Strictly Come Dancing: Five week six routines we loved from Frankie Bridge's Tango and Aston Merrygold's Paso Doble

The celebs have impressed with their spook-tacular performances
Defying Gravity: Frankie Bridge and Kevin Clifton's spell-binding Tango wowed in week six
BBC
Natasha Sporn27 October 2018

Strictly Come Dancing is gearing up for its second theme week of the series with a Halloween special.

The spooky show promises to deliver some scarily good - or bad - routines for our Saturday night entertainment.

But while week six doesn't always fall on Halloween, that hasn’t stopped the dance floor talent.

Here are five of the best from the archive…

Series 2 (2004) – Jill Halfpenny and Darren Bennett – Cha Cha Cha

A month on from her show-stopping Jive, Halfpenny wowed with her Cha Cha Cha to She’s A Lady in a week that demanded two routines from its couples.

It was 9s across the board for Halfpenny and partner Bennett – the eventual Christmas series 2004 champions – who topped the pile with 36, which helped them stay top at the end of the night after it was combined with their 32-scoring Quickstep.

Series 4 (2006) – Emma Bunton and Darren Bennett – Samba

The Spice Girl certainly added some flavour to week six with her routine to Maria by Blondie, a dance we sadly never got to see again because they narrowly missed out on the final.

Bunton and Bennett topped the pile with 36, four points above the second highest Samba of the night (Louise Lytton and Vincent Simone) and a massive 17 above Peter Shilton and Erin Boag’s attempt.

Series 9 (2011) – Chelsee Healey and Pasha Kovalev – Charleston

The Charleston and Strictly have always had a complicated relationship. While some add very little to the competition, and showcase pretty much nothing, others have the ability to transform a partnership. Mercifully, Healey’s fell into the latter.

Her gloriously themed and fast-paced routine to Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue saw her sweep the board with 9s, leaving her top of the table with 36.

Series 12 (2014) – Frankie Bridge and Kevin Clifton – Tango

While the jury is still out – and will always be – on whether Defying Gravity is an appropriate song for a Tango, the episode-stealer that was Bridge’s routine is worthy of a mention.

Dressed in full costume, complete with green face paint, Bridge pulled off the ending to end all endings when she ascended to the sky - and the top of the leader board with 37 points after bagging a coveted 10 from Bruno Tonioli.

Series 15 (2017) – Aston Merrygold and Janette Manrara – Paso Doble

Merrygold delivered a delightful routine in the midst of all the gravestones and cobwebs.

Backed by Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nivana, the JLS frontman commanded the floor with his stern demeanour and effortless footwork – some of his best during his short stay in the competition. He even showed off his solo skill in an impressive section atop a podium.

The pair, who later exited far too early for many fans liking, scored 38 with a 10 from Darcey Bussell and Bruno Tonioli to finish second on the leader board.

Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC One, tonight at 6:50pm

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in