This morning saw the formal unveiling of the fourteen celebrities who will be jiving and waltzing as part of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, which starts on October 6. It was an oddly muted affair: Bruce Forsyth was absent, as were all four judges. The whole event was structured to ask questions of the new celebrities, but once you realise that so far they’ve each only had three dance lessons, there aren’t that many places to go. Having the dancers more readily available for questioning would maybe have been preferable.
As we’ve so often been doing with the Saturday night entertainment shows, every episode will be reviewed and summarised on the blog, and you’ll be able to add your own comments and discuss amongst yourselves. For now, familiarise yourselves with the actors, TV presenters and sports personalities who’ll be kicking up their heels on the dancefloor:
Alesha Dixon partnered with Matthew Cutler
Asked if her time in girl group Mis-Teeq would be an advantage, Alesha pointed out that she had no dance training — and she tends to go for freestyle dance, which is no help in learning the discipline involved in ballroom dancing.
Brian Capron partnered with Karen Hardy (last year’s winner)
Actor Brian hopes his days of being regarded as evil Richard Hillman are behind him — although he’s sure some may think he has a crowbar down his trousers. Such modesty. Is that related to his comment that this was the one programme that would make his gay friends proud of him?
Dominic Littlewood partnered with Lilia Kopylova
Apparently, TV presenter Dominic was recently on a TV game show, playing (and, by the sounds of it, winning) against Strictly judge Len Goodman and dancer Anton Du Beke. He hopes that his success there won’t turn round and bite him on the live shows.
Gabby Logan partnered with James Jordan
When contracted to ITV, Gabby was famously told she couldn’t do Strictly Come Dancing, but could instead do the not-at-all-similar Dancing on Ice. The ability to take part, she says, wasn’t the reason she left ITV, but it’s a good reason to stay at the BBC.
Gethin Jones partnered with Camilla Dallerup
The Blue Peter presenter says that his time on the CBBC show has put him in good stead for ‘dressing up in strange outfits’. He reckons that, even after three lessons, Strictly is even harder than learning to fly a plane.
John Barnes partnered with Nicole Cutler
Footballer, coach and pundit John has been told that he’s likely to lose some weight in training, which he hopes will suit the tight-fitting costumes better. “Sitting here today, Lycra doesn’t really suit my body… I want to lose weight, I will lose some weight and I need to lose weight!”
Kate Garraway partnered with Anton Du Beke
Asked if she had been taking on any tips from fellow GMTV anchor Fiona Phillips, who lasted just four weeks in Strictly series 3 in 2005, Kate replied that she thought Fiona had been a very good contestant. To which, one of the dancers near me whispered quite loudly, “Was she watching the show?”. They have quite the claws, some of these dancers. Kate did admit that if you thought Fiona was bad, you hadn’t seen anything yet — eliciting a very audible groan from her partner, Anton…
Kelly Brook partnered with Brendan Cole
Kelly says her partner, Billy Zane, did briefly attempt to teach her some dance moves when he was performing in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (which was choreographed by Strictly judge, Craig Revel Horwood), but nothing progressed very far. Brendan says she is the first partner he’s had who was not reluctant to learn, unlike Natasha Kiplinsky, Sarah Manners, Fiona Phillips and Claire King.
Kenny Logan partnered with Ola Jordan
Former rugby international Kenny is, of course, married to fellow Strictly dancer Gabby (above) — and, indeed, their respective dance partners, Ola and James, are married also. This could all go so horribly, horribly wrong… “I’m lying in bed at night, thinking, ‘I can’t do this’, and she asks me, ‘What can’t you do?’ When I say, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, she tells me to shut up and go to sleep!”
Letitia Dean partnered with Darren Bennett
Although she has had training in dance while at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, Letitia is at pains to point out that this was two decades ago, and consisted of ballet, jazz and tap. “I knew from my first lesson that this was ‘proper’ dance,” she says. “I’m aching, and I have blisters and boils!” (“I’ve never wanted you more,” quipped Anton.)
Matt Di’Angelo partnered with Flavia Cacace
Like Letitia, Matt is a Sylvia Young alumnus — strange how nobody picks up on stage school experience for men and assumes it’ll be an advantage (as a questioner did with Letitia, and as the public did last year with Emma Bunton). Hmm. Matt admitted that although he was supposed to keep his involvement in Strictly a secret, he’d pretty much told everyone he knew already — although he’d mainly been talking to last year’s fourth placed contestant, fellow former EastEnder Louisa Lytton.
Penny Lancaster-Stewart partnered with Ian Waite
Penny was not at the press conference, instead electing to remain at her family’s home in Los Angeles to celebrate the birthday of two of her stepchildren with husband Rod Stewart. However, this did allow dancing partner Ian to revel in the only solo entrance of the morning, providing the dictionary definition of ‘milking it’.
Stephanie Beacham partnered with Vincent Simone
While Stephanie may be used to the glamorous dresses from her days on The Colbys, she’s not particularly looking forward to getting back into high heels again. “The clothes are divine, but I’d forgotten about the shoes. I’ve been in heaven in prison [she means for Bad Girls] for four years, and I could wear Ugg boots to work every day…”
Willie Thorne partnered with Erin Boag
Snooker legend Willie has never danced before. He also claims that while people want to see some hip action from the dancers, “I haven’t seen my own hips for ten years, let alone move them… hopefully these dancers will take this ugly duckling and turn him into a swan.”
Strictly Come Dancing starts on October 6 on BBC1, with the men performing wither a waltz or a cha-cha-cha for the public vote. Week 2 will see all seven women compete with either a quickstep or a rumba. From Week 3, as with previous series, all twelve remaining couples will compete against each other, with the lowest scoring pair dropping out each week.
Nearer the time, we’ll have some other coverage, I’m sure. And of course we’ll have reviews of every show to which you can contribute with your comments.
Could have done with a bit more description on some of them as to who they are.
Well, I could have just retyped the press kit, but lots of other sites will be doing that, and the BBC site will also have that information. What's the point in replicating something that's already available in numerous other places?
...although having said that, the press kit biographies are now up on each contestant's page. Click on their name or their picture to see their biog (and, as the series progresses, all blog posts in which they are mentioned).
I will do similar pages for the professional dancers next week.
I'd like to know how to obtain tickets to be a member of the
audiance
Helen, all the public tickets were allocated on a ballot system last week. If you haven't got any now, then you're too late, I'm afraid.