'Strictly' week 2: Wardrobe fails for Mike Bushell, James Cracknell and David James distract viewers from the dancing

Katie Archer
·Contributor
Updated
(BBC)
(BBC)

Strictly’s wardrobe department appeared to be playing a practical joke on some of the contestants tonight, with plenty of questionable outfit choices stealing the show.

Jumping out of viewers’ screens from the moment he set foot on the staircase was Mike Bushell’s Western-themed suit that looked like it had stepped out of a hallucinogenic nightmare.

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But its yellow, red and green clash of colours could not detract from an American Smooth that was almost as difficult to watch, as Motsi Mabuse told his partner after one unsteady lift: “Katya, you have a lot of trust in him.”

Craig Revel Horwood added: “Odd, darling, very, very odd. That’s all I can say.”

James Cracknell was criticised last week for his hunched posture, but this week’s Jive was equally uncomfortable for him and also featured some eye-catching trousers that made the whole thing even stranger.

Meanwhile, on the face of it there was absolutely nothing wrong with David James’ traditional Paso Doble outfit, but within the opening moments he started to look quite sheepish as he got more and more tangled in the cape as he whipped it around his head.

Bruno Tonioli told him: “That cape was like shaking a dusty rag.”

Things got off to a bad start tonight with technical difficulties that saw the episode drop off air for a few seconds a number of times while the hosts and judges made their entrance.

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At the other end of the scale, Karim Zeroual and Michelle Visage both declared their intentions to give week one favourite Kelvin Fletcher a run for his money by equalling his high score of 32 points.

Chris Ramsey made such a huge improvement on last week with his Charleston that even Take That, whose song Out of Our Heads was his performance track, voiced their support for him.

Tonight saw the return of the celebrity terms and conditions announcement, and for the first one of the series we were treated to Tony Hadley’s dulcet tones.

Tomorrow night’s show will feature the first elimination of the series - and another chance to marvel at those outfits, with Mike surely hoping his last Strictly appearance won’t be in that yellow suit.

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