Caroline Flack – A Tribute

No doubt, unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, you will have all have heard that sadly former Strictly Champion Caroline Flack died at the weekend. In this post I’ll be taking a look at her journey to becoming Strictly Champion during the memorable 2014 series when she was partnered with Pasha.

The format of this post will be similar to my finalist previews at least at first. So we begin with

Worst Dance

It’s kind of funny to call something her worst dance give she was a strong participant throughout the 2014 series. Lowest scoring dance might be more appropriate and as we’ll see in her best dances she actually got the chance to improve on this dance.

Anyway her lowest scoring dance was her Cha Cha Cha from Week 1 which opened the 2014 series and scored a still very respectable 27 points (6,7,7,7)

Best Dances

Caroline and Pasha had all four judges reaching for their 10 paddles on 4 occasions during the 2014 series. Once in the semi final and three times in the final becoming the first couple in Strictly history to have a perfect 3 dances in the final and the first couple to score 40 across four consecutive dances.

Their semi final routine was a Salsa to Maria by Ricky Martin

In the final they performed the above Cha Cha Cha from week 1 improving it to the point that all four judges scored it a perfect score

They also re-performed their Charleston from Around The World Week in Week 10 which previously had just Craig denying it a perfect score. However Craig brushed off the cobwebs on his 10 paddle in the final to give it that extra point

It’s their show dance that is probably going to be remembered now especially in the context of the recent tragedy. An emotional piece performed to “Angels” by Robbie Williams and it’s hard for the routine not to take on new meaning now she is with the Angels and it’s hard to watch the routine without a tear in your eye. I was welling up watching it while I was getting this piece ready believe me. Oh it scored a perfect 40 too but you guys knew that.

Honourable Mentions

A couple of honourable mentions from Caroline’s Strictly experience. Firstly her Argentine Tango which in week 11 wowed all the judges apart from Craig who gave it a 9

Finally we’re going back to Movie Week in Week 3 when they did a Rumba to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”. It was a good performance, especially as Rumba can be hard for a celeb, and given the emotion she brought to her later routines I wonder what they could have done with it if it had been brought back for the final. Discounting Donny Osmond it scored 33, including him it scored 42 (8,8,(9),8,9)

Number Of Times In The Dance Off

It’s been a rarity for the last couple of series for a finalist, or indeed a champion, to find themselves in the Dance Off but it actually happened for Caroline and Pasha.

In week 7 their Waltz saw them languishing in the bottom two but they were more than good enough to see off Alison and Aljaž

Winning Moment

And here is the moment they were announced champions in 2014

At this point I was going to add a few words of my own but I don’t think there is anything I could say that would be better than the emotional tribute that close friend of Caroline’s Laura Whitmore said on BBC Radio yesterday.

Normally it’s at this point in a post that you’d see a ton of monetisation as I ask you to help out with my hosting costs, or switch energy supplier or one of the many other things that allows me to cover the costs of providing this site and also provide an income for myself. I’m not going to do that today on this post! There’s something much more important

Since about 9am yesterday morning I’ve been running a fundraising campaign on Facebook to try and raise money for The Samaritans. I’m sure I don’t need to say too much about The Samaritans and the work they do both for people who might find themselves in crisis and struggling to go on like Caroline did and for people who have more minor problems but still need a friendly person to talk to.

At the time of writing this post the fundraiser has made £884 in about 24 hours. The initial target of £400 got smashed in a couple of hours. Caroline’s tragic death has resonated with so many of you and so many of you have helped out for a cause dedicated to always having someone there you can turn to if you ever find yourself in a situation like Caroline did.

If you are willing to, can afford to and have Facebook as it is being done through Facebook’s donations system so all the money goes to the charity you can visit my fundraiser right here and give as much or as little as you like and can afford. If you don’t have Facebook but still want to get involved get in touch with me in the comments below (only visible on individual posts) or over on Twitter and I’ll sort out another means you can donate

With that all that’s left for me to say is RIP Caroline Flack 1979-2020

Dancing On Ice 2020 – Week One Discussion/Poll

As promised on Twitter I’m going to attempt to do content for Dancing On Ice again.

