Minnie’s Musings

I have had a thought. Don’t fall off your seat.

Unusually (because I don’t normally) I have been watching the Strictly Final. And they have just done the cast dance.

Observing the jumping about and frenetic gyrating of this smorgasbord of sequins and face paint, it occurred to me that the continuing success of this show is symptomatic of our times.

As the somewhat sinister sense that we are repeating the descent into world war that happened a century ago becomes stronger, the flapping of arms and kicking of legs brought to mind the 1920s.

With economic collapse and cost of living crises floating about in the ether, not to mention the rise of autocrats who are bent on lining their pockets at the expense of the very people they purport to represent, one’s feeling of disquiet becomes ever more profound.

However, I think Strictly epitomises a particularly human quality (I would like to say British, but I am not convinced it is purely restricted to the residents of Blighty). That is the desire to leap up and dance. To don sequinned gowns and spandex trousers. To gyrate around with or without rhythm. To imagine one is Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers, while looking like a decrepit silverback.

Mostly to shake off the cares of the world and have a thoroughly good time. This is what gets us through. That, and deeply understated jokes, laced with irony that meet horror with wit.

Therefore I will sing the praises of the BBC for creating this show. It is a tonic on a Winter night and we all need one of those.