Karen Smith, executive producer
The BBC wanted to bring back Come Dancing but with celebrities. They’d signed up Bruce Forsyth but didn’t have a format, just a name: Pro Celebrity Come Dancing. So they asked me to help. I was a producer at Endemol. We’d made the first Celebrity Big Brother for Channel 4 with Jack Dee, where Vanessa Feltz had a meltdown, and Comic Relief Does Fame Academy.
I knew if we got it right, it could have cross-generational appeal: the costume fairytale for children; celebrities out of their comfort zones for young adults; and the romance of ballroom dancing for the older audience. The first thing I needed to do was learn about ballroom dancing. Since the best entertainment has truth at its core, we needed to establish rules, to treat it properly and authentically.
I assumed the pro dancers would be thrilled to get back on TV, but ballroom dancing had started to become ridiculed, so they didn’t trust me. In the end, we had to promise to broadcast some of the live shows from Blackpool so the pros didn’t miss out on competing at the annual Blackpool Dance festival. We transported the entire set there from London, but the massive glitter ball wouldn’t fit through the door of the Tower Ballroom. So for the first series, it just sat in the back of a truck.
Celebrities were required to take an incredible leap of faith. I remember chasing Natasha Kaplinsky down the corridors of the BBC to show her these wonderful dresses, to persuade her it would be a fantastic experience. We wanted the set to look as realistic as possible, with a sprung floor, live band and a beautiful princess staircase. We got letters saying: “Can we hire out the venue?” We had to say: “It’s not a real place. It’s gone back into a box.”
After the first episode, people complained: “This isn’t Come Dancing.” I had to go on Points of View. I was a lot younger and quite chippy, so I said: “What from the name makes you think this is Come Dancing? It’s a modern reinvention, with celebrities.” Terry Wogan ended the piece by saying: “Well, that’s you lot told.” The first series peaked at 10 million viewers. The day after the last episode, I went on holiday – and on the Monday the BBC phoned and said: “Can you have series two ready to roll in four months?”
Anton Du Beke, dancer and judge
Fred Astaire was my hero. At dance class, I was the only boy in the room. But, at the age of 13, I wasn’t sure of my career trajectory, of how to get from a church hall in Sevenoaks, Kent, to the screen. I did well in my dancing exams, so thought: “I’m quite good at this.” But not so well that I thought: “I’ve cracked it.” I went on to compete all over the country, and eventually the world.
In 2004, I heard that the BBC had decided to bring back Come Dancing and Bruce Forsyth was attached. Brucie was another one of my heroes. They put out an email to the dancing industry saying: “We need ballroom dancers.” So Erin Boag, my dancing partner, and I applied. We did a screen test and, miraculously, they asked us to do the show.
I had the pleasure of dancing with the opera singer Lesley Garrett in the first series. Through her, I was really able to blossom. The cameras were on us all the time, so I hoped that if I was genuine people would get me – if they thought I was an arse, that would be it. But I soon realised that Strictly wasn’t about me. My role was dancing with and looking after the celebrities: giving them the best experience possible – and now judging. Working with Bruce was the highlight of my career. And then to become friends with him, play golf with him and perform with him …
Strictly has the great advantage of recasting every year. It evolves, but there’s no revolution: they haven’t changed it so much that you don’t recognise it. We’re British, so we love to see people’s relationships, read their body language and think: “Oooh, they’re not getting on!” We love moments like Giovanni Pernice and Rose Ayling-Ellis’s silent dance last year, for which they won a Bafta. Or when Ann Widdecombe took part in 2010, which was fantastic. Even if you’re not a fan of the show, those incredible moments transcend everything.
Strictly Come Dancing returns on 17 September on BBC One.
