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Every year, Strictly Come Dancing has early favourites – and they often soon prove themselves worthy of the label. This year, former Love Island star Tasha Ghouri quickly emerged as one to watch, scoring 30 in week one followed by a truly astonishing 35, placing her top of the combined leaderboard.

JLS singer JB Gill – dancing with Amy Dowden as she triumphantly returns after cancer treatment – and Miranda actress Sarah Hadland have wasted no time in impressing the judges either. But Saturday night’s live show saw another celebrity steal the show – and in the process, she proved there’s everything to play for in this year’s series.

In a Movie Week packed with incredible transformations and memorable routines, the performance sure to stick in viewers’ minds came from Dr Punam Krishan. The Morning Live doctor – who is, by the way, continuing to work for the NHS while on the show – delivered a Strictly first as she performed a Bollywood Couple’s Choice routine to “Bole Chudiyan” from the hit film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

It was clear from the introductory VT just how much the performance meant to Krishan, who took dance partner Gorka Marquez to her parents’ home for a family meal as he threw himself into the world of Bollywood for their training.

“I never saw Indian girls dancing on mainstream television, so to be doing an Indian dance on a platform like Strictly is huge,” Krishan explained, adding that the routine was in tribute to her grandfather who passed away during the pandemic.

On the dance floor, she thrived. The nerves of week one and two completely disappeared as Krishan made her way towards Marquez, confidently matching her partner move for move, and beaming as she threw herself into lifts.

Afterwards, she broke down in tears as she told host Claudia Winkleman: “That meant everything… I just went to four-year-old me, who would have loved to see something like this when I was growing up. But you can’t be something you can’t see.”

Krishan’s routine, and the poignant moments either side, is what Strictly is all about. It’s joyous to see a programme in its twentieth year still committed to show firsts. Especially as this was one which catapulted one of its most likeable and down-to-earth contestants up the leaderboard and into the Strictly history books.

The routine earned a comparison Krishan would do well to remember. Judge Motsi Mabuse – herself overcome with emotion and doing her best not to cry – likened the dance to Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal’s Afrobeats Couple’s Choice. That routine, easily one of the best to ever be performed on the show, was also a Strictly first and paved the path to Hamza lifting the Glitterball Trophy back in 2022.

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As was the case with Yassin, Krishan isn’t the most well-known star from her series but as he did, she’s proven that really doesn’t matter. Never mind who is favourites or has the highest number of social media followers. The best Strictly moments are when a celebrity seemingly comes out of nowhere surprises us all – and they have the power to turn the competition on its head.

Mabuse started a sentence during her critique that she didn’t quite finish as she said: “If you give us that energy for a couple more weeks…” Motsi, I hope you don’t mind but I’d love to tweak that for you. Punam, if you bring that energy to the rest of Strictly, the Glitterball Trophy could be yours. And who wouldn’t want to see that?

LOVE Island’s Maura Higgins has revealed that she’s landed her first movie role just months after her huge US gig.

The 33-year-old, who shot to fame on the ITV2 show in 2019, is one of the stars of Michael Head’s new film The Spin.

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The cast consists of Kimberly Wyatt, Owen Colgan, Tara Lynne O’Neill and Brenock O’Connor.

The Spin is written by Colin Broderick and Mark McCausland.

Director Michael announced some incredible news on Instagram, saying: “Delighted that @the_spin_film has sold out at the @belfastfilmfestival.”

A day prior he said: “A year back I directed a delightful fun little tale about two loveable idiots in Ireland.

“Very different to my normal projects but full of heart and charm.

“Delighted to announce it has been accepted into the Belfast film festival.”

It comes after The Sun revealed that Maura had landed her first major film role in September.

A source said: “Maura plays a character called Rose in The Spin.

“It’s a British film which follows two friends travelling through Ireland looking for old music records.

“The film is a comedy and Maura was the perfect fit for the role.

“She started work on The Spin over the weekend in Belfast and really impressed the producers.

“Maura throws herself into any new projects and is always keen to learn.

“The film could open a lot of new doors for Maura and it’s a very exciting time.”

Maura’s move comes after she finished work on the American version of Love Island – which she hosted for the first time this summer.

But she’s no stranger to the show.

Back in 2023 the Irish beauty was the guest and social host for season five of Love Island USA.

Followed by the same for Love Island Games.

