Weekend of fan dancing
YOU’RE in for quite a weekend if, like me, you’re a huge fan of STRICTLY COME DANCING. Having said that, I guess you’re also in for quite a weekend if Strictly drives you round the twist, so to speak, because there’s going to be rather a lot of it and I’m assuming you’ll want to steer clear.
The fun gets under way tonight with the traditional launch show (7pm, BBC One), rescheduled from last Saturday, which in itself will run for just 10 minutes shy of two hours.
This, remember, is the prerecorded thing where we get to see this year’s sequinned-up celebs being paired with their professional partners, in each case reacting to the revelation of who they’ll be dancing with by exclaiming: “Oh, I’m SO glad! I was praying it would be you!” or words to that effect. (It’s considered awfully bad form to cry: “Oh, good Lord, really?
Is this some kind of joke?”). Then tomorrow night we’ll be straight into the first live show of this, Strictly’s 20th series, almost as though the contestants have been on a miraculous overnight crash course.
That programme lasts another two-and-a-half hours, or very nearly. But there’s no Sunday night results show yet, of course.
Nobody on Strictly ever gets sent packing in week one, even if they trip and go crashing into Dave Arch’s drum kit (which actually I’d be inclined to award a 10 for, just for the entertainment value).
So anyway, what do we make of this year’s celebrity line-up?
There are certainly some very interesting names listed there, that’s for sure.
By way of a novelty, three of the 15 even share the same surname — namely, comedian Jayde Adams, TV presenter Kaye Adams and ex-Arsenal and England footballer Tony Adams.
Poor Tony is considered more or less a no-hoper by the bookies, but I reckon if he’s given the chance to reprise some of his trademark moves of old, such as raising his arm and screeching: “Offside, linesman, you blind b ****** !!!” then he could yet surprise a good few people.
Other interesting things about the line-up include the fact that there’s an East and aWest (Fleur and Tyler respectively), plus, in the form of 80s pop person Matt Goss, a man whose name is tantalisingly close to being two different types of paint.
Oh, and will EastEnders’ James Bye be the first contestant in Strictly history whose name is also the last thing Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman say to him, possibly as soon as week four if the bookies are to be believed?We’ll have to wait and see.
But if they fail to seize that priceless comic opportunity then I for one will be deeply disappointed in them.