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Saturday night, and we spotted a familiar face amongst the Dorothy supporters’ banners – Dani, who left the competition last week after Andrew saved her Dorothy Farm roommate Danielle. There’s still plenty of support for Dani though as the Lord and the panel led us in a spontaneous round of applause for the girl who, at 16, was the youngest to make it to the final.

There were more cheers from the audience for a couple celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary – what better way to mark such an occasion than a date with eight Dorothys – and a rousing welcome for Musical Supervisor Nigel Wright, who escaped the volcanic ash that kept him away from the studios last week.

And then time to put our hands together for the final eight, who began the show by singing ‘If I Only Had The Part’, an adaptation of the Tin Man’s song ‘If I Only Had A Heart’ from The Wizard of Oz, making their ambitions clear to Andrew. Andrew delivered HIS message to the public. “It’s important that people vote – we don’t want a hung Dorothy,” he told us. Laughter and more applause from the studio audience for that comment…

But, as our lovely host Graham Norton says, there can only be one Dorothy. This week Jenny and Emilie were the first to take to the stage, with Jenny performing Duffy’s ‘Warwick Avenue’.

Charlotte Church thought Jenny did a good job of a difficult song. “You got every single big note… but it was… a bit small for me,” she said. Sheila Hancock, a fan of Jenny’s “wit” in previous weeks, felt it could have been more anguished, and Andrew agreed.

Emilie – who, having had her confidence knocked after last week’s mixed comments, worked on her vocals with Charlotte – sang Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.’ Charlotte felt there were still control issues, but thought it was “fun and frivolous… you’ve got the tone of voice most like Judy Garland,” she said. Sheila thought there could have been more “colour” but praised Emilie for coming back. “You have got to take criticism and survive it and that’s one thing you did today,” she told Emilie – a comment echoed by John Partridge.

Next to perform were Stephanie and Lauren. We learned that Stephanie – outed by the girls as Dorothy Farm’s worst cook – had been taking cooking lessons from Aldo Zilli. Despite asking said top celebrity chef if pesto was gravy, it seems her culinary skills had improved. But what of her musical theatre skills? “I could listen to you sing the phone book, your tone of voice is so gorgeous,” Charlotte said of Stephanie’s performance of Bond song ‘Nobody Does It Better’ – although she felt it could have had “more exasperation.” “I love you when you’ve got loads of dancers around you, it becomes magic… you need to bring that into quieter performances,” was John’s thought.

Lauren’s take on Pink’s ‘Nobody Knows’ was, for Sheila, “a huge step forward,” while Charlotte called it “vulnerable and broken and beautiful.” John told Lauren: “I think the biggest compliment you can give a performer is that you didn’t want it to stop… you lifted me out of my seat and into your world.” Cue cheering from Lauren’s supporters in the audience.

But it was the Lord whose comments gained the biggest cheer: ““Both of you [Stephanie and Lauren] are very talented girls who I would be happy to see as Dorothy…how lucky am I to have girls as good as you are?” he said.

Sophie and Jessica were next, after a week in which Sophie got a dose of fighting spirit from members of the Welsh rugby team. Her rendition of Sara Bareilles’ ‘Love Song’ – again, according to Charlotte, “a tough song to sing” – had some mixed comments from the panel. “You’re still a little understated… go a lot further than you think you need to go,” said John. But Sheila disagreed. “It was exactly what I was looking for – you kept it light,” she said.

Jessica performed Faith Hill’s ‘There I’ll Be.’ John loved it. “I felt that was your most truthful, honest performance to date… it might not have been your best vocal… but I really felt it,” he said. Sheila felt that although “the last line was the moment of absolute truth, up until then it was rather acted truth.” More disagreement from John, while Charlotte advised Jessica to be aware of the “air” in her voice. “From the last chorus out it was magic… before then you pushed it a bit,” Charlotte warned.

The final two were Danielle, whose performance of the classic ‘Cry Me A River’ began with the audience watching nervously as she was hoisted high above the studio on a swing, and Steph, with her take on Kings of Leon’s ‘Need Somebody.’

Both performances were “exceptional,” according to Charlotte. “Danielle, you were sultry, and the vocal was perfect throughout,” she said. Sheila praised Danielle’s “very special quality… she’s wonderful…” she added. Andrew – after wishing Danielle a happy 18th birthday – said both Danielle and Steph were “very strong contenders,” while John made a prediction: “I’m going to click my heels three times and say there’s no place like the final for both of you girls,” he told them. John said of Steph – “from Kings of Leon to Queens of Fearon, all I can say baby is snap it out, it was fierce…” he said, while Charlotte “couldn’t take [her] eyes” off Steph’s performance.

And then it was time for the ‘showdown at the hoedown’ Graham had promised us. Split into two groups, the girls each performed a musical theatre number – something Andrew told us we should watch carefully. Visiting the girls in rehearsal, he warned the public, “What we must not do is judge the girls only on their solo performances… we need to look at these group performances and see what the girls are doing…”
So, time to saddle up. The Oklahoma Outlaws (Sophie, Jessica, Danielle and Steph) sang ‘Oklahoma!’ from the musical of the same name, while the Deadwood Dames (Stephanie, Lauren, Emilie and Jenny) performed ‘Deadwood Stage’ from Calamity Jane. As John said, echoing his fellow panellists’ conclusion that the Oklahoma Outlaws had won the hoe-down, “yeee-ha!”

And then voting lines opened…

Read our Oz Blog on Sunday’s show here.

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For more information on Over The Rainbow, visit www.bbc.co.uk/dorothy.