Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of judges. The title of the show is a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing. The format has been exported to 60 other countries under the title Dancing with the Stars, licensed by BBC Worldwide, and led to a modern dance-themed spin-off Strictly Dance Fever. The Guinness World Records named Strictly as the world's most successful reality television format in 2010.[8] The series is currently presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. Bruce Forsyth co-presented the series with Daly until 2014.
This article is about the British television programme. For international versions, see Dancing with the Stars. For the most recent series, see Strictly Come Dancing (series 21).Strictly Come Dancing
Dance talent show
- Fenia Vardanis[1]
- Richard Hopkins[2]
- Karen Smith[3][4]
Karen Smith
United Kingdom
English
20
366
- Karen Smith (2004–2006)
- Sam Donnelly (2007–2009)
- Moira Ross (2010–2011)
- Glenn Coomber (2012)
- Andrea Hamilton (2012)
- Louise Rainbow (2013–2018)
- Sarah James (2019–present)
- BBC Television Centre (2004–2012)
- Blackpool Tower (2004, 2009–2011, 2013–2019, 2022–)
- Wembley Arena (2011–2012)
- Elstree Studios (2013–)[7]
30–120 minutes
15 May 2004 –
present
The series has been broadcast on BBC One since 15 May 2004, typically on Saturday evenings with a following Sunday night results show. From series 2 onwards, the show has been broadcast in the run up to Christmas. With its high viewing figures, Strictly Come Dancing has become a significant programme on British television.[9] Eighteen stand-alone Christmas specials and nineteen charity specials have also been produced.
Development
Producer Richard Hopkins, who had produced the first UK series of Big Brother, unsuccessfully pitched the idea of a modern Come Dancing to the BBC under the title of Pro-Celebrity Dancing in 2003.[10] Later, entertainment executive Fenia Vardanis also suggested reviving Come Dancing, so Jane Lush, the then head of BBC Entertainment, put Hopkins and Vardanis together to develop the show.[10]
Hopkins then called in Karen Smith, who had just produced Comic Relief Does Fame Academy for BBC One and The Games for Channel 4, to help lead the development of the show and launch the series. Smith was the show-running Executive Producer of the first three series, and of sister show It Takes Two.[11] She then took the role of Creative Director of BBC Entertainment whilst still overseeing series 4 and 5.[12][13]
Hopkins later took the format to America himself when the BBC dismissed the idea of selling it abroad, as they felt it was too British.[14]
The title is an amalgamation of the titles of the 1992 Australian film Strictly Ballroom and Come Dancing.
Format
From series 1 to 11, Sir Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly presented the pro-celebrity ballroom dancing competition. From series 8 to 11, Forsyth only presented the main show and was replaced for the results show by Claudia Winkleman, at which point Daly assumed Forsyth's role as main presenter and Winkleman assumed Daly's role as co-presenter. Winkleman joined Daly as full-time co-presenter for series 12 following Forsyth's departure after the 2013 series. Through telephone voting, viewers vote for who they would like to be in the next round, the results of the poll being combined with the ranking of the judges. For example, with ten contestants left, the judges' favourite would receive ten points, second favourite nine points, and so on, and similarly with the viewers' rankings. The bottom ranked couple gets one point.[15] The profits from the telephone lines were donated to Sport Relief in series 1, to Children in Need from series 2, until series 8 when donations to charity stopped.
The show is broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday evenings, and is currently presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman (with Zoe Ball covering for Winkleman for a number of weeks in 2014). Sir Bruce Forsyth presented the live shows alongside Daly from 2004 to 2013, announcing his departure in 2014. He was to continue to present special editions of the show.[16] For most of the second series, Natasha Kaplinsky stood in temporarily for Daly while she took maternity leave; Claudia Winkleman hosted the results show and editions that Forsyth had missed between 2010 and 2013. The judging panel initially consisted of Bruno Tonioli, Arlene Phillips, Len Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood. Alesha Dixon took Phillips' place from series 7 to 9, after which she left the programme to judge Britain's Got Talent which led retired ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell to replace her.[17] Goodman left the show after the 2016 series and was replaced by Shirley Ballas. Bussell remained as judge until 2018, and was replaced by Motsi Mabuse in 2019. Up until 2020, Tonioli commuted weekly between Hollywood and London to judge both the American and British versions of the show simultaneously- however, due the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, he could no longer juggle both the UK and US shows- he was not replaced for the 2020 series; but pro dancer Anton Du Beke took his place from the 2021 series, and has now replaced Tonioli full-time on the panel. The current judging panel consists of Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke, making Horwood the only judge to remain with the programme since its inception. Each judge gives the performance a mark out of ten, giving an overall total out of forty. The voice-over announcer is Alan Dedicoat. During series four, an hour-long highlights show was shown on Sundays at 19:00 on BBC Two, and during series five and six, the results show moved to Sunday evenings, although it was filmed on Saturday and then broadcast "as live" on the Sunday.
