Strictly returns
Our verdict on Ed Balls and co
Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly 2016 has lift-off. A red sparkly rocket landed outside the ballroom on Strictly Come Dancing: The
Launch (BBC One), bearing this year’s celebrity hoofing hopefuls and getting the ballroom contest’s 14th series under way in a hail of sparks, sequins and space puns.
This might be the year that finally kills off arch rival The X Factor for good. Simon Cowell’s crooning contest is already in crisis, with low ratings and claims that it’s fixed. Its contract with ITV comes up for renewal after this series. Strictly could prove the final nail in the X-shaped coffin.
Thrashing Cowell and co in the ratings has become such a foregone conclusion, it’s more intriguing whether
Strictly’s figures will beat those of BBC One stablemate The Great British Bake-Off, currently pulling in 10 million on Wednesday evenings. Does the public prefer cakes to choreography? Soggy bottoms or gyrating ones? We’re about to find out.
After 12 years’ loyal service – filled with cries of “winner, winner, chicken dinner!”, “pickle me walnuts!” and “seveeeeeen!” – Strictly’s veteran head judge Len Goodman has confirmed this will be his last run. Goodman is keen to go out with a bang and this year’s line-up looked like they might just deliver it. The curtain-raising show saw the 15 famous faces – although several stretched that description to breaking point (Danny Mac, anyone? Ore Oduba? Thought not) – paired with their professional partners, before taking their first tentative steps on to the floor for a group jive. Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls, this year’s most eyebrow-raising recruit, warned that his partner would “need lots of patience”. Does the Leftwing politician have two left feet? At first sight, Balls seemed to be firmly from the “stompy disco dad” school. His wife Yvette Cooper watched from the front row as Balls “formed a coalition” with new pro Katya Jones. The Russian-born brunette has her work cut out. “Three months of hard Labour,” as copresenter Tess Daly put it. Long-suffering Anton Du Beke was landed with yet another senior citizen in Birds Of A Feather’s Lesley Joseph – at 70, the oldest ever female contestant. The cackling couple should at least prove lots of fun. Kiwi Brendan Cole, was teamed with American diva Anastacia – who wisely endeared herself to viewers by saying she was “glad to be in your country” and donating her fee to a breast cancer charity. EastEnders’ entertaining Tameka Empson squealed with joy when paired with new Spanish pro Gorka “The Corker” Marquez, set to follow in the departed Gleb Savchenko’s footsteps as resident heart-throb. Even more amusing was daytime TV’s Robert “Judge” Rinder, who wasted no time in starting a catty, feud with the judging panel’s panto villain, Craig Revel Horwood.
Long-jumper Greg Rutherford and Aussie favourite Natalie Lowe looked a promising couple, as did singer Will Young and Karen Clifton. The latter will be in fierce competition with husband Kevin, paired with hotly tipped Louise Redknapp.
Olympic gymnast Claudia Fragapane, the early favourite, was paired with baby-faced new pro AJ Pritchard. Just 18 and standing 4ft 6in, Fragapane is destined to be patronised all series – as she was here by Daly, who talked to her as if she was a toddler.
Leggy glamour came from model Daisy Lowe and Irish presenter Laura Whitmore. Both looked like they could go far.
As always, Daly’s co-host Claudia Winkleman stole the show with witty asides and self-deprecating silliness. She even cartwheeled and backflipped across the ballroom to prove that Fragapane wasn’t the only gymnastic Claudia in the building – although that might, just might, have been a stunt double.
This packed, pacy launch show featured music from a pair of X Factor alumni in Rebecca Ferguson and Olly Murs. Even if this was meant as another two fingers up to Cowell, a flagship franchise such as Strictly can surely book better guests than talent contest runners-up.
Strictly’s class of 2016 now disappear for three weeks of training. As the cast called while the credits rolled, it’s nearly time to “Staaaaaart dancing”!