What a great interview, Laura comes across so well. She's natural, warm and chatty and she and Giovanni are so at ease with eachother. Thank goodness Mick likes him I want to dance at a Whitmore wedding!

Love this . . . Giovanni, Laura, Anastacia and others singing along to the Strictly theme tune waiting on the stairs backstage

Thanks, Ms Daisy . That is a beautiful interview, right kind of questions and really funny. Laura has a very strong accent. I like her sense of humour, I don't know whether Gio gets it, being Italian.

BIB - I want to see my Mick.

Kristina's verdict on Laura and Giovanni's Cha Cha in The Mirror . . . “They were the perfect couple to open the first show. They look stunning together. Laura moved naturally and has incredible musicality. You can't have great technique immediately but Giovanni really made her shine.”

Good morning, Ochre . Thanks for that. I am only upset that last night's couples
(except Ed) were overmarked.

Morning Sarah, yes I thought Friday night's couples suffered a bit on the leaderboard due to the different standard of marking to Saturday. Craig's 5 for Laura seems unfair compared to some of the scores he gave last night! Her overall score should have been a mark or two higher placing her above Anastacia and Tameka in my view.

Next week will change everything up though. Can't wait to find out what their next dance and music are and looking forward to Laura's blog tomorrow to hear her own thoughts on this weekend. She should feel proud, a strong start and I find them so enjoyable to watch

Morning All! That photograph from The Saturday Telegraph of Laura and Giovanni is a-maze-ing Ochre! What a beautiful couple. I loved their dance and hats off to Laura for going first - not that she would have had much of a choice I'm glad it's not just me who thought there was a lot of over-marking going on. I watched both programmes yesterday because I was out on Friday and Saturday evenings (most unusual for me) and I thought there was a big difference in the "criteria" on Saturday. Hey ho, back to normal this Saturday and hopefully everyone will be judged the same.

Good morning, Lou It's as if they had forgotten that there was a show on Friday.
It's Craig won really pissed me off. I was marking on par or more than the judges and that made a big difference. I think he is overmarking people for personal reasons.
Simply ridiculous.

Hope you had a good weekend. @BBCNaga is good celeb to follow, I have seen her reply to quite a few people. Are you suppose to get a reply or a RT??.

Morning all I think there was overmarking as well

Except poor Ed.

Morning Lou, Sarah and lewis

You went out Friday and Saturday night on the first weekend of live shows Lou? Hope you had a good weekend

I've watched Laura and Giovanni's Cha Cha loads of times now and I absolutely love it, the music, the routine, as Bruno said Laura has a sparkling presence and they look to be having a great time together. When Len gave them his sev-ern I loved how they spontaneously turned to eachother smiling and held hands and then their reaction to Bruno's score too.

They were filming yesterday, Laura posted this photo. If it was at the O2 have they been Waltzing on the roof? How awesome would that be.

I am unbelievably excited all over again because Zoe's back tonight! Teatimes sorted until Christmas. Wonder which night Laura and Gio will be on? Zoe has just tweeted that it's Anastacia & Brendan, Ed & Katya, Claudia & AJ and the wonderful Karen Hardy tonight, can't wait

Good morning, Ochre . I haven't seen again, but will do this week. I agree, ifbot fir the nerves, Laura would have smashed it. Sometimes it's better to start from a low base and just keep scoring higher and higher.

BIB - That must have been awesome.

Morning everyone. The marking on Saturday was ridiculous The Friday night dancers were at a disadvantage.

I agree!! It will be interesting to see what happens this week when everyone dances together!

I'm just popping in from the GG thread and for the record I still love gio

I enjoyed Laura and gios first dance, it was a great start and to open the new series is a big deal and they both did great! There are just too many other couples who I really like so I don't know where team lavanni will rank with them at the moment!

Looking forward to seeing what they are dancing and how they do on Saturday though I'm assuming it will be a ballroom number and I believe Gio choreographed some beautiful ballroom numbers last year so I have high hopes for them

It looks like a spectacular location, and they have a circular dance floor there.
https://res.cloudinary.com/dfznckcbh...ctrzf72cun.jpg

Ha ha, I will start following her! And the rule is that it has to be a reply, RTs count for nothing baby.


Me too. There is a lovely chemistry there. Believe me, it is highly unusual for us to be out on a Friday night and even more unusual to be out on a Friday AND a Saturday!


Most definitely Let's hope it "evens up" this weekend.




Good to see you claire_Louise


Wowzers!

Morning Huph After Friday night's show I was thinking positions on the leaderboard were fair (though didn't like the scoring ties) and that it was a good thing if the judges scoring had been 'reset' after it all got silly last series with high scores early on, too many tens and nowhere to go....then Saturday happened. I do think 25 was a good and fair start but that Laura and Gio should be a couple of positions higher on the leaderboard. With a good ballroom this week they'll climb up though


Wow, stunning location! Thanks fatskia, looking forward to seeing the footage

Amazing location, can't wait to see the footage

ETA Sorry Ochre looks like I copied what you said

Exactly. Much as I liked Kara, my fear for her was that she was "too good, too early" and she, as I remember, did battle against a lot of "she's not on a journeeeeeee" critics. I didn't see a problem with Laura's height? There seemed to be a lot of mumbling on Twitter about Laura being too tall for Giovanni but they seemed a perfect match to me!

Ha ha, great minds Huph


Laura's slightly shorter than Gio and around the same height in heels, they look stunning together on the dancefloor. The lady being the same height or even slightly taller isn't a problem for ballroom hold at all as it wasn't for Daisy and Aljaz this weekend. Both couples will do lifts that work for them.

I can't wait for the lifts

Laura, Gio and the All Saints ladies

Bet Giovanni was hating every minute of that

Yep, tough day at work

Here's Part 4 of Laura's Strictly blog for Glamour mag.

Struck by her honesty.

Lovely anecdotes about Louise giving her support and Daisy's dressing room snack drawer full of crisps and jellies, now there's a girl you want to have as a friend

Laura says this weeks song has a special meaning to her. The filming at the O2 was about getting to know and trusting eachother. She says Giovanni has been so supportive this week

Leave those nerves behind Laura and sparkle again on the dancefloor!

Ha ha . . . photo of the moment Laura and Gio found out they were dancing first as just shown on ITT

She is honest!! Normally you always hear how wonderful everything is but it's good to hear about the downside too.

Wonder if she will have a waltz this week?