The singers on the show are Tommy Blaize, Hayley Sanderson, Lance Ellington, Andrea Grant and, formerly, the well-known British dance music vocalist Tara McDonald. The music director is David Arch. Tommy Blaize has been part of Strictly since its beginning. David Arch joined in the fourth series and Hayley Sanderson in the fifth. The original musical director from series 1 to 3 was Laurie Holloway. In the seventeenth series, the singers were joined by Mitchell.[18]
The show was broadcast from a specially constructed set at BBC Television Centre (primarily in the largest studio, TC1[19]) until its closure in 2013, with the show moving to Elstree Studios' George Lucas Stage 2 from 2013 onwards. However, in the first two series, shows were also filmed at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, where the original Come Dancing series was filmed in the 1970s.[20][21]
In the second series, two shows were filmed at the Tower Ballroom — show five and the Grand Final, which was broadcast live on 11 December 2004.[22][23] In 2005 though the BBC announced that they would not be returning to the venue for the third series due to "logistical problems".[24] In October 2008, Craig Revel Horwood called for the series to return to the Tower Ballroom, saying, "The atmosphere was electric. It's huge and has so much history. The Tower Ballroom puts a lot of pressure on the professionals and the celebrities to perform to the best of their potential. What a wonderful place to go live to 12 million people. We have got to get the BBC to bring Strictly Come Dancing back to Blackpool." Eventually, for series 7, the show did return to the Tower Ballroom, where Blackpool-born Craig Kelly was eliminated. The episode was aired live on 7 November 2009.[25] Strictly Come Dancing returned to Blackpool for the 2010[26] and 2011 series.[27] After series 10, when Strictly Come Dancing did not go to Blackpool, they announced that they would return for series 11.[28]
Presentation
Dances
On average, dances last for approximately 90 seconds.[48] Musical accompaniment is provided by The Strictly Come Dancing Band.
Results show
From series 1 to 4, the results show was shown live on Saturday night one hour after the performances.
As of series 5, the results show is recorded on the Saturday night directly after the live show and incorporates the result of the viewers' votes, which are completed by 21:30. This was confirmed by the official BBC website in 2008:
Controversies
2008 Semi Final
On 13 December 2008, Strictly Come Dancing became the subject of press attention and viewer complaints about an error in the voting system during the semi-final of series six. In the show, three couples remained in the competition. After all three had performed and the judges had given their scores, two of the couples were in joint-first position on the leaderboard, while the third — Tom Chambers and Camilla Dallerup — were in last place. This meant that, no matter how many public votes were cast in their favour, it was mathematically impossible for the third-placed couple to avoid the dance-off. This oversight was initially unnoticed by producers until after the public vote became live and viewers were invited to call in and save their favourites at a cost of 15p per vote. Once the mistake was finally realised and the public vote was closed, it was announced that all three couples would be put through to the final, all the votes already cast would count towards the final result of the competition, and viewers could apply for a refund if they wished.[91]
The BBC received 1800 complaints about the incident,[92] while media regulator Ofcom received 297.[91] Jon Beazley, the BBC's Head of Entertainment Production, was interviewed on Strictly's spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two on 15 December. He apologised for the oversight, referring to it as an "unprecedented situation". On the same day, the BBC posted a statement on its website, which clarified that an independent adjudicator had been consulted to reach a solution that would offer "fairness to the viewers who voted and the contestants themselves".[93] The BBC also stated that, following the mistake, "the voting and judging mechanisms used in all BBC voting programmes [had] been thoroughly examined".[91]
After conducting an investigation, Ofcom concluded that "the mistake had resulted from an oversight, rather than any shortcomings in the technical arrangements for voting or in the handling of votes received", and that they were "satisfied that appropriate steps were taken by the BBC and the disadvantage to viewers minimised". Ofcom also opined that "the BBC had been open and transparent with viewers about the mistake it made and the solution adopted".[91]
Sacking of Arlene Phillips
In June 2009, tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that the then 66-year-old judge Arlene Phillips, who had judged the show since its inception in 2004, was to be replaced by series five winner Alesha Dixon, then aged 30.[94] This was later confirmed by the BBC in July of that year.[95] Subsequently, the BBC was accused of ageism and sexism by several sources,[95][96] an accusation the corporation has faced before over the removal of several older female presenters, including Moira Stuart,[97] Juliet Morris,[98] Miriam O'Reilly,[98][97] Michaela Strachan,[98] Charlotte Smith[98] and Anna Ford.[99] The BBC denied the allegations that the decision to remove Phillips was due to her age.[95]
Furthermore, Dixon herself was criticised after the debut episode of the seventh series, the first to feature her as a judge. A total of 272 complaints were received by the BBC – bringing the total number about Dixon joining the programme to over 4000 – along with over 5000 comments on Strictly Come Dancing's internet message board.[100] Dixon was compared unfavourably to Phillips, with claims that the former was "unsuitable", "unqualified" and lacked "knowledge, experience and talent".[100] However, Dixon was praised and defended from her critics by the BBC,[100] by fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood[100] and by Phillips herself.[101]
2009 Racism Scandal
In 2009, during the seventh series, professional dancer Anton Du Beke issued a public apology[102] for his use of a racial slur during a conversation with his dance partner Laila Rouass.[103] Du Beke claimed that the comment, which was never broadcast, was a joke referring to Rouass' spray-tan, in which he said that she "looked like a Paki".[103] Over 600 complaints were received by the BBC, including those about comments Bruce Forsyth, then host of Strictly Come Dancing, made about the controversy on a Talksport radio programme, in which he suggested that Britain "used to have a sense of humour" about such incidents, and that Du Beke's apology should be accepted.[104]
Following the incident, and Forsyth's response, the BBC stated:
Strictly Come Dancing: The Game
In 2016, BBC Worldwide commissioned a match-3 mobile app game published by Donut Publishing and developed by Exient Entertainment. The game uses a mix of hand animation and motion-captured data for all the dances in the game, using pro dancers from the show (Chloe Hewitt and Neil Jones). The mo-cap process was featured on It Takes Two in the build-up to the release of the app. The game features over 150 dresses and 9 dances: Quickstep, Jive, Tango, Salsa, Charleston, Viennese Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha Cha, and Paso Doble. It was released on the App Store and Google Play in early 2016 and is regularly updated with new dance features alongside new seasons of the show.[195]