he disco ball spins, the theme tune strikes up and a brand new batch of nervous celebrities put together to don their dancing sneakers for 13 weeks of gruelling coaching.
That’s proper: the juggernaut that’s Strictly Come Dancing is again as soon as extra, and although it provides nothing new to the seasoned (and even informal) fan, it’s as fizzy and enjoyable as a bottle of champagne – and wackier than an evening out on the circus.
The components had been all there. Craig Revel Horwood strutted his stuff amongst a bevy of dancers in carnival costumes; a grey-haired Anton Du Beke beamed benevolently from behind the choose’s podium and Claudia Winkleman was as positive of foot and lengthy of fringe as ever.
However the stars of the present are usually not the judges (although Shirley Ballas’ insistence on giving a standing ovation to each couple who danced was very candy). We had been launched to our celebrities nicely upfront of the present’s launch, in fact, however this was the primary evening we received to see them in motion.
Naturally, the dancing skill of these celebrities different wildly and as is perhaps anticipated, most of them had a strategy to go earlier than having the ability to sustain with their skilled companions – not that you’d have recognized it from the judges’ diplomatic feedback, most of which had been cheered wildly by the viewers.
And was Craig booed? After all. “Oh shut up,” he advised the group fondly, earlier than telling Kym Marsh: “And I cherished your arabesque, darling.”
Regardless of the talents of the celebrities, their enthusiasm couldn’t be faulted: Marsh waxed lyrical about how excited her aunts had been that she was on the present (she went onto introduce her accomplice Graziano to her complete prolonged household) whereas Radio 2 DJ Richie Anderson known as his first dance “actually top-of-the-line moments of my life.”
This yr, the powers that be have additionally launched a brand new variation on the pairings: a male-male and female-female dancing couple made their debuts for the primary time within the present’s historical past. These had been Anderson and Giovanni Pernice, alongside comic Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer.
It’s lengthy overdue, actually: the shake-up was a welcome addition to the (very) well-established Strictly method – and you would need to have had a coronary heart of stone to not cheer wildly when Adams danced the samba to Christina Aguilera’s Dirrty. “I didn’t assume there might be any extra fabulousness in my life after which I met this lady [Hauer],” Adams mentioned within the intro video. Amen to that.
And naturally, there are the inevitable emotional beats. Watching Adams tear up after ending her first dance (in interviews, she’s defined how the final time she danced was together with her sister Jenna, who died a number of years in the past) introduced a lump to the throat of this reviewer and neatly underlined simply how a lot of a treasured establishment Strictly is – as did seeing Tony Adams maintain again his dismay after his clumsy football-themed tango.
Even just one episode in, it’s nonetheless remarkably straightforward to pick the frontrunners. Singer Fleur East dazzled, as did CBBC presenter Molly Rainford with a cool samba. Wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin additionally made a splash along with his foxtrot and actor Will Mellor took the roof off the place with a jaw-dropping jive; they’ll be those to beat.
Is it groundbreaking tv? No. Has the method modified a lot because it launched twenty years in the past. Additionally no – and it’s about an hour too lengthy in addition. However who cares? That’s not the purpose of Strictly Come Dancing. It’s as comforting as a heat tub and reliably sparky as ever: sink again and let it wash over you.
Strictly Come Dancing will likely be airing on BBC One on Saturdays
