STRICTLY UNDERDOGS
Inside surprise success of Strictly ‘Chuckle Brothers’ Pete Wicks and Chris McCausland as viewers defy judges’ scores
For 20 years, critics have rightly moaned as pop stars and stage school pros have dazzled at on the dance floor
THEY are the self-styled Chuckle Brothers of Strictly Come Dancing, who have miraculously waltzed their way into tonight’s semi-final after winning the hearts of the nation.
But the surprise success of Pete Wicks and Chris McCausland has not just been about the voting public enjoying their less-than-perfect moves.
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It also represents a backlash against the perception that the BBC One show has, for too long, been dominated by celebrities with professional dance experience.
This series, viewers have decided not to vote through only the most polished dancers each week and are gleefully defying the judges’ scores.
Even judge Craig Revel Horwood thinks the rebellion is fab-u-lous — particularly when it comes to former Towie star Pete, who is the show’s ultimate underdog.
Last week Craig said: “It’s fantastic. He works really, really hard. I love his commitment and can see why the people at home are adoring him.
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“The beauty about this show is the audience at home get to have a say. That’s what makes it fair — because we’re up here spouting about ‘heel leads’ and the folks at home are going, ‘Oh, I’ve just fallen in love with him and I’m voting for him’.”
For the past two decades there has been constant, justified carping as former pop stars, West End performers and stage school darlings have twirled and pranced perfectly across Elstree Studios.
From Billy Elliot: The Musical star Layton Williams to Steps singer Faye Tozer and Les Mis and Wicked favourite Danny Mac, the finals have all too often been full of celebs who look like they pirouetted straight off a big-budget musical.
Tellingly, they rarely win Strictly’s Glitterball trophy, but they do often quickstep straight on to another West End stage courtesy of a nice career boost from the show.
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Backed by millions at home
Last week, viewers sent home Gladiators star Montell Douglas and her pro partner Johannes Radebe, and the week before they dispatched EastEnders actor and former child musical star Jamie Borthwick with partner Michelle Tsiakkas. Both couples had been sensational on the show, scoring highly.
Meanwhile, Pete, 36, and blind comedian Chris, 47, were bottom and joint second from bottom on the scoreboard last week.
Strictly's Pete Wicks breaks down in tears as he escapes dance off and reaches the semi-finals time
But they have been consistently backed by millions at home — and that is precisely because they are amateurs fully embracing the spirit of Strictly.
The beauty about this show is the audience at home get to have a say. That’s what makes it fair
Craig Revel Horwood
Hence, their amazement after every results show — and the brilliant moment last week when Pete jokingly christened himself and Chris “The Chuckle Brothers”, after the hapless duo from children’s TV.
Upon making it through to the semi-final, an emotional Pete, who is paired with Jowita Przystal, said: “I am speechless every week, especially this week because I’ve tried my best throughout. I’m just a bloke trying to learn stuff.”
He added: “I feel like they [the voting public] may potentially be playing a cruel joke on me.” Chris, partnered by Dianne Buswell, played along with the sense of bewilderment, joking that he had found himself on Strictly unwittingly.
He said: “I’m just a 47-year-old man who signed the wrong form.”
But Dianne summed up the nation’s feelings towards him when she said: “Getting this guy to this point, it hasn’t been easy but he’s never once said to me, ‘I can’t do that because I can’t see’.
“He has taken every opportunity and said, ‘Let’s do it’.”
Pete and Chris’s commitment and good humour mean they each now stand a real chance of being among the four pairs contesting the grand final next Saturday.
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The other three celebrities in the semi-finals are typical of the sort that millions of viewers are now turning against.
I am speechless every week, especially this week because I’ve tried my best throughout. I’m just a bloke trying to learn stuff
Pete Wicks
Take Sarah Hadland, who with her pro partner Vito Coppola is the only semi-finalist this year never to have featured in the bottom two on the scoreboard.
The Miranda actress, who in her teens attended the Laine Theatre Arts College in Epsom, Surrey, dazzled with her performance in last week’s Musical Weeks special.
And where did she launch her career? In West End musicals, of course. She has hardly hidden the fact she started out in shows such as Cats and Grease.
But as with most experienced performers on Strictly, she insists all that is no guarantee of success.
Hardly a newcomer to dancing
Talking at the start of this series about her time in the West End, Sarah, 53, said: “I remember I didn’t have as much technique as other people who were just pure dancers — and because I was more of a musical theatre all-rounder I would make up for it by being extra big.
“In my first lesson with Vito, I realised it was not going to work for this. I’d throw myself into something and think, ‘Well, the feet were a bit wrong but it doesn’t matter — look, I’m doing a really big smile’.”
Fellow semi-finalist JB Gill, who is partnered by Lauren Oakley, is hardly a newcomer to dancing either.
He shot to fame on The X Factor in 2008 as part of boy band JLS, and they racked up a string of hits over the five years that followed. Last year, after almost a decade-long break, the lads were back touring and still performing their trademark highly choreographed routines.
At the start of the series, JB, 38, even boasted: “I’ve just come off a summer tour with JLS so I’m probably in the best shape that I could possibly be in.”
In a recent interview, he added: “With the JLS boys, you’re striving for perfection all the time — you’re trying to make sure you’ve got the cleanest, best show possible.”
But of course, he points out that JLS’s street dance style is different from the Strictly routines.
We’re at ground zero when it comes to experience, we’re like blank canvases. I’m still lacking the rhythm — that’s the struggle
Pete Wicks
This is a point also highlighted by semi-finalist Tasha Ghouri, who is best known for being on Love Island two years ago but before that was a commercial dancer.
Tasha, 26, has done ballet since the age of three and attended CAPA College, an arts education and training centre in Wakefield, then the Creative Academy in Slough, Berks.
But before embarking on her Strictly journey, partnered by Aljaz Skorjanec, she insisted: “Commercial dance is very different to ballroom and Latin.”
Sarah, JB and Tasha are all great dancers who deserve to have got so far on Strictly. But they also have the unquestionable advantage of years of performing experience.
As Pete said at the start of the series: “We’re at ground zero when it comes to experience, we’re like blank canvases. I’m still lacking the rhythm — that’s the struggle.”
But it is his and Chris’s struggles that have endeared them to the public, as they have thrown themselves into it all heart and soul.
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Which is why they may just serve up one of the most sensational semi-finals in Strictly history — and one of them could end up taking home the Glitterball.
- The Strictly Come Dancing semi-final is on BBC One Saturday at 6.30pm.
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