{"id":630014,"date":"2026-09-19T23:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630014\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T23:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:48:09","slug":"strictly-come-dancing-review-delighted-new-hosts-helps-show-feel-genuinely-fresh-strictly-come-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630014\/","title":{"rendered":"Strictly Come Dancing review \u2013 delighted new hosts helps show feel genuinely fresh | Strictly Come Dancing"},"content":{"rendered":"

At this point, Strictly Come Dancing<\/a> cannot be allowed to fail. When we\u2019re all living off our Wes Streeting-mandated prepper rations, it\u2019s the only thing that will keep us going, linking us to a time when joy, sparkle and diversity brought the nation together. Enshittification stalks the show \u2013 it has long felt too repetitive, its celeb lineups seem to get feebler each year, and the departure of longstanding presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman threatened to be a lethal blow \u2013 so there\u2019s a lot riding on this new series.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrictly Come Dancing \u2013 still fabulous,\u201d said the continuity announcer introducing the launch show, not sounding entirely sure.<\/p>\n

On early impressions, it just might be. The new presenters Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe look not a little terrified, but the vibe they\u2019re going for is can\u2019t-quite-believe-we-got-the-gig humility combined with superfan credentials, which is absolutely the right note. In all the shots of them watching the action \u2013 the pro dancers\u2019 routine, the return of last year\u2019s winner, former footballer Karen Carney \u2013 they look so thrilled it\u2019s endearing.<\/p>\n

The launch show is often tedious \u2013 not much dancing and not much from the judges. Photograph: Guy Levy\/BBC\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit overwhelming to be here, but we are so delighted,\u201d says Widdicombe, after the brilliant opening number. It\u2019s an \u201chonour\u201d, coos Willis, who also says she feels as if she should be curtsying when the judges enter. Radebe, until now one of the show\u2019s professional dancers, brings some elegant restraint. He may not have their presenting experience, but he\u2019s not as dazzled by the glitter as his co-hosts.<\/p>\n

The launch show is always tedious \u2013 not much dancing, not much from the judges and gnawing irritation at all the \u201ccelebrities\u201d you\u2019ve never heard of \u2013 but you get the sense they\u2019re all giving it everything. Everyone laughs a bit too hard, previous series are heavily referenced, and the word \u201cjourney\u201d is mentioned more times than I care to hear it.<\/p>\n

Not much can be done at this stage, barring some minor injuries, about this year\u2019s pitiful celebrity lineup \u2013 a fact that will, unfortunately, become even more dazzling when the BBC\u2019s new favourite show, Celebrity Traitors, starts again in a few weeks \u2013 though at least, unlike the year before last, there\u2019s nobody who is famous for being in an advert.<\/p>\n

The pro dancers must now be better-known than some of their celebrity partners, including a hairdresser to the stars (Chris Appleton), a TV presenter (Will Best from Big Brother, but not even the good Channel 4 version) and more than a few others to which the response can only be \u201cno, me neither\u201d.<\/p>\n

There are five new pro dancers for this series, and a new way of setting up the couples. Photograph: Guy Levy\/BBC\/PA<\/p>\n

There are some gems, among them Dame Sarah Storey, Britain\u2019s most successful Paralympian, former footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips and actor Jaime Winstone.<\/p>\n

Still, Strictly has always been greater than the sum of its stars, and so it keeps hoofing along. It\u2019s been rocked by affairs and accusations of bullying, but it\u2019s also been a rare refuge of joy and progress.<\/p>\n

Actor Bethany Antonia \u2013 familiar to anyone who watches HBO\u2019s House of the Dragon \u2013 grew up with Strictly, now in its 22nd year, and tells her fellow contestants that watching boxer Nicola Adams dance with Katya Jones in the show\u2019s first same-sex pairing in 2020 \u201cwas such a big part of my coming out journey\u201d, encouraged, she says, by watching the positive reaction of her family every Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Antonia gets to dance with Nancy Xu, and they both look ecstatic to have been given each other, though this is also the default setting of every pairing. Nobody is allowed to look disappointed.<\/p>\n

There are five new pro dancers for this series, and a new way of setting up the couples, which is, as everyone keeps saying, a bit like speed-dating \u2013 they keep swapping partners, brave for a show which has been blamed for many a ruined marriage, until a couple is called. It\u2019s only slightly less dull than the old way.<\/p>\n

Strictly has always been greater than the sum of its stars. Photograph: Guy Levy\/BBC\/PA<\/p>\n

So the couples are set (it\u2019s Winstone and last year\u2019s pro winner Carlos Gu all the way for me), and the new presenters have had their soft launch \u2013 this show is pre-recorded, but from now on it will be live \u2013 and although I\u2019m not convinced it takes three, the signs are good.<\/p>\n

Willis is a class act, Widdicombe is best when he\u2019s given the space to gently rib the contestants and Radebe brings such an air of gentle benevolence to otherwise shouty primetime TV that it feels genuinely fresh. Maybe I just really want it to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At this point, Strictly Come Dancing cannot be allowed to fail. When we\u2019re all living off our Wes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-630014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}