Ballas’ plea over Strictly line-up

Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas has urged fans to give the line-up of famous faces who will be taking part in this year’s series a chance.

The BBC1 flagship entertainment show will see stars including Blue singer Lee Ryan, cricketer Graeme Swann and presenter Katie Piper vie to impress the panel of experts.

Responding to complaints that the line-up lacks stars, Ballas told ITV’s Loose Women: “It’s a diverse panel of beautiful people, all with a story.

“You’ve got an Olympic athlete in there, it’s just going to be fantastic and people need to give it a chance.

“Everybody has their opinions, but they are just opinions at the end of the day.”

She added: “It has to be a mixture of people – and people will watch it, they’ll judge for themselves.

“Give these stars a chance and I know that, as with every year, with ratings, people love to tune in, and this is going to be a great panel of people.”

Ballas, 57, added that some of the contestants with previous dancing experience, including Pussycat Dolls star Ashley Roberts, may not necessarily have an advantage in the competition.

Ballas said: “Of course she’s done a little hip-hop, but so had Aston (Merrygold). He went out because he couldn’t do the Viennese Waltz.

“Just because you can bop from foot to foot, it doesn’t mean you can quickstep with another person in front of you, in frame, four arms, four legs, keeping your head to the left, it doesn’t mean that you can do that.

“It’s a completely differently story when it comes to ballroom or Latin.”

Ballas also said she was in favour of same-sex dance couples on Strictly, following reports that This Morning’s Dr Ranj Singh wants to dance with a male partner on the show.

Shirley Ballas says that contestants are talented.