Firstly I need to mention a couple of caveats, if this ends up not being worth my time I may stop doing it like I did when I tried it in 2018. Also commentary and other content will only be available on Twitter due to the issues with me linking this site on Facebook

Ok disclaimers done, the greatest show on ice is back for 2020 with 12 couples all trying to lift the trophy at the end of the series. And a new judge in the form of John Barrowman. 6 couples are skating for your votes tonight and one of them will end up in next week’s skate off.

But who was slick and who should just skate away? You can let me know your thoughts about that or anything else right here in the comments section or over on Twitter. No prizes (unless this takes off massively), your comments are just for fun.

A poll will open when all the couples have skated so check back for that for your chance to vote and tell me who your favourites were this week. As always I’ll let you pick up to three

[poll id=”121″]

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Kelvin Fletcher Wins Strictly Come Dancing 2019

It’s the end of a 13 week journey and the votes have been counted and you have crowned your winner and I can reveal winning Strictly Come Dancing 2019 is…….

Kelvin and Oti!

You will be able to relive their showdance and the winning moment in the videos below once the BBC have put them on YouTube

Complaints to the BBC

Did the right couple win? As always you can let me know your thoughts on that or anything else to do with tonight’s final right here in the comments section. Or you can head on over to Facebook or Twitter and let me know your thoughts there. On Twitter remember to tag @davejthorp and include #StrictlySpoiler. It’s your last chance to get entries in and possibly win an iPad

Talking of winning well done to those of you who spotted the hidden password of “Champions” in the discussion/poll post. Twitter won the coin toss so one of you on there will be getting a rewarding DM shortly

There’s no spoiler this weekend as the final results were, in a novelty for the BBC, live. I do however still have the Christmas Special spoiler and if you’d like to unwrap your presents a little early you can do so by checking out the spoiler on this link! It’s the spoiler that horrifies those who view it if The Sun is to be believed (which it isn’t!)

Please also take a couple of minutes to read this year’s thank you post where I talk about the 2019 series for The Strictly Spoiler and thank those who have contributed towards the huge success the site has had this year.

It’s the final weekend and running this site for you guys in 2019 has cost me over £1000 in hosting costs. If you want to and can afford to make a one time donation and want to help me out with these costs or if you just want to buy me a cool refreshing beer or a Christmas present to thank me for all the spoilers you can do so using THIS LINK or the button below.

Or you can set up a regular donation to help support me every month using the button below. You can choose to donate any amount from £5 a month. You are free to cancel your regular donations at any time but will be automatically charged your selected amount every month if you donate using the button below. If you’d rather make a one time donation you should use the PayPal link/button above!

It’s freezing and chances are you have your heating on! This is the best possible time for you to check your energy prices and make sure you are on a good deal. Switching takes 2 minutes and if you switch using MY LINK you can earn yourself £50 and you also support me for free. Bulb will pay your exit fees if your old supplier charges any, do not charge any exit fees themselves so you are always free to switch and have 100% green energy at low prices. Win for the planet and win for your pocket!

You can also read about the numerous other ways you can support me and the work I do including more free ways to support me (and maybe earn yourself a few quid in the process) and additional ways to make a cash donation that do not attract fees like the PayPal donations do HERE

You can’t share links to this website on Facebook at the moment because Facebook don’t want you to. But you can give this post a good old like and share on a number of other popular social networks using the buttons above and below. Your likes and shares help spread the word about The Strictly Spoiler and really do help me out!

That’s pretty much it for this series now and for The Strictly Spoiler for another year. The site will be migrating at some point next week back to cheaper hosting for the off season so it doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg so if you have issues accessing it at any point next week that is probably why

Discussion posts will open for the Christmas special on Christmas Day however there will be no commentary on the social networks as I’m not working on Christmas Day!

Other than that all that remains is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!