The Keep Dancing Podcast

One Lift Short Of An American Smooth After Strictly finally take Mum’s advice and ditch the theming and comedy VTs, the Keep Dancing Pod team have gone mad with power. We swoon over Susan’s emotional connection with the public, decide which dance is which Sweet Valley High character, ask which pro should retire first, liken ballroom dancing to manned spaceflight and coin the phrase: ‘Debbie, but w...

After a troubling, yet exciting week the Random Theming Crisis of Strictly 2017 claims a big name in nailed-on finalist Aston Merrygold. Ellie, Emily and Mum Julia analyse the dances, the frocks and the hoopla. There is quite a lot of hoopla.

We lost some of the podcast during recording, and then found some of it during editing. So Ellie frankensteined the two files into a single show and now we’re here for the hoopla. Apologies if there are any logical inconsistencies, spooky time travel interludes or unexplained half jokes. Or more than usual anyway. Ellie is joined by Lisa and Jon to lurk in the shadows and discuss Halloween week. T...

Strictly is working its way through the stragglers, like raptors in Jurassic park. In this week of random theming and random Bruno disappearances, we struggle with AJ’s dock, adore Jonnie and Oti’s supermarket sweep and come up with a new and exciting theme week that involves a Charleston to the theme to One Foot In The Grave. Ellie, Lisa, Ann and Richard also go on a lengthy digression about stea...

Is it really never too early for a ten from Shirley? That's just one of the questions we seek to answer this week. Ellie is joined by Lisa, Ann, Richard and new voice Jon for almost 2 hours of Strictly analysis, deconstruction and general larking about. With pirouetting bananas, inexplicable doorframes and Charlotte obtaining her freedom.

Movie Week! We take our film criticism very seriously indeed and get into Jonnie's posterior positioning, swoon over Susan's samba, debate Debbie in-depth and get swept away to the Russian romance of Joe's VW. And who will win Frock of the Week? Or for that matter, Wig of the Week?

After week 2, we've got all sorts of strong views, especially about the end result. We're sorting the Improvers from the Dead Ringers with the help of new crew member Ann - she's sort of like our Shirley Ballas. Emily still likes Davood, Richard ventures views on frocks and Ellie has plans to start a commune with Susan, Susan's wife Lee, Jonnie and everyone else who loves Jonnie. And just in case...

After the first live show, we try to work out who meets our expectations, who confounds our expectations and what our expectations were in the first place. Ellie is joined by Lisa, Emily and Richard to discuss the dances and by Ewan to try and work out the storyline of the whole series.

In our 2017 Strictly Come Dancing preview show, Ellie, Lisa and Emily assess the new contestants, make tentative forecasts on who would be their most suitable partners, bid a fond farewell to Bruce Forsyth and have the most incredible trouble remembering the names of the male pros.

We're back for more Strictly chat with a new judge, three new dancers and the first hints of the Strictly Class of 2017. Ellie and Lisa are your hosts and there's a couple of special, unexpected cameo appearances.

In Episode 18, we're recording straight after the result and we have a special guest - Ellie and Emily's mum, Julia. - Did we approve of the judge's choice selections? - Was the big prop in Ore & Joanne's show dance too big? (No!) - The rules of the Eurovision drinking game and how they apply to Strictly - Ellie & Emily's mum shaming them for being mean to Kevin - Dawn leaves us a voicemail As wel...

In Episode 17, it's the Semi Final and we're not so much angry as disappointed. Between the baffling scores and random judges comments we didn't get the best possible final line up. Also this week: - The most ridiculous prop of the series - Claudia treated as an adult by everyone except Tess - Ore rediscovers his charisma - Danny and Oti created a perfect moment - Louise fails to go Full Pineapple

Musicals week showcases the very best and very worst of Strictly's theme week excesses. In homage, this podcast contains some of our very best and very worst jokes. We're sad about Rob Rinder leaving the competition, we're angry about the general concept of jukebox musicals and we are prepared to be slightly more patient with Louise. This lasts about thirty seconds. Who wins Frock of the Week? Who...

