Strictly Come Dancing has miraculously fixed its Johannes Radebe problem

Johannes Radebe was the star of Movie Week on Strictly Come Dancing (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy) The first Strictly Come Dancing live show was littered with so many mistakes that it felt inconceivable the new trio of Emma Willis, Josh Widdecombe and Johannes Radebe would still be in their jobs once this series has finished.

Still, the scale of the backlash was totally unreasonable: there were always going to be teething issues and, as expected, there were many. We are an unforgiving nation, and the tsunami of criticism proved it.

I don’t know what has happened in the last seven days, presumably a lot of sleepless nights and endless rehearsals, but, for me, the second live show of the series was completely unrecognisable from the first, and that was largely down to Johannes, who had transformed from being nervous, rushed and at times looking totally out of his depth to suddenly being the star of the night.

I’ve always adored Johannes. There’s nothing remarkable in that: who hasn’t? While Strictly fans’ scepticism was mainly targeted at comedian Josh when the line-up of new hosts was announced, my worry was all for Johannes.

People regularly underestimate quite how challenging it is to be a presenter: it takes more than a big personality and effortless warmth; it is an underrated skill that is made to look easy by the ones who are good at it.

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Johannes’ first live show confirmed my fears: he was still as likeable as ever but needed far more time training to host the biggest show on television.

Regardless, more than getting the pitchfork out, I just felt for him. He reminded me of Olly Murs presenting The X Factor: being given the opportunity of a lifetime but not quite being ready for it.

Unlike Olly, though, it only took a few tweaks and Johannes came back fighting. He was utterly sensational when so many others would have crumbled even more knowing they had four million people gleefully relishing his mistakes, merrily hurling insults on X.

A huge problem for Johannes (Jojo to his fans) was timing in the first week. Every time a celebrity and their partner had just finished getting their critiques from the judges, by the time they were halfway up the stairs to what was affectionately known as the ‘Clauditorium’ under Claudia Winkleman’s watch, Johannes was reeling off details about how to vote, a vote that wasn’t even taking place that week. Having him upstairs over Josh felt like a colossal mistake.

It set up every chat he had with the contestants on a messy note that became impossible to recover from. As a viewer, it felt bewildering, and from then on the conversations all fell flat: the rhythm had been thrown and there was no salvaging it.

Jump seven days and Johannes clearly got the memo: he was smooth, kind, and at times he looked like he was going to burst into tears with genuine enthusiasm and passion for some of the best couples of the night. Finally, we saw why Strictly producers went rogue and chose a professional dancer with limited presenting experience over the likes of Rylan, Zoe Ball and Angela Scanlon: literally the very best in the business.

Up to now, Emma has been doing all the heavy lifting on her sequinned shoulders and, thankfully, she has been a phenomenal success for Strictly. Last night it felt like there had been a conscious effort to take the load off Emma and give more of it to Josh who, again, felt much more comfortable than he did just a week ago, which is somewhat inevitable in any job, but after this week of headlines and brutal digs on social media, could so easily have gone the other way.

But Johannes really was the star of Movie Week. Arguably, he has the hardest job of all three presenters. While Emma and Josh goof around with the aid of an autocue downstairs, Johannes has to be their comfort, quickly respond to whatever comments the judges have made, which can’t be rehearsed before going live, and is holding the fort upstairs completely on his own.

I wouldn’t have been so cruel as to kick a man when he’s down a week ago regardless, but God, I’m so relieved and actually quite moved by how far he has come. Johannes has grown and eased into a role that so many said, just one week ago, was beyond him.

He’s beginning to look like he can actually fill the boots of Claudia Winkleman, which is perhaps the single most daunting task on television imaginable.

But he wasn’t the only transformation of the night. There were 15 couples who performed their second dance of the series, and so many massive surprises. I’d written Shaun Wright-Phillips off as a certain goner after that painfully clunky Cha Cha with partner Alexis Warr quite rightly put him at the bottom of the leaderboard. His Jive last night was like it came from a totally different dancer: he completely let go and I’d be amazed if he didn’t do enough to keep himself out of the bottom two.

Elsewhere, Love Island winner Cach Mercer laid down the foundations for a road that could take him all the way to the final with their Samba, and Paralympian record-breaker Sarah Storey managed to improve by nine points with her Charleston to Mary Poppins, which was honestly good enough for the West End stage.

After a pretty dreadful first week, celebrity hairdresser Chris Appleton did very little to convince the judges or the public he had much further to go in the competition. If I was a betting man, my money would be going on him to be the first star to get the boot, even if he is three points above Melanie Walters on the leaderboard. At least she has the Gavin & Stacey fandom in her corner. Or does she? We’re about to find out.

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Strictly Come Dancing continues tonight at 7.10pm on BBC One.

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