Never was this more brilliantly encompassed than Rose and Giovanni’s dance in week eight, the Couple’s Choice (to be reprised in the final), when for several seconds they moved together in silence. This has been their genius as a couple: Giovanni has listened to Rose and found ways to interpret and include her personality within her dances. And while those dancers who are technically brilliant from the start are fun to watch, the ones we really love are those who improve over the series, who we can see working so hard for their scores. That’s Rose.
Rose deserves to hold that trophy high – and when she does, I’ll be leaping up from my sofa, celebrating, too.
Why I’m Team John & Johannes
By Robbie Collin, Telegraph film critic
“In the olden days,” my six-year-old son confidently told me earlier this week, “you couldn’t have two boys dancing together.”
“That’s the best thing about John and Johannes,” his eight-year-old brother continued. “They’re kind of starting a new tradition.”
“That’s interesting,” I said. “Why do you think it wasn’t allowed before?”
They both looked confused. “I don’t know,” the eight-year-old finally replied. “It was just really weird.”
And it was, wasn’t it? After 13 dances on primetime weekend television, it’s hard to imagine that two men partnering with each other on Strictly Come Dancing could have ever been considered controversial. Yet as recently as 2015, when the possibility of a same-sex couple on Strictly was first mooted, the BBC itself wrote off the possibility on the grounds that it was “a family show”. Well, now the concept of the family has grown a little bigger.
Allow me to go out on a limb here and suggest that in the fields of variety television and professional dancing contests, the chance of at least some of the male participants being gay is not a devastatingly slim one. Yet in 19 series of Strictly Come Dancing, John Whaite and Johannes Radebe are the first partnership to reflect it. That in itself makes their presence in the final cause for joy. By coming this far, they’ve already won.
