Helen Skelton and her dance partner Gorka Marquez have visited a Cumbrian cinema ahead of Strictly Come Dancing’s movie week.
The Keswick Alhambra Cinema on St John’s Street welcomed the duo to watch Grease as part of their preparation for this week’s live show.
The pair confirmed on Wednesday that they would be performing a Viennese waltz to the musical’s hit song ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ for the show’s first themed week of the season.
While the cinema was initially sworn to secrecy by the BBC, they were able to reveal the visit from the stars after the BBC gave them the go ahead to do so.
One of the owners of the cinema, Jonathan Moore, said: “The BBC left a message on our answering machine asking if Helen and Gorka could watch a film on Monday and we said yes, and we were secretly quite excited as you can imagine.
“They came on Monday morning before we officially open for the day and Helen said she was buzzing because it was the first time she’d managed to get her kids to school on time that morning. She was really excited about that which was really normal and lovely – she’s kayaked down the Amazon and you think she’s going to be some kind of high powered super woman and she is that, but she’s also very down to earth and very sweet.”
Jonathan added that he was able to watch some of the film with the duo and listen to them chat about their upcoming dance this weekend.
He added: “They came in and we put the film on for them, we’ve got a huge library of films so we already had it and they sat and watched it and it was really sweet because obviously Olivia Newton John passed away this year, so I think they wanted to do it super respectfully as a tribute for her really.
“Hopelessly Devoted to You is the only scene in the film where it’s only Olivia Newton John on set and it’s emotional, especially with her passing away. It’s a very intimate scene and very different to the rest of the film and I think what they wanted to do was capture that, because that’s what they were talking about. It’ll be interesting to see how they interpret it on the dancefloor.
“They spent a lot of time talking about how to do the dance, focusing on the inflections on her expression, what she wears and how she moves, they were really super into the details.
“They also asked if we could play the scene again and again, we must have watched it about five times! So I did a lot of fast forwarding and rewinding and then we left them to it to chat about how they were going to interpret it.
“For me it was fascinating just watching them because they were so professional about immersing themselves in it, and yet I was thinking if I was on Strictly Come Dancing I’d want to spend every single second practicing because I’m such a bad dancer!”
Jonathan said that the team at the cinema had been beside themselves with excitement and that they felt incredibly touched that the duo had chosen them as the cinema to watch the film in.
He added: “I asked her why did you come here and she said she knew Keswick really well and wanted to come here. It was really lovely, we were very touched. They were just so nice, the funny thing is you forget that people on television are actually just people and they’re really lovely, so it was really nice to meet them.
“People kept coming into the cinema in the afternoon and saying, ‘did I see Helen and Gorka coming in here earlier on?’ and somebody else came in and said ‘oh it’s really exciting I saw a BBC van in Keswick!’, and I had to say, that’s really interesting, I don’t know what that’s about!”
Jonathan said the pair came with coffee and bought a bucket of popcorn to watch the film with, but that overall, they were very professional.
He said: “They did have some popcorn and Gorka spilled his and started clearing it up, but I told him not to worry. It was like the teenage kids who spray popcorn all over the cinema but just the two of them! But they were impressively professional with how focused they were on the film.
“They only have one week to practice and you just think, how do they do it and manage to turn something out so great every week? I’m actually working on the evening of the show this week, so I’ll have to use Iplayer to catch up but I’m sure our customers will let us know what’s happening!”
In a video posted to Facebook, the Keswick Alhambra said: “We’re really touched that Helen and Gorka chose the Keswick Alhambra Cinema to come and watch Grease as part of their preparations for movie week, we can’t wait to see your routine. We’re sure it’s going to be a great tribute to an iconic film and of course the wonderful Olivia Newton John. They’re going to nail it, good luck and vote for them guys!”
Introduced in 2014, Strictly’s annual movie week sees the contestants tasked with performing routines inspired by Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. It is also the first big show milestone for Helen and Gorka this year.
The pair have been training in Penrith and shared on social media that rehearsals had been going well.
