Marianne Gunn's verdict: Three stars
The trouble with TV shows going into live entertainment spaces is that the audience may forget how to behave as certain boundaries are blurred.
Whether the Top Gear massive brought their own salted nuts or not, certain members of the Strictly crowd were convinced they were in the private - not public - sphere as they aired their considerable dirty laundry while quaffing their cider and generally creating a nuisance of themselves.
That's where - when notified - the team at The Hydro should have stepped in and resolved the issue, which was unfortunately not the case during this matinee, yes matinee, performance.
There was some bittersweet irony, however, as the noisy Westlife "super fan" was unblissfully unaware that she was ruining the show for not only vast swathes of the Level 2 audience but also the individual experience of Nicky Byrne's mother who was seated directly in front of her.
Back to the show, the matinee's finalists Susanna Reid and Natalie Gumede - with dance partners Kevin Clifton and Artem Chigvintsev respectively - provided the more memorable moments, specifically Reid's Paso Doble and Gumede's Jive (the one she infamously failed to perform on the last series due to ill health).
Presenter Lisa Riley continued her Strictly journey (following last year's Strictly Confidential tour) while Aussie dancer Natalie Lowe was vastly under-used, only appearing in the slightly disappointing professional numbers.
Kristina Rihanoff and Robin Windsor were the other familiar Strictly faces (and bodies), as the past season seems to have been one of welcoming new blood from Slovenia, Lithuania - and Grimsby.
Overall, judges Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and director Craig Revel Horwood were the pivots upon which the glitter ball continued to successfully turn - and the reason why prime time continues to 'Keep Dancing!' almost 10 years after the show's 'Come Dancing' meets 'Strictly Ballroom' reboot.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article