Tuffers - oh no!

The poor man....in need of knee surgery. I just hope that he doesn't push himself too far and risks permanent damage. I think he has really been bitten by the SCD bug, much to his own surprise, and wants so desperately to continue. And he really is a great asset to the show this year, but his health should come first.

The other interviews on ITT seemed a little rushed yesterday, understandably to give more time to Phil and Katya (but they could have dropped the stats section which tries oh so very hard to push Alesha as the best dancer ever down our throats).

Chunky hunky Rav is so adorable - shame that he just doesn't cut it on the dance floor.

Ali and Brian - sweet but a bit Barbie and Ken for me. I get the impression Brian really has quite a thing for Ali though, and he is so articulate and so natually courteous - every mother's dream boyfriend! I am liking the new hairstyle, which I thought was quite "Beatles" but am reliably informed is quite the trend with the hip young things nowadays. Like I would know that.

Didn't really like the three judges on the Friday panel. It is too close to the main show and we hear enough of their opinions then anyway, so I don't feel the need to listen to them on a Friday. Bring back the pros! Craig was delightfully dismissive of the dresses though, darling, so the segment wasn't entirely wasted.

I was quite looking forward to Ricky and Erin's paso until I heard the music. What is it with the misuse of Queen music this series? First we had Under Pressure for a tango, now One Vision for a paso....horrendous! There was only ever one King Mercury, and the chances of doing a poor man's imitation in a dance like the paso are uncomfortably high. Keep a lid on it Ricky please!

And looking forward to Saturday's show - 2 hours and 15 minutes seems an awfully long time for the BBC to demand our attention..... A long show for the final is one thing, the dancers are of the standard that does keep our attention. But this early in the series run, with far too many poorer dancers still in evidence, could be a recipe for disaster. I love ballroom dance, but even I am not sure that I can sit through 7 quicksteps and 7 lame duck pasos (especially as the paso is such a hard dance to pull off at this stage). Not sure at what stage of the evening Len will crack either - I am thinking he may be driven to banging his head on the judges' desk sometime around paso number 5. Has anyone told Kristina about Len's opinions on "messing about with the cape" and the female pros "flatulating" around their partner to disguise poor dancing? Whoops thought not. Bring back Camilla, queen of the flatulating paso, all is forgiven.

More to the point, in such a long show, where do I fit the loo breaks in? This programme is longer than some of the feature films I have seen at the cinema recently and I have difficulty keeping still then. Obviously I can't miss any of the dancing (well maybe the Welsh dragon and his cape), and I don't want to miss Tess. I am living in hope that this series, finally, in response to some inane question from the tactless one ("How does it feel to be bottom of the leaderboard?") someone is going to crack and say "Tess, how does it feel to be a "can't interview for toffee" TV sidekick moll, with all the charisma of a slick of algae, and the fashion sense of a badly supervised four year old playing dress up?" Go, Laila, go - please let it be you!

Anyway, prediction time. The quicksteppers are going to generally fare far better than the paso stompers. There will be a struggle for top of the quickstep leader board between Anton and Laila, with Ali and Brian, Jade and Ian, Chris and Ola, and Phil and Katya (injuries permitting) with the gulf between Rav and Aliona and Craig and Flavia being an embarrassingly deep one.

Ricky and Zoe look set to take the paso by storm (although beware of too much "posing" from Ricky W). Ricky G and Natalie could go either way - but I can already hear Craig Devil Borewood sharpening his knife for an acerbic "entertaining for all the wrong reasons".

Why, oh, why give the paso to the three dance duffers? In the words of the song "There may be trouble ahead"....and I foresee not just car crash, but a full on major pile up with Jo, Joe and Lynda sharing the honours. Which will mean that none of them will be going home, and we will have a bottom two of Rav and Craig, and the choice of a moving wardrobe, or a wibbly wobbly weeble. Neither of whom has a natural physique for dancing, which is working very much against them, but both of whom could be a long shot to improve. Let's hope that I am wrong, and that the judges reserve the more cutting comments for amusement among themselves.