Strictly V X Factor - The showdown!

For the second weekend, Saturday night was a clash of the titans as Strictly Come Dancing went one on one with The X Factor. The battle was kicked off in superb style on Friday as Ricky Whittle stole not only the show but the hearts of many wide eyed, drooling ladies! With some great Tango’s and wonderful Waltz’s the talent was really on show and a big highlight was the Karen Hardy (the one who won the show with Mark Ramprakash a couple of years ago) choreographed group dance. Just like all of Karen’s dances it was great fun and exciting to see and with moves like that on display this is one viewer that would love to see Karen back as a professional!
After the night before and the thought of Ricky Whittle dancing latin (mmmm, pecs and writhing hips!) it was Strictly that got my viewing on Saturday night. Ricky didn’t let me down and Natalie Cassidy also proved to be a hit in the Pickle household! Her cracking personality shone through and with the lovely Vincent Simone by her side it was proved that size doesn’t matter – it’s the way you shake it that does! It was a great show and although Brucey and his jokes were more than cringe worthy they didn’t seem as bad when accompanied by some of the “hide behind a cushion” performances. Richard Dunwoody was the bad yet funny performance of the night with his Cha Cha Cha - but despite this, it was a shock to see him knocked out of the show after he got the biggest “Awww” moment when he was shown doing some out of hours practising all on his tod -Bless!

On the other channel X Factor was less impressive. The beginning was filled with nothing but dreadful performances, two arrogant Irish twins and bad hair (green Mohican and afro? Ummm no!) It did picked up by the end of the show and it was great to see the female performers really shining and out doing the guys. Not to rule X Factor out completely I tuned in to the second part of boot camp on Sunday, just one word: Why? Whilst the show saw some great performances and tugged on the old heart strings as hopeful after hopeful was sent packing, my night was ruined as John and Edward (the irritating, big headed, arrogant twins) went through at every stage. It was made worse when they were picked as one of the final six bands and low and behold who would be there mentor….. fellow Irishman Louis Walsh! Looks like we’ll be seeing them in the live finals then! Forget about the twins and the show was much better than the previous night. It had the odd comedy moment – think Behrouz Ghaemi and his scary “WTF” eyes as he was sent packing– and in the end the performers left in the show seem to be a talented bunch. Simon ended up with the Over 35s, Danni got the girls, Cheryl’s with the boys and Louis has the groups - it looks set to be a hard battle for the judges to have the winning act this year.

So, what’s Pickle’s winner? Strictly!
Ricky Whittle certainly helped my decision – but so did the Irish twats, ooops I mean twins, from the X Factor.