Strictly Come Dancing 2023 week 2 LIVE: Bobby Brazier impresses with a Charleston while Jody Cundy's Paso Doble disappoints

After topping the leaderboard last week, Nigel and Katya were back with a romantic Viennese Waltz to Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez.

Shirley noted that it was ‘full of technical errors,’ and that they needed to concentrate on the ‘simple footwork,’ and even Craig noted the Head Judge was being ‘very picky.’

Despute the mixed comments, they still scored 27 points out of 40.

They danced an elegant Foxtrot to Perfect by Fairground Attraction.

Shirley said that their ballroom was ‘on the right track,’ while Anton said their performance was ‘marvellous’ and Craig ‘absolutely loved it.’

The pair scored 31 points, sending them straight to the top of the leaderboard.

They’re dancing a Paso Doble to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, complete with fire, Spanish arms and Dave Arch on the guitar!

Craig branded the dance ‘stompy,’ but noted he brought the dance plenty of attitude, and Anton praised his energetic knee spring and his ‘intention was great.’

They earn just 16 points out of 40.

They deliver a speedy Quickstep to Katrina And The Waves’ Walking On Sunshine – set in a ballpit.

Craig noted that there was ‘a bit of gapping,’ and her arms needed more control, while Motsi insisted she needed to ‘trust herself.’

They score 22 points out of 40.

The Strictly 2016 star is back to read the Terms and Conditions, with a reprisal of his Gangnam Style Salsa!

The duo impressed with a Charleston to Do Your Thing by Basement Jaxx – complete with a flip!

Anton Du Beke said it had ‘great swivel,’ and was ‘absolutely terrific,’ but Craig noted that his expressions could have been ‘more exaggerated.’

With an 8 from Anton, they earned a solid 29 points.

They’re all wearing their best sequins for their second night on the dancefloor!

It’s time for the second Strictly Come Dancing live show! Stay with us for all the latest updates, reaction and scores

Neil, who missed out on a celebrity partner this year, told The Mirror that her debut dance with Kai Widdrington was ‘unbelievable.’

‘She works so hard, she keeps her body active all the time. I was talking to her a lot because I was like, ‘‘What do you do’’ because I’ve seen her on TV most of my life and she was like, ‘’Always cold showers’’ she’s really about cold therapy, keeping her body active.’

PR guru Carla Speight said: ‘He’s likely to find himself with a ‘golden handcuffs’ style contract, after a short bidding war between the channels’.

She pointed to the likes of Sarah Lancashire’s career who was reportedly earned £1.3M in a deal with ITV making her the highest-paid television actress in 2000.

Carla said: ‘Bobby will easily double that with the right channel and the right jobs.’

Last week Nancy Xu sparked concern among fans when she appeared to suffer a nasty injury during her performance with Les Dennis.

Speaking to MailOnline, Ellie said: ‘I never, ever would have expected that I would be doing strictly anyway, and especially not so soon after leaving Corrie.

‘It’s been so amazing and I’ve been so, so, lucky to be able to kind of go from Corrie basically straight into Strictly and it’s something completely different as well.

Head judge Shirley and Anton Du Beke took to the dancefloor to show off their Samba skills ahead of the live show…

Strictly have brought back the legendary ‘hidden microphones’ segment!

The actor, 50, was proclaimed by judge Shirley Ballas as ‘the one to beat’ after he performed an outstanding pasodoble with dance partner Katya Jones.

The Casualty star danced to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and received universal praise from all four judges and received a score of 32 out of 40.

Figures from Betfair show Bobby Brazier is still odds-on favourite to win the show, with leaderboard-topping Nigel Harman a close second…

Adam Thomas, Zara McDermott 25/1

Krishnan Guru-Murthy 66/1

Les Dennis, Nikita Kanda 100/1

Do you know who it is? Take a look below…

She told MailOnline: ‘I feel like I’ve woken up muscles that haven’t been used in about 45 years, so it’s like, ”whoa, that’s a different feeling”. I think tomorrow I might be very stiff getting out of bed.’

Describing her first days of training, she added: ‘It’s a bit like a roller coaster ride. I mean, it’s like being thrown onto a roller coaster and just taking off and trying to trying to keep up.

She told Virgin Radio: ‘I keep saying to everybody, ‘’We’ve just got to put this into perspective,’’ just because I can touch my nose with my knee and virtually do the splits standing up, it’s like a party trick, it’s because I’m very flexible. It’s not dancing.

