E very 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 .