Chloe Hewitt

Strictly Come Dancing is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance.

Each couple is scored by a panel of judges.

The title of the show is a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing.

The format has been exported to 60 other countries under the title Dancing with the Stars, licensed by BBC Worldwide, and led to a modern dance-themed spin-off Strictly Dance Fever.

The title is an amalgamation of the titles of the 1992 Australian film Strictly Ballroom and Come Dancing.

From series 1 to 11, Sir Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly presented the pro-celebrity ballroom dancing competition.

From series 8 to 11, Forsyth only presented the main show and was replaced for the results show by Claudia Winkleman, at which point Daly assumed Forsyth's role as main presenter and Winkleman assumed Daly's role as co-presenter.

Producer Richard Hopkins, who had produced the first UK series of Big Brother, unsuccessfully pitched the idea of a modern Come Dancing to the BBC under the title of Pro-Celebrity Dancing in 2003.

Later, entertainment executive Fenia Vardanis also suggested reviving Come Dancing, so Jane Lush, the then head of BBC Entertainment, put Hopkins and Vardanis together to develop the show.

Hopkins then called in Karen Smith, who had just produced Comic Relief Does Fame Academy for BBC One and The Games for Channel 4, to help lead the development of the show and launch the series.

Smith was the show-running Executive Producer of the first three series, and of sister show It Takes Two.

She then took the role of Creative Director of BBC Entertainment whilst still overseeing series 4 and 5.

Hopkins later took the format to America himself when the BBC dismissed the idea of selling it abroad, as they felt it was too British.

The series has been broadcast on BBC One since 15 May 2004, typically on Saturday evenings with a following Sunday night results show.

From series 2 onwards, the show has been broadcast in the run up to Christmas.

With its high viewing figures, Strictly Come Dancing has become a significant programme on British television.

Eighteen stand-alone Christmas specials and nineteen charity specials have also been produced.

Sir Bruce Forsyth presented the live shows alongside Daly from 2004 to 2013, announcing his departure in 2014.

He was to continue to present special editions of the show.

The Guinness World Records named Strictly as the world's most successful reality television format in 2010.

The series is currently presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.

For most of the second series, Natasha Kaplinsky stood in temporarily for Daly while she took maternity leave; Claudia Winkleman hosted the results show and editions that Forsyth had missed between 2010 and 2013.

The judging panel initially consisted of Bruno Tonioli, Arlene Phillips, Len Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood.

Alesha Dixon took Phillips' place from series 7 to 9, after which she left the programme to judge Britain's Got Talent which led retired ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell to replace her.

Winkleman joined Daly as full-time co-presenter for series 12 following Forsyth's departure after the 2013 series.

Through telephone voting, viewers vote for who they would like to be in the next round, the results of the poll being combined with the ranking of the judges.

For example, with ten contestants left, the judges' favourite would receive ten points, second favourite nine points, and so on, and similarly with the viewers' rankings.

The bottom ranked couple gets one point.

The profits from the telephone lines were donated to Sport Relief in series 1, to Children in Need from series 2, until series 8 when donations to charity stopped.

Bruce Forsyth co-presented the series with Daly until 2014.

The show is broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday evenings, and is currently presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman (with Zoe Ball covering for Winkleman for a number of weeks in 2014).

Goodman left the show after the 2016 series and was replaced by Shirley Ballas.

Bussell remained as judge until 2018, and was replaced by Motsi Mabuse in 2019.

Up until 2020, Tonioli commuted weekly between Hollywood and London to judge both the American and British versions of the show simultaneously- however, due the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, he could no longer juggle both the UK and US shows- he was not replaced for the 2020 series; but pro dancer Anton du Beke took his place from the 2021 series, and has now replaced Tonioli full-time on the panel.

The current judging panel consists of Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton du Beke, making Horwood the only judge to remain with the programme since its inception.

Each judge gives the performance a mark out of ten, giving an overall total out of forty.

The voice-over announcer is Alan Dedicoat.

During series four, an hour-long highlights show was shown on Sundays at 19:00 on BBC Two, and during series five and six, the results show moved to Sunday evenings, although it was filmed on Saturday and then broadcast "as live" on the Sunday.

The singers on the show are Tommy Blaize, Hayley Sanderson, Lance Ellington, Andrea Grant and, formerly, the well-known British dance music vocalist Tara McDonald.

The music director is David Arch.