‘You know, in order to do this competition and to come up with something that people want to watch, it’s got to be a lot more than just the leg.

‘It’s got to be the choreography, the partner, the music, everything, and dancing. You should ask Kai about the choreography because he’s the one who does all the hard work where that’s concerned and we’ve got a smashing dance this week.’

Kai, who is dancing with Angela Rippon this year, told Virgin Radio: ‘It’s really nice choreographing because having someone that is supple and flexible obviously is a benefit to me, because it means you can do things like that.

‘I mean, we all thought that there would be a bit of a moment, but we didn’t think it would be as big as it was, you know. Walking into the shops the following day, and seeing [it in] national newspapers. Just Angela though, because my head was actually behind her legs.’

Kai added: ‘It’s very easy working with Angela because she’s just so positive and everything’s always doable.

‘We always say we can do everything and we try our best. Yeah, and that’s what we always come back to if we’re in training. You know, we always say like, remember why we’re here.

‘Yes, we’re here to learn to dance, which is amazing, but we just want to look back at this once this is all done and go, ”We had a great time.”’

Just hours before the next live show, Adam Thomas revealed he was forced to miss training

It came after Zara’s boyfriend Sam Thompson assured fans Zara won’t become victim to the notorious Strictly Curse, after she was unfaithful to him four years ago.

If you haven’t been following the series so far, take a look at the full lineup…

After impressing with his Samba last week, Layton is set to dance a Quickstep with Nikita Kuzmin this week.

This weekend will be the first time viewers get to vote for their favourite couple, in the hope that they will avoid the dreaded dance-off in Sunday’s results show…

Tonight all of the couples will take to the dancefloor to perform for the second time, and each pair will again receive a score out of from the judges.

The full list of dances for week two is below…

Adam Thomas and Luba Mushtuk – Tango to Somebody Told Me by Maneskin

Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima – Quickstep to Anyone For You by George Ezra

Les Dennis and Nancy Xu – Samba to Rock the Boat by Hues Corporation

Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lauren Oakley – Foxtrot to Love Really Hurts Without You by Billy Ocean

Jody Cundy and Jowita Przystał – Paso Doble to Thunderstruck by AC/DC

Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola – Foxtrot to Perfect by Fairground Attraction

Nikita Kanda and Gorka Márquez – Charleston to Single Ladies by Beyoncé

Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice – Saldaq to One by Gloria Estefan

Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer – Cha-cha to Rie y Llora by Celia Cruz

Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington – Foxtrot to You Make Me Feel So Young by Frank Sinatra

Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin – Quickstep to Puttin’ on the Ritz by Gregory Porter

Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell – Charleston to Do Your Thing by Basement Jaxx

Nigel Harman and Katya Jones – Viennese Waltz to Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez

Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu – Jive to Trouble by Shampoo

Annabel Croft and Johannes Radebe – Quickstep to Walking on Sunshine by Katrina And The Waves

For fans planning to tune into tonight’s live show, they can switch over to BBC One at 6:20pm.

The show is set to finish at 8:35pm.

Broadcaster Krishnan has told The Daily Mail that for many years he had ignored requests to take part in Strictly but this year, now 12st 7lbs rather than 15 stone, he says the ‘planets aligned’ and he decided to go for it.

Last week all 16 couples took to the floor for the first time, earning wildly different scores from the judges – take a look at the leaderboard below…

Nigel Harman and Katya Jones – 32

Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice – 29

Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell – 29

Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola – 29

Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin – 29

Annabel Croft and Johannes Radebe – 28

Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington – 28

Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu – 23

Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lauren Oakley – 22

Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer – 22

Jody Cundy and Jowita Przystal – 21

Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima – 19

Adam Thomas and Luba Mushtuk – 19

Nikita Kanda and Gorka Marquez – 18

Les Dennis and Nancy Xu – 16

Ahead of returning to the judging panel on Saturday, judge Motsi has hit out at her ex-husband Timo Culczak’s lawyer who has claimed she could face a jail sentence after she claimed in her autobiography he was controlling during their 11-year marriage.

After becoming the show’s oldest ever contestant, broadcaster Angela Rippon stunned viewers with her impressive flexibility during her debut dance with pro Kai Widdrington.

For viewers who missed last week’s action, all 16 couples took to the dancefloor for the first time, with Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice keen to queel rumours of a behind-the-scenes feud.

Good afternoon! Get all the live updates about the second live show of Strictly Come Dancing 2023 here… as fans count down to the first elimination of the series.