Musicals Week had plenty of things fans have come to expect from this year’s Strictly Come Dancing. Vito Coppola practically launched Sarah Hadland into the air, Chris McCausland aced another ballroom routine and Pete Wicks finished bottom of the leaderboard (for the third week running).
Wicks performed a Waltz to “Somewhere” from West Side Story and while he delivered on the storytelling elements, he struggled with the more technical aspects of the performance. And once again, he sparked conversations on social media, as fans questioned whether the former TOWIE star should still be in the competition. But armchair critics would do well to remember that Wicks is still in the show because enough fans have kept voting for him.
And while, skills wise, he is significantly behind series leaders Tasha Ghouri and JB Gill, there’s plenty he deserves praise for.
Let’s start with this week. Was Wicks’s Waltz quarter final-worthy? Not exactly. Anton du Beke labelled one section of the routine “a disaster” and Craig Revel Horwood added: “You don’t have the swing and sway, the footwork is shoddy and you went completely wrong.”
But, as the judges also pointed out, he has genuinely improved in the competition. If you look back at how Wicks (who was a total dance novice) fared in the first few shows, his efforts in recent episodes are nothing short of jaw-dropping.
In week one, Wicks and his professional partner Jowita Przystał were joint first from bottom, after a Paso Doble that left Revel Horwood remarking: "It looked like you were going through a stroll of the Port Talbot steelworks.” It’s fair to say it seemed they wouldn’t last long but Wicks has constantly come back fighting.
As the judges observed on Saturday, he does dance well out of hold, and he’s often thrived in routines that have required getting into character. Putting his Couple’s Choice to one side, Wicks’ highest score came in Halloween Week when he transformed into the Joker, for a Viennese Waltz set to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life!”.
For every viewer arguing Wicks shouldn’t have lasted this long, there’s been another who has rushed to vote for him. There’s nothing fans love more than a feisty underdog and as Wicks himself said, he owes it to the fans who’ve kept him in Strictly to keep giving it his all.
“Every time my name gets called, I know it’s down to the people who voted and I wish I knew how to repay you,” he said in his most recent VT. “All I can do is keep dancing and try my best.” And isn’t that what Strictly is all about?
