It's back, and it's bigger than ever... STRICTLY COME DANCING

[ang_rosin]

They aren't joking. I reckon it took a full five minutes to get all the celebrities and their "professional partners" down the steps at the start. I was almost nodding off. Nice to see that thingybob and his orchestra with people who can sing are still with us. Some administration first:

Our Brucie I didn't think it was physically possible but he's actually worse this series. Every time he explains his joke it makes me cringe and the conversation with Bette Midler in the results show made me want to crawl out of the room with embarrassment.

Tess's Dress's She actually looked good for the season opener but I'm sure that things could go steadily downhill. Her frozen smile is positively glacial this year.

Erin Um. Have they swapped a clone in and we haven't noticed?

Anton Hole in the Wall. Why?

Right, that's over with. Those of you who remember last year (or at least saw the recap ep at the start of the season) will remember that the blokes went first and were a joke while the women shone. This year we started off with what I think was an excellent routine from the bloke from Casualty. Going in I thought that my favourites would be Gary Rhodes and John Sargeant but having seen the first week Gary has slipped right down and I now like Austin Healey (funny and good), John Sargeant (living legend) and Don "I thought we were quite good" Warrington. I'm quite confused as to why Andrew Castle did as well as he did: perhaps it was good footwork but he looked bad to me.

Until I'd seen the girls group dance I was expecting Don and John to disappear quite quickly but, by god, those ladies are BAAAAAAAAAD. I reckon two, three at the most have any natural rhythm. I think poor Phil needed to go, couldn't dance at all. I liked the clip they showed of Don telling Lilia he'd only given eighty percent and her FURY.

The judges. Bruno has gone completely, hasn't he? He was always on the edge but this year he's capering from the first episode. Arlene remains a nasty bit of work while Craig gets all the grief for being bluntly right. Mum and I like to try and guess the scores and we were spot on this year apart from Gary's 1 from Craig which was really harsh.

I caught up with Merlin today. It's.. okay. Not as cringingly bad as Robin Hood was in points but also not as good, either. It's quite obviously solely marketed to kids and as such I'm not sure how long I can stick with it. I'm afraid Anthony Head alone isn't enough totty to keep me tuning in.