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Strictly Come Dancing 2023 has officially kicked off, with 16 celebrities making their way onto the ballroom floor.
The likes of Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Love Island’s Zara McDermott and EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier have taken to the ballroom in the hopes to impress judges Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas.
As the pairings have been announced and dance practice is well underway, the stars are all hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year’s champions Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal.
And while we’ve had plenty of social media peaks into the gruelling training they’re all going through, there’s still plenty of Strictly secrets hiding behind all the glitter and glam…
The results show is recorded right after the live show but this is how producers trick us
While filming the Strictly episodes back-to-back is reported to take up to five hours, because it involves filming the live Saturday show directly before the results show, which airs on Sunday, producers do something to trick those of us watching at home.
According to Good Housekeeping, audience members sat behind the judging panel are shuffled about between the live show and the pre-recorded one, so different faces appear on our screens to mark a difference between Saturday and Sunday.
The publication also reports that despite knowing the results the day before, audience members have to hand in their phones so no spoilers can be recorded, keeping it a secret for dedicated viewers at home.
Strictly wardrobe prep begins much earlier than you’d think, before the contestants are even announced
Prep for the sequined Strictly wardrobe has to start way back in May, head costume designer Vicky Gill once revealed.
‘It’s very fast-paced; I feel like we all step on to a train back in August and then it picks up speed and it’s a case of us keeping everyone on the train,’ she told The Daily Mail, speaking of the 500 costumes required each series.
‘We don’t know who is going out so it is very much a seven to ten-day process.’
One outfit can use up to 12,000 crystals and by the end of a series, its estimated that a whopping 3million have been applied.
The pros don’t get a day off during Strictly season
While the celebrities get Sunday off, after the live shows the night before, the pro dancers aren’t so lucky.
‘You’re so busy during the week and Friday we’re in the studio, Saturday is obviously show day and Sunday is meant to be our day off, but we pros, if we’re in the competition, we don’t get Sunday off,’ It Takes Two host Janette Manrara explained to the Huff Post.
‘It’s almost the most important day of the week, as it’s the day that you do lots of research and gather your thoughts about the steps and what you want to use and what the storyline is.
‘Because the celebs don’t have a lot of time to learn you can’t come in not knowing what you want to do.’
There’s a reason why there’s a delay in scoring
After the performance, viewers will know it takes a few moments before we hear the judges’ scores, but there’s a pretty big reason for that delay.
Shirley, Motsi, Craig and Anton all need to tell production their scores before they hold up the paddles on camera.
According to reports, the judges have a special keypad under the desk to submit their scores, so it all shows up seamlessly on our screens at home, and updates the leaderboard.
Strictly pros have their own rituals before taking to the floor – including one who ‘blows on his fingers’
The Strictly pros all have their own tips before heading onto the ballroom floor, some of which Kai Widdrington has previously shared.
‘In the boys’ dressing room, we play music and have a laugh. Do silly dances or TikToks. Sometimes I blow on my fingers – that’s what Greg Rutherford would do before he did the long jump,’ he said.
He added to OK!: ‘Sometimes you get sweaty hands and it helps to make sure my partner doesn’t slip!’
You gotta do what you gotta do Kai!
The Blackpool ballroom has a special feature to avoid the stars getting injured
Around halfway through the competition, the celebs and their partners will be heading to the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom, which is actually specially equipped to avoid injuries – and so far, there’s already been a few.
The infamous ballroom, which opened in 1899, has a ‘sprung’ dancefloor, meaning its slightly bouncy.
And it’s not just the name that makes it grand either, the Blackpool dancefloor is a whopping nine times bigger than the Elstree studios where the other live shows are held.
Group dances are filmed in advance, and some performances are even recorded twice
Some Strictly group numbers are filmed in advance, not during the live shows.
This meant that Giovanni Pernice has had to miss out on a few numbers this year after suffering an injury a few months ago.
In fact, due to the pandemic, two years ago all the Strictly pro performances were recorded before the Saturday show.
Last series, it was revealed that finalist Fleur East was allowed to secretly re-start her dance-off performance, which was pre-recorded, after crashing to the ground with her partner Vito Coppola.
Their routine was then halted with both contestant and pro being checked that they weren’t injured before they were allowed to start again.
Metro.co.uk understands that Fleur and her partner had no involvement in the decision to stop their performance, with the director making the quick decision to order the band to stop the music.
A source told The Sun at the time: ‘They started their dance again and obviously this second version was the one aired.
‘There was no reference to the fall by the judges either.’
Celebs have to keep things secret for a while – which even means lying to their families
Strictly contestant Eddie Kadi recently told Metro.co.uk that he was forced to lie to his family to keep things under wraps.
While there’s plenty of speculation and even a mole snooping around, Eddie revealed: ‘I couldn’t trust my mum, she would have probably gone to Church and told half the Church.’
He added: ‘When I was in the car, my baby girl was in the car with me, and she’s like five-years-old, so because I was with my friend and we were going back and forth about me being on Strictly, my daughter was like, “Oh what are you going to be on Daddy?”
‘And I literally had to turn around to her and say, “Daddy is going to be on Blankety Blank,” because I knew she would tell her teacher.’
The contestants have a say in the song choices
Although the music is performed by composer Dave Arch and the show’s orchestra, it was recently revealed by Les that the contestants actually get some say – which also led to the Family Fortunes star nearly leaking his big reveal.
The Death In Paradise star accidentally tweeted a playlist titled ‘Strictly by Les Dennis’ a week early, later explaining: ‘What happened was, the Strictly producers asked me to send a playlist of songs you might like.
‘I’m totally hopeless with social media and all that so my daughter put my playlist together for me, and put “Strictly by Les Dennis”, so I could send it to my agent by email but I must have done a fat finger error and put it on Twitter instead.’
The playlist features over 140 songs which Les said was a heavy mix of The Beatles, James Taylor and other ‘real old school’ music.
Strictly pros use the VTs we watch at home to their advantage in the studio
Former Strictly pro AJ Pritchard has previously spilt the tea on what went down during the time those of us at home are watching the VTs from training, before the performance actually begins.
He told OK!: ‘I think one of the secrets – I wouldn’t want to say this is a secret – but more this is something you probably haven’t thought about… So when you do the show Strictly, obviously we know it is live TV. Good, bad, different – if something goes wrong, we see it. If it goes good, we see it.
‘But the part when I was often called to auditorium, up in that era – whilst you’re sat home having your cup of tea your biscuits, your snacks, the VT is on and we are walking down on the floor.’
He went on: ‘I would always use that opportunity to walk onto the floor and try and get my partner to do the whole dance once through. So the judges, Craig and Shirley and Motsi, can see how good my partner is.’
Not only that, but he’d use the VT time to hype up the live audience, so that when they do walk on stage, those watching at home can hear the cheers and think they’re the favourites.
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.15pm on BBC One.
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