Is Laila Rouass the luckiest woman on earth?

This time last year, Laila Rouass was in Strictly. And not only that, she got to dance with Anton. Ok, he may have put his usually nimble feet right in it a couple of times in a manner for which he rightly  had to humbly apologise, but they were still good together and they made it to the Quarter Final.

Here is their American Smooth:



I was thrilled that Anton actually had a partner who could dance and it was fabulous that he managed to get all the way to December.

Anyway, since then Laila has landed a role in Spooks and, more importantly, this week has seen her in the Sarah Jane Adventures as the Colonel in UNIT who comes to break the news of the Doctor's death.

I've watched both parts of Death of the Doctor on CBBC earlier in the week, but they're on BBC 1 today and tomorrow at 4.30 pm.The story is brilliant and it's fair to say that Ms Rouass looks mighty fetching in UNIT uniform.

In the last year, she's had two of my absolute dream jobs, covering two of my absolute favourite programmes. Not bad at all.

Ann Widdecombe flies through the air with the greatest of ease

In just over an hour, Ann Widdecombe will make Strictly history by being the first celebrity (and the second dancer after Flavia Cacace) to "fly" into Anton's arms at the start of their Tango.

I can't wait to see it, but, to whet our appetites, those nice people behind the BBC's Strictly Twitter account have given us a photograph of Ann in the dress rehearsal.

She's a braver woman than I, that's all I'm saying. For that alone, she deserves to stay in this week.

Ann and Anton's Salsa - TV Moment of the year, surely

I am acutely aware that I haven't published my review of Saturday's show yet - blame a combination of poorly child and Vince Cable. I'm hoping to do so later today but in the meantime, here's the absolute highlight of the show, if not the series.

It had to be the most anticipated dance in Strictly history for all the right reasons. I defy you not to laugh.....



Anton is a genius!

OMG, Anton Du Beke is on Twitter - really!

Billi can be a bit obsessive about Anton Du Beke, not at all in any way like me, of course, but that can be useful some times. She was kind enough to send me an invitation on Facebook to "like" Anton's new page.

Like? I think I can go a bit further than that. Our boy seems to have embraced the technical age as enthusiastically as he embraced the Widdy on Saturday night.

He's also taken up Twitter and seems to be updating both this and Facebook himself in his own inimitable and utterly charming style. My Strictly Come Dancing Twitterati has been duly updated.

Let's just have a reminder of his and Ann's training footage - it's absolutely hilarious. Full of humour, and typical Anton mini-rants, it's unmissable.



He and Ann were brilliant on It Takes Two last night. I'm sure Ann could have wanted no more than to spend her birthday in Anton's company.  The two of them do seem to genuinely get on and spark off each other which I suspected might be the case. They were on fine form, with Anton joking (at least I hope he was joking) that they had to change their routine on Saturday night to remove the gymnastics so people didn't think they were copying Matt.

Ann said she wasn't nervous at all because she had seen people so much better than her be torn to pieces by the Judges on Friday night that she was just resigned to her fate.

Their Salsa on Saturday night is going to be the most anticipated dance in Strictly history. Anton described it as "nonsense in a short frock" and Ann said they were so desperate that they were putting things in the Salsa that didn't belong in  it - Anton interjected "like the waltz". I actually think that that's the best way for Ann to do a Salsa and it's a blessing that she's with a partner who, bless him, really isn't that great at Latin.

I, for one, can't wait.