Hurrah for the Monday show.

All major topics were covered: Zoe and James’ exit, judge Craig vs head judge Len, Chris Hollins’ mojo.

But first was a look at what the sound crew does. It’s all very complicated and involves up to 60 microphones and lots of buttons and knobs.

Zoe Lucker and James Jordan turned up to do the eliminated couple bit.

Poor James. Gabby Logan, Cherie Lunghi and now Zoe Lucker: all good dance partners eliminated before they should have been due to the viewer vote and the judges’ dance-off decision.

My own view is that in addition to being a good dancer James is very good at choreographing routines that suit his partner. Despite his alpha male image, he never gives himself the best moves or shows off his own talent to the detriment of his partner. I am convinced that we have not seen the best of him due to his untimely exits from the show. If he were able to continue longer he would have the opportunity to show us more of his talent because his partner would improve and he would tackle different dances.

Zoe said she was “very sad, gutted”. She also used the J-word.

“We’re grieving,” she concluded as the camera moved on to James who was wearing a dark suit and tie.

James said he expected to be mid-table in the judges’ leader board because Laila and Jade were doing ballroom and Ricky Whittle was always likely to be top of the chart. “Obviously we didn’t have massive, massive public support. I’ve gone out on the samba before.,” he said.

Winkleman suggested the public might not have connected with them because “there wasn’t a big drama” unlike Craig Kelly being so desperate to reach the round held at Blackpool and unlike Natalie Cassidy who was eager to do the jive. “Do you regret not having a bust-up over a banana?” she asked.

It turns out they had no regrets, fruit-related or otherwise. They said they had enjoyed training together and become good friends. Even James was tearful when their Strictly highlights rolled. Aah.

Next on was judge Craig Revel Horwood. He said that the decision on who to save in the dance-off “really was 50/50. I didn’t know what to do. I could have easily taken my vote back and given it to Zoe.”

Both couples went wrong in the dance-off which made it difficult to choose. Craig said he voted for Ali because “she is naturally a better dancer”.

Head judge Len Goodman then piped up on the phone from Los Angeles. He said his average mark for both Ali and Zoe had been eight during the series (I’ll take his word for that, I haven’t checked) and as they had both messed up in the dance-off it was too close to call.

Len said it was “unfair of the public to put us in that position”. I think it’s unfair to blame the public here. Each viewer votes for who they want to vote for. They cannot control who anyone else votes for. Len should be blaming the voting system. Some of your comments on this blog at the weekend suggested the viewer votes should involve, for example, only the couples in the bottom half of the judges’ leader board. This system, or some variant of it (no doubt, verified by KPMG), could help to prevent good couples leaving the show early.

As for the spat between head judge Len and judge Craig, it was all quite amicable, really. Len said he felt sorry for Ricky Groves after judges Alesha, Bruno and Craig had had a go at his rumba performance. Craig had got annoyed at Len’s pointing at him.

“Don’t be a bully, Craig,” Len said.

“Don’t be a bully back, Pointy,” replied Craig without too much seriousness.

In the defence of judge Craig
I think Len was a tad out of line on Saturday. Craig criticised the routine not Ricky when he said he found “the routine conceited”. Sure, that wasn’t a nice adjective but it was his opinion of the impression the routine gave him. For Len to retort that he does not like sitting next to Craig and to say that Craig is always so destructive in his comments is far worse. And, reviewing most of Craig’s comments from Saturday’s show, he had a lot of positive things to say about many of the performances. If any of the judges were being grumpy and hyper-critical in the past two weeks, it’s been Bruno.

Last on were Chris Hollins and Ola Jordan.

Mojo-wise, the discussion centred around the judges' comments that Chris and Ola were back to their best and their best was week one's rumba. So, effectively, they're right back to where they started but in a good way.

Chris said: “You can whip me hard and I will respond.” This related to Ola’s hard-driving but successful approach in training and it’s a handy sound bite for the It Takes Two editors to have on video, I’m sure.

They are doing the foxtrot this week.

Chris expects James Jordan to be phoning him even more now that he is no longer in the show. James gives Chris tips and feedback because he is so keen for his wife to do well.

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