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Paddington makes his Strictly debut<\/p>\n
The duffel-coated Peruvian bear will appear in the ballroom tonight during a special number from the new Paddington musical. Hey, maybe he\u2019ll dance to Lady Marmalade.<\/p>\n
Hold onto your large felt hats, it\u2019s 10 minutes until the clock strikes sequins\u2026<\/p>\n
Share<\/a>On your dance cards tonight<\/p>\n As well as the Dance Relay, this week\u2019s five \u201cproper\u201d routines from our couples are heavy on the Latin and speciality dances, with a Charleston, an Argentine tango, a salsa and a samba. Om;y Balvinder Sopal is flying the flag for ye olde trad ballroom with her Viennese waltz.<\/p>\n Extra dancers are also back for the first time since Blackpool, lending that big production feel to the musicals-themed numbers. Fifteen minutes until that ba-ba-da theme tune\u2026<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Let\u2019s play Strictly bingo (Broadway edition)<\/p>\n Cross them off as you spot them on-screen! Take a drink for each! Get manhandled out of the theatre by usherettes for singing along too loudly! Threaten to sue and then fall over! Here\u2019s your 10-point spotter\u2019s guide for Musicals Week:<\/p>\n Training VT sees couple visit the West End cast of the musical they\u2019re channelling for \u201ctips\u201d<\/p>\n Celebrity gushes unconvincingly about how much they love musical theatre<\/p>\n Overuse of the words \u201ciconic\u201d and \u201clegendary\u201d<\/p>\n Anton refers to his Musicals Week routines of yore, even though he only made it this far twice<\/p>\n Fickle Claudia transfers her affections from Dave Arch to Paddington<\/p>\n Craig modestly mentions his West End choreography credits<\/p>\n Anton ropes in a secretly delighted Shirley to demonstrate waltz frame or tango hold<\/p>\n Motsi says someone \u201cbrought their A-game\u201d or \u201cshut this ballroom down\u201d<\/p>\n Someone gets compared to Fred Astaire\/Ginger Rogers\/Gene Kelly\/Bob Fosse<\/p>\n Shirley picks up a female celebrity on her footwork fundamentals but male celebs get away with it<\/p>\n Share<\/a>A new bookies\u2019 favourite for the glitterball<\/p>\n George Clarke has headed the betting for most of the series but in the wake of last week\u2019s perfect 40, Karen Carney took over this week as the new glitterball favourite.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, poor Balvinder Sopal is odds-on to depart the dancefloor this weekend. Again. It\u2019s 25 minutes until the spangly safety curtain comes up\u2026<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Sparkly batons at the ready for Dance Relay<\/p>\n Following the runaway success of last week\u2019s enjoyably chaotic Instant Dance challenge, there\u2019s another new innovation tonight. A special relay-style performance will see each couple take it in turns to hit the floor as part of a high-energy celebration of musicals.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t be scored by the judges but is just an extra bid to win viewer votes. If Instant Dance chaos is anything to judge by, it should be interesting. Wonder what Nikita will wear this time? We\u2019ll get our first clues in half an hour\u2026<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Who will make a show of themselves in Musicals Week?<\/p>\n It\u2019s time for Strictly\u2019s annual night out at the theatre. Good evening and welcome to week 11 of Strictly Come Dancing 2025. I\u2019m Michael, your fellow thesp for tonight\u2019s musicals-themed quarter-final. I\u2019d love you to watch along with me as our couples perform routines inspired by West End and Broadway hits, hoping to make it through to the semi-final. They will also tackle Strictly\u2019s first ever Dance Relay in their bid for viewer votes.<\/p>\n Last week saw two perfect 40s from Karen Carney and Amber Davies but these were thoroughly upstaged by the first ever Instant Dance challenge. Our couples raided the Elstree Studios clothes rails in a panic \u2013 cue Claudia Winkleman wearing a fruit hat, Nikita Kuzmin in the world\u2019\u2019s flounciest sleeves and George Clarke in a red fur pimp coat \u2013 before improvising mini-routines. Bonkers and brilliant. Alex Kingston and Johannes Radebe were eliminated after defeat to dance-off destroyer Balvinder Sopal.<\/p>\n Now just five pro-celebrity pairings remain in the race to become the next glitterball champion. You know the deal by now. Tonight\u2019s scores will be combined with the public vote and the bottom two will dance-off for survival on Sunday night. Balvinder is bookies\u2019 hot tip for the chop yet again but she\u2019s defied the odds five times already. Who would be foolish enough to write off this year\u2019s great survivor?<\/p>\n It\u2019s showtime at 6.50pm on BBC<\/a> One. I\u2019ll be liveblogging from 6.20pm, providing build-up, rolling coverage, analysis, reaction and heckles from the stalls. So don your theatrical finery, pre-order your interval drinks and I\u2019ll see you on the sofa.<\/p>\n As always, I\u2019d love to hear from you too. You can tweet me @michaelhogan, contact me on Bluesky or Threads @michaelhogan100, email me michael.hogan.freelance@guardian.co.uk<\/a> and the comments section below is for your first night reviews. I\u2019ll pop a coin in my opera glasses occasionally to peer at you\u2019re all saying.<\/p>\n It\u2019s week 11 and we\u2019re off to musicals heaven. Nearly time to staaaart all-singing and all-dancing!<\/p>\n