Austin Twinkle-Toes

Austin Healey is surprising anyone who doesn't know him, and probably quite a few who do, by dancing with style, and measured abandon.

To anyone with an eye for it, his performance on the party dance floor must have shown promise for years.

To the rest of us, however, he's a rugby player.

Rugby players get cauliflower ears from the scrum, and are meant - at least the forwards are - to be very wide, with a low centre of gravity. Women shiver at their stocky, rippling thighs. They're the sporting equivalent of a JCB, crossed with a battering ram.

Austin, though, lives up to his name. The Austin-Healey 3000 was a beautiful two-seater soft top, on sale for most of the 1960s.

If you had one, maybe in British Racing Green, it said you had style, and taste, and money. As a sports car, its job was to be quick, and nimble.

In Strictly Come Dancing, Austin is very light on his feet.

Doubtless he's being carefully tutored by the no-nonsense but nice Erin Boag, but his performance in the jive showed genuine enjoyment under pressure, and confidence.

He smiled. There was a happy vibe.

The audience loved it.

The judges were grateful to have someone to praise, and I think he might win.

(If Capital's lovely Lisa Snowdon doesn't, that is...! It was only the men on Saturday night - ladies this week - come on Lisa!)