Chris Robshaw and his partner Nadiya Bychkova that were eliminated this week after facing actress Balvinder Sopal in the dance off. This means, however, that both of our Strictly footballing stars are through to week five of the competition and will get to dance in Icons Week! Make sure to tune into BBC One next week to see which dances the celebrities will perform next week!

LOUISA BEUNDERMAN