Having started under yet another cloud of controversy, this year’s Strictly Come Dancing has been a bumpy ride. We’ve seen it all, from two stars being forced to quit before they’d even begun, to another two leaving mid-series due to injury. And, of course, Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly blindsiding fans with their exit announcement.
Somehow though, we’ve made it this far and the Glitterball trophy is now in touching distance. Saturday’s semi-final saw the four remaining couples fight for their place in the competition and, for me, there’s only one winner: Karen Carney.
Until last week’s dance-off resulted in their shock exit, my money had been on Lewis Cope and Katya Jones to win. But their elimination, which was by some distance the most shocking moment of the series, threw the competition wide open.
Objectively speaking, Amber Davies is the most-skilled dancer left in the show and as Nikita Kuzmin pointed out in the semi-final, she deserves a huge amount of praise for showing up week after week, while receiving a torrent of online abuse. Likewise, Balvinder Sopal has fought harder than anyone in Strictly history to prove she’s worthy of a place on the show. George Clarke, a social media star who has found himself catapulted into the mainstream, has pulled some impressive performances out of the bag too.
But it’s Carney and her partner Carlos Gu who have stolen my heart this series – and whose Strictly journey, I think, will resonate with viewers the most when it’s time to vote during the final.
As the judges pointed out in Saturday’s penultimate episode of the series, nobody would have guessed the former England player would pull off such an impressive run on the show – let alone transform into a virtually unrecognisable dancer.
The clues were there in week one when Carney and Gu topped the leaderboard with a relentless and phenomenally executed jive. Unfortunately, she then experienced something of a plateau and faded into the background.
Thankfully, her renaissance came at exactly the right time - Halloween Week. With numbers dwindling, Carney stepped up and delivered a Peaky Blinders-themed Argentine Tango that reminded everyone she was still in the competition. This was followed by a Charleston - which suited her to a tee - and two weeks later, in Blackpool no less, a jaw-dropping Paso Doble.
She somehow topped that with her triumphant Couple’s Choice, which scored a 40 in week 10. The routine felt fitting for not just Carney but also her pro partner Gu, who has blossomed just as much as she has throughout the series, while consistently choreographing routines that empower and challenge Carney, as well as playing to her strengths.
If there were any doubts about whether the ex-England player was worthy of a place in the final, then they would have been down to the fact she has struggled in the softer ballroom dances, which certainly don’t come as naturally to her as the more attack-oriented faster numbers.
On Saturday night though, Carney put those criticisms to bed with a poignant waltz to Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time”, which left both the star and her partner Gu in floods of tears. An emotional Anton du Beke told her: “I mean this in the nicest possible way – I never thought you could dance like that. That softness, that sensitivity.” “I couldn’t recognise you anymore,” added Motsi Mabuse. “This time, you let go. This growth for me is one of the biggest in this whole competition. You have faced your challenges with such courage.”
The comments were especially important given an admission Carney made earlier in the series. As a football pundit, she’s experienced horrific abuse online and before dancing her Couple’s Choice, she told viewers: "I've received a lot of negativity, particularly one instance was really, really, really bad and it completely knocked my confidence and I've not been able to get it back." Addressing her time on the show, she added: "It's helped my confidence so much. I can be my true, authentic self."
As we all know by now, if there’s one thing Strictly viewers love, it’s a journey – and Carney’s has been a total joy to watch.
