Shock of the night - Tess was wearing a great dress!

And then all became clear as the dancers entered, and poor Natalie Lowe was wearing a one-shouldered purple and orange spandex number which must have originally been destined for Tess. I know she wanted a 10 for her first dance, but that is no way to treat the poor girl.

It was a very long show tonight - far too long to keep the attention of most of the audience, punctuated by some godawful pasos and some of the worst ever music I have heard on Strictly. No wonder many of the pasos fell flat when the dancers were attempting fire and passion to what amounted to funeral dirges.

First up, Barbie and Ken. Ken is besotted, and poor boy that he is, Barbie doesn't seem to have noticed - heart-breaking. Beautiful music, beautiful dresses, beautiful couple, beautiful dancing - but somehow it seemed to lack personality to really bring it to life. I have a feeling that Ali is in danger of becoming this year's Rachbot - lauded by the judges for genuinely good dance, but ignored by the public because there doesn't seem to be much spark in what she is doing.

Oxo Mum and Colgate Boy - well the fire was in the dress which was absolutely gorgeous, and totally right for Lynda (she has got great pins!), but sadly lacking from the dance. She also seemed to have more of a slightly frozen in terror look than devil woman. Darren had tried his best with the choreo, but the passion just wasn't there (and could have been with some proper paso music!). Didn't really understand the marking of this paso - way too generous. Although prize for comment of the programme must surely go to Lynda for her remark about Darren "And he has got a lovely bottom...."

Oh-la-la and the maths teacher. Boyfriend very disappointed with the amount of coverage of Ola's dress. Went back to playing with his i-Phone. I like this couple a lot - no it wasn't as good as their debut two weeks ago, but Chris puts his heart, soul and everything he has got into dancing. I thought the gapping was a problem (surely it can't be that difficult to get up close and personal with Ola?), and there was a big mistake. But hats off to them for getting it back, because usually when a couple is dancing at that speed and with that amount of intricacy in the steps, if you lose it, you lose it for the rest of the dance. Again, I thought the scoring was off, and can't believe that this scored three less than the funeral march paso that preceded it.

Zoe and Wolverine-with-a-new-haircut. I am green with envy at her dress! Jimmy Jordan was just made to dance paso, but Zoe just cannot match his arrogance. She needs to start believing in herself and selling the dance, because she is rather good, and her shaping was beautiful. Music was so very, very wrong though and only Tess can have thought it a good choice.

Ravioli - well there's a man who could have sold a half decent paso, and instead he gets lumbered with the fleet of foot quickstep. His partner seems to have decided when it doubt, camp it up, and at first I thought Rav was keeping up bravely. Then the dance began, and it became obvious that she had forgotten to teach him any quickstep and was relying on gimmicks the whole way through. Aliona has completely mis-judged the style of SCD, and brought too much of the Dancing with the Stars schtick to her three dance long debut on Strictly. Quite rightly criticised by the judges, I have a feeling the fate of Hayley Holt may be beckoning.

Natalie and Vincent - at last six dances in and the show finally begins. What a difference the music makes! There was possibly a little more drama than dance technique, but in such a crowded field, Vincent knows how to stand out, and Natalie did him proud. I like this couple a lot, and feel that there is bags of potential. I just hope that they stay in long enough for Natalie to realise it.

Craig and Flavia. I don't think he is enjoying his Strictly experience much, and there is certainly no chemistry here. He performed better than last week, but I am afraid that I spent most of the dance wondering what poor sweet Flavia had done to upset the wardrobe department and warrant being dressed in a pink tent several sizes too big for her.

Ok now that was a paso doble! Exciting, tense, brooding, dramatic, masterful! When I was competing, that music (we called it Spanish Gypsy Dance) was played just about every weekend, and I grew to hate it, but Ricky Whittle made it sexy and new and vital. I have a minor niggle about his head and neck line (I think he needs to lengthen up through the base of his neck and his upper spine), but that wouldn't look amiss in the quarter final. Shall we just engrave the trophy with Ricky and Natalie now, and all switch over to X Factor and avoid any more two hour marathon sessions?

The long jumper and the very long legs. This was my favourite quickstep of the night - full of joy, energy, personality and fun. I love Ian's choreo and Jade has made a big improvement in terms of posture and technique. There are very few SCD quicksteps that actually make me want to get up and hop, skip and charleston around the room, but this was definitely one of them.

The Welsh dragon, the cape and Kristina. Oh dearie me. Oh very dearie me. Where has Kristina's magic gone? She used clever choreo last year to showcase John, and this was just one long gimmick after another. It must be devastating for her to be bottom of the leader board, yet kept in by the public's perversity, for the second year running. I hope that she is not experiencing a horrible sense of deja vu, such that she goes running straight to Heathrow, never to grace our shores again.

Laila and Anton. Nice quickstep, basic but nice. Can't remember too much about it though now, so I think Anton needs to work a bit harder on his choreography for the future. It has probably been so long since he has lasted needed some decent choreo though, so I hope the skill comes back for him.

Have a go Jo and Brendan. I had a little snooze half way through this one. Atrocious music again - I have danced faster rumbas, I swear. I do however appreciate that Brendan is working his socks off to protect Jo, and I quite like this new Brendan. He made Fiona Phillips look ridiculous with choreography that was way too difficult for her and was all about him, but this year he is really trying to make Jo look as good as possible.

My beloved Tuffers who can do no wrong. Just one smile from him and I melt into incoherence. Light on his feet, good topline, great performance - the quickstep is a perfect dance for him. I was disappointed with his scores because I felt that he was severely undermarked (38 would have been about right for my beloved!). Compared to that dire stomp around that was Lynda's paso, I felt that both Chris and Phil suffered in the marking tonight.

And now finally the main event. When I am wrong, I admit it, and I got it badly wrong about the use of One Vision as a paso. Ricky Groves strode around the room, channeling St Freddie of Fandango-land like the 70s never went out of fashion. It's a hard job to reference rock's greatest show man, but the boy pulled it off, and the crowd, once again, went wild. His arms need work, his posture has improved but still needs refining, but none of that mattered last night. And as for Erin, cheated of a place in the semi final (as many viewers felt cheated of the final that they wanted last year) by a judging panel that reckoned that Austin lacked pizazz, it was as if she were saying to the panel "You want pizazz? Well here is pizazz served up with double mozzarella for you." Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.

As for the pro dances - after such a long stint, I don't think I really appreciated the foxtrot as much as I should have done, and I was a bit shocked by the salsa. Richard Marcel has done some fab choreo for SCD, but this was about as flat as a pancake. And did I blink and miss the hip action? I have never been a big fan of salsa as it is presented on SCD, and think that so often the pros just trot out a lame kind of cross between a cha cha and a samba - a chasamba lite really. In fact there have only been four salsas that I have enjoyed - Mark and Karen's, John and Nicole's (now that was a salsa!), Matt and Flavia's and Heather and Brian's. And to think we are going to have to sit through 6 or 7 soggy souffles of a salsa next week. I need alcohol just at the thought of it.

And now to the results. There has been a lot of talk about how the new look judging panel has been created to avoid the anti-judge vote running rampant (and to be fair, Bruno is working hard at providing a techinical critique and Craig tried hard for 30 minutes to be a little less mean). And the verdict after three weeks of the new regime, and Js Calzaghe and Wood escaping the dance off once more. Um, it doesn't really seem to be working, does it?