The world around us might be in a sorry state of affairs, but things inside the showbiz bubble were looking a lot more sparkly this week, thanks in part to the return of a certain ballroom show.
But there was lots of other stuff that helped raise a smile in an otherwise gloomy week too.
From Gemma Collins being Gemma Collins and a proper Countdown howler, here’s our favourite moments of the past seven days...
The return of Strictly
A veritable explosion of joy, glitter and camp, the Strictly Come Dancing launch show was exactly the kind of escapism we needed – as cliché as that may sound.
The BBC pulled out all the stops to get the show on the road in the middle of a global pandemic, and we don’t mind admitting that seeing the pro dancers gliding across the ballroom again in the opening number made us feel a bit weepy.
Bring on the rest of the series.
Adele is back – and with new music?
Earlier this week, Adele sent her fans into meltdown after announcing she’s set to guest host Saturday Night Live this weekend, sparking speculation new music might be on the way.
While she’s insisted her hosting stint is a “stand alone moment” we can’t help but cross our fingers that she’s about to announce the follow up to 2015′s 25.
In the meantime, a preview of Adele on the SNL set has also got us very excited to see her in action on Saturday – check it out above.
Countdown serves up a howler
Rachel Riley’s face said it all when comedian Shappi Khorsandi suggested “blowie” as a solution to one of the anagrams.
Sure, it’s not exactly sophisticated humour, but we’ll take the laughs where we can get them these days.
Having a snoop around the old Big Breakfast house
Before the Big Brother house or the Love Island villa, the Big Breakfast mansion was TV’s most famous property, which is why we loved having a good old nose around it this week.
The east London home has recently been put on the market over 18 years on from the end of the Channel 4 breakfast show – and it could be yours, if you happen to have a spare £5.7m lying around.
Drag Race UK is back on track
There were two big RuPaul’s Drag Race UK announcements this week. First, judge Alan Carr announced that filming is set to resume in the next two weeks, after it was halted midway through back in March due to the pandemic.
And then, Dawn French confirmed herself as one of the guest judges for the new series, which should hopefully be back on our screens in the new year.
Love Life on BBC iPlayer
If you’ve finished Schitt’s Creek and rewatched the entire Sex And The City boxset twice over then we might just have the show for you. Love Life has been nestled away on BBC iPlayer for a few weeks now and has become a sleeper hit in the process.
Anna Kendrick brilliantly heads up a superb supporting cast as we follow her character Darby’s quest to find The One in New York. Each episode covers a different ‘love’ (including friends and family, as well as lovers) as Darby navigates her world of relationships from the early noughties to the present day.
It’s a warm, nostalgic treat that’s perfect for a weekend binge (each of the 10 episodes are only 30 minutes long). Oh and expect to have serious pangs of wanting to fly to New York.
The GC forgets to check her Collins dictionary
Despite being a self-proclaimed “massive fan of the dictionary”, it seems Gemma Collins didn’t consult one before getting her latest sweatshirt design printed.
Fans of the former TOWIE star pointed out the spelling mistake after Gemma shared snaps of her modelling the new design on Instagram.
Can you spot it?
Gemma Collins has a caravan park meltdown
Staying with The GC, her reality show continued in ridiculous fashion this week, as she paid a visit to a caravan park.
And despite having a luxury winnebago to kip in, it wasn’t enough for the Essex diva, who was soon on the phone to her manager, begging to be booked into the nearest five-star hotel.
Blake Lively delightfully rips husband Ryan Reynolds
Blake Lively poked fun at her Canadian-born husband Ryan Reynolds after he voted in a US presidential election for the first time.
She posted a picture of her and Ryan – who was born in Vancouver before becoming a naturalised US citizen in 2018 – holding their ballots and the caption was suitably silly.
“It was Ryan’s first time. He was understandably scared. It all happened so fast. Like, REALLY fast. He wept. I pretended to weep. Then he called all his friend,” she joked.
Gogglebox’s Julie Malone has a hairy moment
Things got seriously hairy on this week’s Gogglebox when one of the show’s stars had an unfortunate encounter with a mini vacuum cleaner and her own grandson...