Episode 15 - Goodbye and thanks for all the GIFs. We bid a sort-of fond goodbye to Ed Balls and tie ourselves in utter knots trying to work out if Danny & Oti’s incredible samba tips over from cultural celebration into cultural appropriation (in the end we decided that we don’t get to decide) We ask if Joanne is trying to hide a love-bite with that spangly polo neck? Tables in dance routines: good...

In Episode 14 we're chatting Blackpool and everything is at a sort of fever-pitch. - Our props warehouse obsession continues - The spreadsheet collapses in on itself - You get your money's worth from Neil Jones - Would Cersei Lannister flash her knickers in a paso doble? Yes, she would. - Are our winter party looks based on our favourite childhood party frocks? - We are all basically Team Oti in t...

In Episode 13 we take a look at a show packed with incident, dense with desperation to get to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. In this episode: - Emily gets put in charge of making the Playlist of Unbridled Joy - We want to steal Daisy's moves - We uncover a shocking omission from The Spreadsheet and get Ellie's views on Ceefax. - We love Rob Rinder’s authentic self and demand that he does a rumba to...

In Episode 12, we rake over the embers of Bonfire night. Let’s light the blue touch paper and stand well back. This week: - We finally find out who is wearing the 4th Beatles wig. - What did we see in Strictly this week that we usually only see on Ru Paul’s Drag Race? - A bit of a stats moment over Score Inflation - Lisa turns into the embodiment of the heart-eyes emoji for Rob Rinder - Huge appre...

It’s Episode 11 and Halloween has sent terrifying chills down all of our spines, and not all of them are related to Ed Balls. The burning issues this week include: - How did Louise take all the edge out of Harley Quinn? - Would you stop your mate Becky going as a moth for Halloween? - Is the Strictly Rule Book the sort of enchanted tome where the text flows and changes within the course of a singl...

After a weekend stricken by injury, illness and bodged lifts, we cling to our remaining celebs and pros like Lesley to Anton’s manly tango chest. In Episode 10, we ask: - Can anyone discreetly supply us with a file entitled ‘StrictlyOfficialRules2016final.pdf’? - Should the podcast crew be getting sidetracked by Anastacia posting nudes on twitter? - Should Lisa be enraged by spurious Parisian them...

A classic drama like Strictly Come Dancing has a pretty strong three act structure. In Episode 9a, we have another It Takes Two Cynics discussion with Ewan Spence. We’re investigating how everything we’ve seen so far in the series has been Act One: lots of exposition, setting up the storylines, introducing characters and conflicts that culminated in last week’s mano-a-mano duel between Danny and O...

In Episode of 9 of the Keep Dancing Podcast, we go off on many tangents. - The joys of cortisone injections (stay in school, kids!) - We ask if gold lamé is too subtle for Strictly? - We’re getting freaked out by the infantilisation of grown adult & Olympian, Claudia. - We wonder where you can obtain a medium sized dragon and if you break the terms of the lease by bedazzling it. - Is Daisy’s rumba...

Got a question or comment? @keepdancingpod on twitter or keepdancingpodcast@gmail.com In Episode 8, we settle down with popcorn and some slightly laboured Hollywood jokes to examine Movie Week. We’re talking about our love for Greg and Ore’s respective American Smooths (Americans Smooth? How does that pluralise?), but we also cover the more important topics like: - Will Young Shoe Speculation - wh...

Following the weekend's dramatic dance-off with no dance-off we talk to friend of the show, Ewan Spence, about what happens when live broadcasts go off-script and how controversy is not necessarily a bad thing for the show.

In Episode 7 of The Keep Dancing Podcast, we work out what Eurovision and the yellow wagtail have to do with Laura and Giovanni’s romantic waltz, get effusive about Ed Ball’s banjography and stand in solidarity with Anastacia. Plus our new regular feature ‘Ten Minutes of Bum Chat’, this week featuring Greg. In our weekly awards ceremony Ellie attempts to award Dress of the Week to a dress which te...

In Episode 6 of the Keep Dancing Podcast we’re still reeling from the back-to-back dazzling danceathon that was the opening weekend of the Strictly season. We’ve seen 6 cha-chas, 4 waltzes, 2 tangos, 2 jives and a Week One Paso, which we think might be a clever strategic move. To help make sense of what we’ve just seen, we'll talk it through together. Our podcast team was: Ellie, Lisa, Michelle, R...