‘The glitter ball wouldn’t fit through the door of Blackpool Tower Ballroom’ – how we made Strictly Come Dancing

‘Can we hire the venue?’ … James Jordan and Pamela Stephenson-Connolly during season eight of Strictly Come Dancing. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC

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.