HOW BALLROOM BLITZED THE BRITS
IT sounds a little odd when former rugby player Thom Evans speaks about hipshaking and how he loves his sparkly outfits.
But the love of gyration and glitter is mandatory when you’re a top contestant on Strictly Come Dancing. And it’s shared by the 10 million Brits who have tuned in for the live show every Saturday evening for the last 12 years. The show is so popular that there is a national outcry if a favourite contestant is voted out, or if the duds stay in.
Evans is a favourite, even in his camp ballroom trousers; whereas tennis ace Andy Murray’s mum, Judy, who dances in sneakers, is not.
To get to watch the live show is like winning the lottery, I’m told, as I join the audience of about 700 for a sixhour recording session of the episode that will flight on South African screens tonight.
Selected by random draw, the audience is dressed to the nines on a Saturday afternoon at Elstree Studios outside London. Ostrich feathers, big hair and sparkles abound. There is a long list of regulations: dress smartly, no jeans; no food allowed (they give you a juice and a KitKat); no cellphones or cameras. And no social media updates, because the results show is recorded immediately after the live one but broadcast the next day. The social media rule is one that everyone observes. Because nobody should ruin Strictly for someone else.
“It is a bit of glamour, lovely dances and gorgeous outfits, when you’re sitting at home in your jarmies,” says BBC Entertainment’s Louise Loffel.
With celebs as competitors, affable judges and popular presenters, it is a ballroom extravaganza that remains a perennial favourite. And it still is, strictly, about competitive dancing.
The judges — ballroom veterans Craig Revel Horwood and Len Goodman, the rambunctious Bruno Tonioli and the elegant Darcey Bussell — add to the package with their witty and honest commentary, often
One of the pro dancers is nicknamed ‘the home-wrecker’
chastising viewers who vote out stronger competitors.
The British B-list contestants are nothing to sniff at, either. Former reality show winners such as pop stars Pixie Lott and Simon Webbe and MasterChef judge Greg Wallace have all put on their dancing shoes.
The tabloids go nuts for presenters Tess Daly and the sarky Claudia Winkleman — their fashion decisions, their jibes and their bloopers.
But it’s about the dancing. The professional dancers, a number of whom have danced in multiple seasons, are celebrities in their own right.
One dancer, Kristina Rihanoff, is allegedly nicknamed “the home-wrecker” for getting too close to her dance partners.
Groomed and decorated like thoroughbred horses, they are muscular, shiny and so fluid you can’t take your eyes off them.
Every week they coach the celebs, club-footed or not, in a new dance style; a tough ask if you have never tried a Viennese waltz or foxtrot.
Naturalist Steve Backshall, who presents Deadly 60, a sort of UK answer to the late Steve Erwin’s show, said: “My day job filming wildlife in jungles and swamps is nothing. I think Strictly Come Dancing is going to be my wildest challenge by far.”
We watched a stylish, sexed-up hoe-down which was shot three times until they got every move perfect. Boy George and Culture Club performed Karma Chameleon for a musical interlude.
Then the 12 competing couples danced their socks off. The judges congratulate or reprimand faulty footwork.
And at the end of the long day, someone is voted out. I can’t say who, but it is a shocker. No wonder they keep coming back for more.
Strictly Come Dancing Series 12, BBC Entertainment, Channel 120, Sundays at 7.45pm
Shanthini Naidoo was a guest of BBC Entertainment