LIVE BLOG: Rose Ayling-Ellis dances for the first time on Strictly!

Posted on September 25, 2021 by



It’s a big night for deaf actor Rose Ayling-Ellis as she dances live on national TV with the other 14 Strictly Come Dancing stars of 2021, for the very first time!

Just a note – no-one gets eliminated this week – that’s a nerve-shredder saved for next week’s episode.

Our editor Charlie Swinbourne will be live blogging all the ins and outs of the next two hours, so keep refreshing this blog for regular updates, or follow our Twitter account!

Most recent updates posted first – scroll down to go back to the beginning!

21.36 – So that’s me signing off. It’s been a few years since I’ve done a live blog and my fingers are aching!

The bookies still have Ayling-Ellis down as the favourite, currently at 3/1, followed by Rhys Stephenson (4/1) John Waite and Adam Peaty at around (6/1). Whether that stays the same following tonight’s show remains to be seen.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a video from BBC News showing how Rose goes rehearses without hearing. See you next week!

21.30 – There’s some chatter on Twitter about judge Shirley Ballas’s score of 4 for Rose’s dance. And it’s not complimentary:

https://twitter.com/timberryfilms/status/1441852614379851778

21.20 – The show ends with a reminder that next week will see the first elimination of the series!

A great start for Rose Ayling-Ellis, though it’s clear she’ll face some strong competition, from AJ Odudu, Adam Peaty, and John Whaite, who all scored in the 30s.

21.17 – Swimmer Adam Peaty and Katya Jones are about to dance. Peaty has five Olympic medals, 3 gold and 2 silver. He’s got a great breaststroke, but can he cut it on the Strictly dancefloor?

They dance the cha-cha, Peaty being lowered to the dance floor in a big white Olympic-style ring. Mrs Charlie is very impressed by his physique – I imagine we’ll be watching the stars of Gogglebox also commenting favourably on Peaty’s form in next week’s episode, as they did previously with Kelvin Fletcher, winner in 2019.

Mrs Charlie is not at all impressed with his dancing, sadly. What do the judges think? They’re happier, thankfully for Peaty. But now for the gravy. Peaty scores 30 – putting him in second place!

Their dance:

21.08 – Dancing the jive, it’s TV presenter AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrington. In July, Odudu won the second series of Celebrity Karaoke Club on ITV2. She can sing, but can she dance as well? Incredible, says Revel-Horwood. Their score? This is going to be big, I reckon. And it’s the highest of the night – 34!

Total gold, says the Strictly Twitter account! Who could argue?

20.58 – Stand-up comedian and Loose Women presenter Judi Love joins Graziano Di Prima for their first dance, and the comments are positive. They get a load of sixes and score 24. Joint third on the leaderboard!

Their dance:

20.42 – John Whaite and Johannes Radebe, both very dapper indeed (Mrs Charlie has surely noticed) and a real breakthrough – Strictly’s first male same-sex couple.

Wikipedia says of John:

John Whaite is an English baker who won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012. He works as a chef, television presenter, and author.

And they’re brilliant. The judges discuss the challenges of dancing as a male same-sex couple – who leads and so on. Revel-Horwood jokes that something was wrong – John’s thumb was sticking up! Then he says he loved it.

So what’s the score? It’s a whopping 30! And they’re top of the leader board!

“A moment to change it all” says the Strictly twitter account:

20.40 – Actress and comedian Nina Wadia, who has starred in EastEnders, Still Open All Hours, and one of my personal favourites, BBC Two sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, dances with pro Neil Jones. Ballas says it was outstanding! Can they beat 27? Nope, but 24 isn’t bad at all!

Their dance:

20.30 – Actor and producer, as well as being Mr Emma Thompson, Greg Wise is up next, dancing with Karen Hauer. Mrs Charlie says there’s something dishy about him – I can’t see it myself. Shirley Ballas agrees – she says she can’t see the fundamentals. Though she then says she only wants a few. They get 24 for their trouble.

