Cutting quips and quicksteps: 24 favourite quotes from this year’s Strictly

As Strictly Come Dancing travels to Blackpool for one of the series' biggest weekends, take a look back at the snappy remarks that have caused a stir so far...

1. "I don’t know what that was on the floor down there but I don’t want to see it again if I can help it."

Poor Iwan Thomas. Straight talk from Len Goodman on his Cha Cha - and the Olympic medallist went out in that same week.

Week three was Movies Week and featured four of our best quips from the judges.

2. "It was a mix between Summer Nights and Last of the Summer Wine." 

That was Len on Daniel O'Donnell’s Grease-themed Cha Cha.

3. "You flew across the floor like a rampant crab." 

Len again, with a pretty accurate description of Gleb Savchenko’s remarkable move in his Ghost-themed American Smooth with Anita Rani.

4. "Wow. Kellie. You should not be that good in week three."

Darcey Bussell was very taken with Kellie Bright's Star Wars-themed Charleston. But our favourite turn on the show to that date was when Jay McGuiness came right out of his shell for his Pulp Fiction jive with Aliona Vilani. It hit the spot with Bruno Tonioli:

5. “Finally! The blockbuster everyone was waiting for! You have outdone and outdanced Travolta and everyone else here tonight. BEST. DANCE. EVER.”

6. "It was like watching a stork who'd been struck by lightning." 

Craig Revel Horwood was withering about Jeremy Vine's jive but Jeremy's not bothered. When he did get voted out later in the series, he quoted it back at Craig and gamely said it was his favourite line. But Craig can be delicate too. See this to Kellie on her foxtrot:

7. "Lovely finger placement darling. I enjoyed that enormously."

It's not unusual for Bruno to get up and enact what he's talking about. In the case of Carol Kirkwood's waltz he pretended to vacuum the curtains:

8. "It had the romance of a cleaning session. I mean you have to put life into a performance. It was all kind of blandish."

But THIS was highly unusual... Craig staggering his fellow judges and everyone everywhere with:

9. "That was nasty Bruno." Just watch it in this best bits clip below. (Kellie wasn't laughing at this joke in particular by the way.)

10. "You have this kind of zombiefied grin on you. I found it a bit lifeless."

That was Bruno to Jeremy on his waltz – and it wasn’t Halloween til next week. But Claudia Winkleman had a silver lining for Jeremy after they heard the judges' scores:

11. "Eighteen. That's quite low. But I have good news for you. You - this week - number four on the Lust List in Grazia. Say hello to the girls!"

And on Jay's paso doble - Darcey, we know what you're saying:

12. "Those arms are the best male arms I've ever seen on a celebrity. The shape, the feeling, the line, you even had emotion in those arms. They had energy."

After going to the top of the leaderboard with a waltz that Craig called "incredible", Katie Derham and Anton du Beke encountered quite a comedown with their dance the following week:

13. "A dreadful, dreadful salsa."

Halloween week. For us, it was Jeremy's night. And Len nailed what it is we all like about Jeremy's signature style:

14. "There’s an awkward charm about the way you dance and I just like watching it."

15. "That rumba was grounds for divorce."

Bruno didn't sugar coat it for poor Carol. But Halloween was hardest on Kirsty Gallacher who went out the competition after her Charleston with Brendan Cole. There again, it was Bruno bringing the love:

16. "You made mincemeat out of that. What a mess."

It was Georgia May Foote's Ghostbusters-themed tango which brought out the best in Craig that night:

17. "Sharp. Staccato. Feisty. In-can-de-scent."

18. "That’s how the West was lost. In spite of the odds, like General Custer, you went for attack. It was a glorious disaster.”

Bruno to Jeremy (again) on his cowboy-themed tango - the one where he started out riding a horse. 

19. "You must point your foot because a big old flexed foot looks ugly."

Craig delivering the blows to Carol on her American Smooth... and though it was the night that saw her evicted, her dance partner Pasha Kovalev countered the meanness with a tribute to Carol's good nature:

20. "I couldn’t even believe that you can be so nice. People are that nice? I didn’t know that."

Craig wasn't so nice to Jamelia about her samba... which you'll likely want to watch again since he said this:

21. "There was unnecessary grinding throughout."

22. "As soon as you begin to dance properly the face goes dead."

Craig angered Darcey with his evaluation of Jay's foxtrot - but Jay took it well and, in his endearing way, told Claudia that he would try to engage his face in future.

Kellie and Kevin's 90s-themed samba to Boom! Shake The Room invoked an unusual voting pattern, with nines from Craig and Bruno - but a more conservative seven from Len. Who explained it with:

23. "There are two things I don't like in this world: babies crying and hip hop."

And finally from Len, making no apologies for being himself. We all feel a bit like this sometimes.

24. "The trouble is, I’m a cup of tea in a world of skinny lattes."

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday, 21 November at 6.50pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.