This weekend’s Strictly show came with a lot of firsts - the first time all 15 couples got to participate in a theme week, the first time movies week has been so early in the competition, and the first time this year that someone was going to be sent home.

The dance of the week, for me, was Cach and Maddie’s Samba. Fresh from last week’s freestyle quickstep that split the judge’s opinions, there was quite a lot riding on this one. The samba has the potential to be over the top anyway, and adding in his own elements could have taken away from the performance again. But he, and Maddie who choreographed the piece, had the balance exactly right - enough samba to know what it was, good enough quality to get high technical remarks, and more importantly, enough individuality to make it jump off the screen.

This week was a surprise to me, because while there were definitely a couple of weaker dancers, I thought everyone was of a higher quality than I’d expect for week two. Usually, I have one or two names in mind that don’t bother me if they go home in the first few weeks. This year, I really didn’t want anyone to leave. Of course, someone had to and unfortunately professional dancer Amy went home in the first week for the second year in a row. Chris and Amy’s Baywatch themed Cha Cha Cha was great fun to a brilliant song, but it didn’t win the viewers over... not even the slow motion running!

My dark horse Lawrence was probably on the weaker end of the performance scale and his Viennese Waltz in homage to Ratatouille meant Jowita had to dress up as a rat which was not her best look. He’s definitely dropping down my predictions list. Irish ATC John and Delta both smashed it again, but I’m worried about Dani Dyer who put in an elegant, if slightly dull, performance. Along with Tabby, I’m still keeping them as my finalists, but I get the feeling I’ll be changing the list quite a few times over the next few weeks.

The Vito Report

Lacey and Vito danced a very fast quickstep as Jessie and Woody from Toy Story 5, and in preparation for that, they watched the movie with Lacey’s kids. The adorable creature that is Vito built them a little den to watch the film in, including toys and popcorn. When they showed the kids a snippet of the dance, he asked: “What do you give us?” “A million thousand!” Bless!

The Yellow Card

Dani Dyer was Belle from Beauty and the Beast, so her yellow dress wasn’t necessarily a surprise. It was just a bit too yellow, though, when it should be slightly more gold. Plus, when all the couples descended the stairs in the intro, she was front and centre and right in my eyeline.

Musical Crime of the Week

The Toy Story 5 dance actually takes up two honours this week, as Lacey and Vito danced to a sped up version of Taylor Swift’s I Knew It, I Knew You. It’s a medium good country song in its original format, but sped up, it sounded more like Katrina and the Waves, Walking on Sunshine! Lovely, but not what you come to TayTay for!

Roll call

• Dani & Nikita: Foxtrot - Very elegant, slightly wobbly footwork, not the most interesting dance.
• John & Katya: Couple’s Choice - Good choreography, great tricks as you’d expect from Katya, but you could see all the joins. It wasn’t a smooth dance.
• Delta & Kai: American Smooth - Not very smooth for an American Smooth, but she looks amazing and the one foot spin was gorgeous.
• Chris & Amy: Cha Cha Cha - Incredible song but looked very hard to cha cha cha to. Not technically great but the slow motion running was worth it all.
• Lawrence & Jowita: Viennese Waltz - Steps look good, nice and smooth, but it was some kind of grimacing smile that was uncomfortable to watch.
• Sarah & Julian: Charleston - Good moves but not quite enough energy, little bit reserved but great job for a week two Charleston.
• Graeme & Lauren: Waltz - You can tell he’s loving the character. Not the most interesting waltz but it was pretty solid as a dance.
• Will & Dianne: Foxtrot - They said they were going for sexy, which it wasn’t really, but it also wasn’t silly which it could have been!
• Jaime & Carlos: Cha Cha Cha - Great attitude, felt a bit flingy and out of control in places, but very watchable routine.
• Melanie & Aljaž: Waltz - Oh bless her, it meant a lot to her clearly but this was not a dance to my tastes, slow and boring.
• Cach & Maddie: Samba - Didn’t want that to end, a lot of fun, SO fast. His posture wasn’t great but he smashed it.
• Tabby & Mark: American Smooth - She didn’t spot any of those spins so felt like she spent most of her time being dizzy as anything. In which case, she did a great job.
• Bethany & Nancy: Paso Doble - I did not like this one. Don’t know the song, the dancing was scrappy, and too long looking at Nancy just so Bethany could fly.
• Lacey & Vito: Quickstep - Very good, full of energy, looked quite hard to do in the cowboy boots but like the accents, bumping into each other, etc.
• Shaun & Alexis: Salsa - Alexis was amazing in this, I don’t know if he lived up to his own hype but he definitely had more personality than last week.

I was concerned about having a theme week this early in the season, but as it turned out, it was fun and entertaining and it didn’t really matter when in the calendar it happened or how many people were taking part. The BBC have confirmed the remaining theme weeks for this year and they are as normal: Icons, Halloween, Musicals, and of course, Blackpool. If you can count Blackpool as a theme. Next week is back to normal though, with 14 couples remaining.