With no little irony, Movie Week \u2013 the third week of the 2025 edition of Strictly Come Dancing \u2013 saw \u201cHollywood\u201d Ross King eliminated after the Sunday night dance-off. ITV breakfast television\u2019s veteran Los Angeles correspondent jetted back to Blighty just to take part in the show, but his time home has been \u2013 inevitably, mercifully \u2013 brief.<\/p>\n
After Thomas Skinner\u2019s departure last week<\/a>, it is safe to say that the worst two dancers have been sent home. Not always the case at this stage of proceedings.<\/p>\n The big surprise of the night was the inclusion of EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal, along with her professional partner Julian Caillon, in the dance-off. After a ropey Week One, Sopal showed huge improvement and promise last week, scoring 30 for her Charleston, though this week she dipped to 26 for her Fred and Ginger-inspired foxtrot.<\/p>\n Of the 13 celebrities to dance, only Sopal and actress Alex Kingston had lower scores than Week Two. Even so, it was a shock \u2013 especially to Sopal, who looked crestfallen.<\/p>\n While the judges enjoyed Sopal\u2019s elegance and class, head judge Shirley Ballas was hypercritical, pulling the actress up on many different parts of her technique in a schoolma\u2019am dressing down. It\u2019s likely that these harsh words will have cost Sopal votes. Long-memoried Strictly viewers may also have recalled Sunetra Sarker\u2019s 2014 routine to the same song and film combo \u2013 The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time \u2013 for which she scored a perfect 40.<\/p>\n In Ballas\u2019s defence, when judge Craig Revel Horwood announced he would save Sopal and Caillon, he said it was because of their \u201cstyle and musicality\u201d. In other words, the technique just isn\u2019t there. Sopal, however, has at least one more week to make amends.<\/p>\n King, truly, never stood a chance. His Thunderbirds-themed paso doble \u2013 all puffed out chest, pursed lips and rigor-mortis marching \u2013 was comical for the wrong reasons. Worst of all, King didn\u2019t look like he was enjoying himself. The judges were always going to send him home.<\/p>\n The only person he might have bettered in the dance-off was former England rugby captain Chris Robshaw, though Robshaw has shown marked improvement over three weeks (and, crucially, looks like he\u2019s enjoying it).<\/p>\n What relegated Sopal to the dance-off is probably Robshaw\u2019s impressive biceps, which were on full show in his Thor costume. Robshaw, alongside the returning Stefan Dennis, will be feeling the heat next week. Less Thor\u2019s Hammer, more Sword of Damocles.<\/p>\n Overall, it\u2019s been a curious series thus far, dominated by the luridness of the Thomas Skinner affair, and continuing with this week\u2019s slightly hysterical Movie Week (the hallucinatory nature of it was continued on Sunday by the pros\u2019 routine based on the execrable A Minecraft Movie<\/a>).<\/p>\n Jowita and Ross exited the show following a dance off against Balvinder Sopal and Julian Caillon (right) – Guy Levy\/BBC<\/p>\n The presence of \u201cguest mentor\u201d Cynthia Erivo had everyone overexcited, while the judges swung between acting like pussycats and tigers. Perhaps with the series\u2019 two clodhoppers \u2013 Skinner and King \u2013 dispensed with, things will feel a little more settled next week.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n