Four weeks in and we had another theme week, plus we were one dancer short. Delta was unable to perform due to a rib injury, so she missed out on Icons week! In previous years, I have loved guessing who each one is as they come down the stairs and then debating whether that person actually is an icon (Bruno Mars, anyone?). This week, they not only opened the show with a video of the celebrities talking about who they were, what they were dancing to and why it mattered to them, but also then they were announced as their icon coming down the stairs. Instead of Dani Dyer, it was 'Mariah Carey and Nikita'! What a way to ruin the game.

Nevertheless, Icons week in itself was very entertaining. It's interesting when the celebrities have a character to hide behind and how much that helps them. Bethany was dancing as Aretha Franklin and said it really helped her to have this persona to present rather than being herself. As she's an actress, I would have thought it was easier to project a 'dance persona' any week, but this suggests otherwise. The way she started on her own and strutted down those stairs was confident and sassy.

On the other end of the scale, Dame Sarah was still struggling to come out of her shell, despite being fully covered up in leopard skin with a long ginger wig on. You couldn't see her face very often, but when you did, she was doing an embarrassed kind of smile. Trying to channel Shania Twain, she still ended up doing a lacklustre performance, especially when compared to the others on the night. So it wasn't a surprise to see her in the bottom two, and ultimately eliminated, whilst it was more of a surprise that Bethany joined her in the dance-off.

Hiding behind costumes may or may not help the contestants but it certainly puts up a bit of a barrier to the viewers. The number of times Mr C asked me who was who! This is the first episode where I've felt a significant lack of connection to the group. Some of that is my own doing. I'm not watching It Takes Two this year, which means I'm not spending as much time with the couples as normal. And I really missed Delta bringing some pizzazz to the ballroom - I hope she's able to dance next weekend, a rib injury is no joke.

I'm having a wobble with my predictions. Dark horse Lawrence has probably dropped out of contention for now. I had an all-female final in mind of Dani, Tabby, Bethany and Delta. But of the three of them who danced, only Tabby smashed it out the park on Saturday. We'll chalk this up to a bad week and check in again next time.

The Vito Report

All I really need to say is that Vito came into the training room as Adele, it's all you need to know! Murdering some of her best songs via karaoke probably wasn't his best work. But then he was back to normal during the chat with Johannes, desperately trying to describe something that comes out of its shell. "Turtle. Snail. Pearl!"

The Yellow Card

The couples all behaved themselves this week and it was judge Motsi who fell foul of the yellow card. Her Beyoncé outfit was amazing, the wig looked great (if hot!) but the yellow jumper was not for me. It was so bright, I thought I was looking into the sun.

What They Do in Their Spare Time

Vito came dressed as Adele, and Julian put in a very credible performance as Shania Twain in his training VT - heels and everything. I'm assuming they are practising for some kind of lookalike career in the future, or if not, a touring tribute show could work!

Roll call

• John & Katya: Paso Doble - The bit with the flaming guitar was unnecessary because the rest of it was so good.
• Dani & Nikita: Rumba - Quite jerky and she looked pretty nervous, but controlled the giggles.
• Lawrence & Jowita: Salsa - Not technically the best, no hips, but the lifts were out of this world and Jowita couldn't do that if she didn't trust him.
• Tabby & Mark: Samba - She looked just like Raye and had great sass and accents.
• Sarah & Julian: Tango - She wasn't counting so that's an improvement but then the timing was off, so maybe she should have stuck with it.
• Cach & Maddie: Foxtrot - Much better than I was expecting, the first time we've seen him doing something 'traditional'.
• Bethany & Nancy: Cha Cha Cha - Great character, she didn't look nervous, although a couple of mistakes crept in.
• Shaun & Alexis: Couple's Choice - The best he's done so far, more confidence and he's just so cute!
• Lacey & Vito: American Smooth - Smooth as it should be, another step forward, she's improving every week.
• Graeme & Lauren: Salsa - A few mistakes and timing issues but he was having a lot of fun, and the lifts were good.
• Jaime & Carlos: Paso Doble - A Bowie Paso really shouldn't work but she clawed her way through it and performed well.
• Will & Dianne: Jive - Full of energy and good synchronicity for the most part. I thought the choreography a bit dull though.

No theme on the cards for next week's show, so I'm hoping that will give us another chance to get to know the celebrities a bit more for themselves. We're getting to the point already where the obviously struggling participants are eliminated and the competition gets very close. Let's see what week 5 brings!