Their dance:

20.25 – Rose is getting a great response on social media. Here’s a few of the tweets doing the rounds:

20.24 – Now it’s Peep Show and Mitchell & Webb star, comedian Robert Webb, dancing with Dianne Buswell. That’s one crazy outfit, and quite an erratic dance, for my eyes. Still, people were entertained, and Horwood found it funny. They get 20.

This Tweet sums up the outfit:

And here’s the dance:

20.15 – Former Corrie star Katie McGlynn and Gorka Marquez get themselves puffed out and match Rose’s score – 22!

The dance:

20.10 – Now Rose and Giovani dance! And they look perfectly in time with each other. The audience do deaf applause afterwards, which is a nice touch. As is seeing Tess Daly signing congratulations. Horwood is complimentary but suggests Rose attacks the dance a bit more, which gets her smiling in response.

Winkleman suggests jive isn’t Rose’s favourite style. Rose says she taught Giovani how to say ‘again’ during training and is now regretting it! The scores come through – a solid 22!

Here’s their dance!

20.04 – It’s Rose’s turn! We see the Eastenders star rehearsing with Geovani Perni. She explains how she’s watching his body language and also her interpreter. Giovani’s been learning some signs and we see them practicing!

20.00 – BBC Breakfast and sport presenter Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova take their bow. They score 24. They’re in second place!

Piers Morgan’s gone all complimentary about Dan’s efforts:

Here’s the dance:

19.55 – Waiting for Rose Ayling Ellis’s first Strictly dance? Read our writer Liam O’Dell’s interview with her for Metro here.

In other news, I’m eating cheese and crackers – I forgot to have my dinner with all the excitement.

19.52 – Now Dragon’s Den star and businesswoman Sara Davies MBE and Aljaž Škorjanec get set to dance. That was a very confident debut, although Horwood says she “walked” through it! He follows that up with a score of 3. And they get 17 in total.

The dance:

19.40 – It’s Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu’s turn. Rhys is a TV presenter and actor best known for presenting on the CBBC Channel. He looked smooth to me and the scores immediately reflect that. He gets a whopping 27!

The dance:

19.35 – Next on the dance floor is sports pundit and former rugby union player Ugo Monye and pro Oti Mabuse, who won with Bill Bailey in 2020 and Kelvin Fletcher in 2019. Can she make is a hat trick?

Hold on, has Ugo missed a step there? Mrs Charlie was adamant he did! Monye goes on to explain he was at his father’s funeral this morning – it takes some guts to go on national TV after that. The judges don’t give him a lot of credit though, they only get awarded 18.

The dance:

19.27 – Then we’re treated to a dance by Tilly Ramsey and pro Nikita Kuzmin. Wikipedia says Tilly “is an English television presenter, chef, and social media influencer best known for presenting the BBC cooking show Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch on CBBC alongside her family.” Of course, she’s also TV chef Gordon Ramsey’s daughter.

They get a pretty enthusiastic response from the audience. The scores are a match for Fletcher/Dowden – a total of 21.

Here they are in action:

19.17 – The first couple to dance are former McFly band member, author and actor Tom Fletcher along with professional dancer Amy Dowden. They score a total of 21, including a score of just 4 from judge Craig Revel Horwood! Mrs Charlie isn’t very pleased about that – she thought they did really well!

Their dance:

19.07 – The judges have now come out, closely followed by the couples! And we see Rose and her dancing partner Geovani Pernice coming out together. You’ll be pleased to know my subtitles are now working – with the usual delay of course, when they’re live! Here’s a screenshot:

19.04 – In true Strictly fashion, we start with a group dance, with all the dancers taking part. For some reason subtitles aren’t showing up on my TV just now, so I’m not sure which song’s playing. But it all looked pretty colourful and the studio audience cheer. Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman walk out to strong applause. This is the first live show, after last week’s prerecorded episode.

Here’s the dance in case you missed it:

19:02 – Good evening and welcome to our live commentary on what’s set to be an exciting, if nerve-wracking night for deaf actor Rose Ayling-Ellis as she dances for the first time as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing!

Read last week’s live blog (on ‘deaf night’ which included Casualty as well as Strictly!) by our writer Liam O’Dell, with extra comments from Editor Charlie Swinbourne, here!

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