Maura took part in Love Island series five.

She entered on day 10 as a bombshell and coupled up with a number of guys in the villa.

Those include Tom Walker, Marvin Brooks, Chris Taylor and Curtis Pritchard.

Fans were shocked when she got with Curtis, following his short-lived relationship with Amy Hart.

The pair ended up placing fourth on the show and lasted a while in the UK after the show ended.

Shortly after, Maura and Chris started dating in 2020, but only lasted six months.

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Week three of Strictly Come Dancing saw the celebrity contestants go from strength to strength as they delivered an impressive set of performances for Movie Week on Saturday (5 October).

Last week’s top contestants were former Love Islander Tasha Ghouri and her pro partner Aljaž Škorjanec, who received the first nine of the series. They topped the leaderboard again this week, but the scores were tight.

The show featured a “magical tribute” to Dame Maggie Smith with a performance by comedian Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola.

It also made history with TV medic Dr Punam Krishan performing the first ever Bollywood routine to Indian classic “Bhole Chudiye” from the drama and musical movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.

Krishan, Hadland, and Shayne Ward were all close seconds with a total of 33. Toyah Wilcox and Paul Merson brought up the bottom of the list with 15 and 19 respectively.

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This week’s scores are as follows.

See below the marks and total scores from week one and week two, from judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke:

Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec (8+8+9+9) = 34

Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola (8+9+8+8) = 33

JB Gill and Amy Dowden (7+8+8+9) = 32

Wynne Evans and Katya Jones (7+7+8+8) = 30

Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe (7+7+7+7) = 28

Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell (7+7+8+8) = 30

Shayne Ward and Nancy Xu (8+9+8+8) = 33

Jamie Borthwick and Michelle Tsiakkas (8+8+7+7) = 30

Sam Quek and Nikita Kuzmin (7+8+7+8) = 30

Nick Knowles and Luba Mushtuk (Withdrawn due to injury)

Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystał (6+6+7+7) = 26

Punam Krishan and Gorka Márquez (8+9+8+8)= 33

Paul Merson and Karen Hauer (3+5+5+6) = 19

Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones (3+4+4+4) = 15

STRICTLY Come Dancing’s Pete Wicks almost sent his pro dancer partner Jowita Przystal flying after falling victim to a dance stumble live on air.

The reality TV star opted for a rather daring outfit for his George of the Jungle themed routine but viewers were left more distracted by an awkward stumble taken by the former The Only Way Is Essex star.

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Pete and Jowita performed a Samba to the movie’s theme tune for Movie Week and ended up achieving their best score yet – earning a total of 26 points.

However, eagle-eyed viewers at home were quick to comment on Pete’s blunder which almost spelled disaster for the entire routine.

During one section of intricate footwork, it appeared as though the reality lothario extended his leg too early, which caused Jowita to trip.

Her legs appeared to fall behind her as Pete kept her up, as a result of him gripping onto her.

They quickly managed to recover as dancer Jowita managed to get her feet back into the correct position as they brushed over the blunder.

Picking up on the moment online, one fan quipped: “Bloody hell, we nearly got a tumble there.

“Been ages since I saw somebody properly stack it on #strictly.”

Another wrote: “Pete nearly sent Jowita flying.”

Someone else was left questioning exactly what went wrong as they wrote: “Did Jowita almost trip and go flying over his leg? What exactly happened there?”

As a fourth asked: “Didn’t they make a mistake?”

Elsewhere, Pete left judge Craig shocked when he opened the routine by dancing with his bum right in front of Craig’s face after starting stood atop his judging podium.

While everyone was talking about the awkward blunder on the dancefloor, many people have had their attention focused on the couple’s antics away from the floor as they continue to be plagued by romance rumours.

The pair set pulses racing last weekend with a raunchy routine that came close to ending in a passionate kiss.

Ex-Strictly pro Vincent Simone is convinced “something’s going on” between Pete and Jowita, and he certainly knows what he’s talking about having witnessed a number of romances flourishing between celebrities and Strictly’s dancers over the years.

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Speaking to 10bet, he said: “I think the two of them are just gorgeous and I felt, after watching them, ‘Hello! There’s something going on here’.

“I would love a bit of romance on the show!”

Even Strictly judges Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas noticed the pair’s chemistry, and both commented on it in their critiques last week.

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