TV
The history of Strictly Come Dancing’s Movie Week
One of the viewers’ favourite weeks of the series, Movie Week on Strictly Come Dancing has always captured the attention of the judges and the votes of the audience, and is a key part of the contestants’ quest to lift the Glitterball trophy.
With Strictly returning to our screens, we’ve taken a look back at the history of the show’s Movie Week.
What is Movie Week?
The first Movie Week episode of Strictly Come Dancing was first introduced in 2014 and sees the professional dancers and their celebrity couples perform a selection of dances inspired by Hollywood’s biggest titles, blockbusters, comedies and action films. The dancers are allocated their dance styles and left to choreograph a spectacular performance to please the judges.
As usual, they are judged on a scale out of 10 by the judges – this year featuring Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas – which will then help create a leaderboard. The public votes, adding to the judges scores, which then puts the bottom two pairs in the dance-off on the results show.
When is Movie Week?
Movie Week usually takes place in the third week of the competition, when the celebrity dancers haven’t always found their feet. Therefore, the dancers rarely score very highly in this week as they still learn the basics of each dance they perform.
What makes Movie Week special?
Looking the part is key in Movie Week, with the wardrobe team backstage going all out when it comes to transforming the dancers into the characters they star as. Movie Week, alongside the Halloween special, sees the themes bring out the best costumes, hair and make-up that Strictly has ever seen. Movie Week features some excellent choreography from the professional dancers, paying tribute to the films they feature as characters from.
Who has performed well in Movie Week in the past?
Some of the best dances in the Movie Week edition of the show have seen EastEnders actor Kellie Bright dance with Kevin Clifton to a Star Wars themed Charleston, whilst radio and television presenter Ore Oduba and Joanne Clifton showed a softer side to Singin’ in the Rain with an American Smooth. Labour politician Ed Balls added brilliant comedy to his samba with Katya Jones, depicting The Mask, while Grease has also featured multiple times, most memorably when it featured Steps star Faye Tozer and Giovanni Pernice’s quickstep.
Pop star Frankie Bridge was the first contestant to win the Strictly Movie Week, alongside partner Kevin Clifton. She scored the first 10 of the 2014 series from generous guest judge Donny Osmond, with Darcey Bussell, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli giving her nine points each. Her dance was a paso doble to America from West Side Story.
More recently, television presenter Ranvir Singh and Giovanni Pernice wowed the judges with their beautiful foxtrot to Love You I Do from Dreamgirls. They were closely followed by Bill Bailey and Oti Mabuse with their The Good, The Bad and The Ugly themed paso doble – making Movie Week an iconic one for all comedic contestants on the show.
