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 BBC
One Saturday 1 April @ 5.40pm
As Strictly Dance Fever steps out for a new series, host Graham Norton has a confession to make when asked about his own dancefloor prowess.
“I can’t dance!” he laughs. “Like anyone, I’ll have a go at the end of the night after a few drinks at a party but I’m not any good. But that’s the nice thing about Strictly Dance Fever – it’s something we all have in common. Everybody dances, at least everybody dances at some point in their lives, even if it’s just once at their own wedding.”
He may not be Fred Astaire, but Graham has had a great time roaming the country with the Strictly Dance Fever team,
auditioning the thousands hoping to make it on to the screen in the new series. He declares enthusiastically: “I absolutely
love it! It’s been fantastic. Some of the dancers have been so determined to get through the auditions that they’ve really
affected the judges with their personalities and sheer hard work.”
According to Graham, the recent regional auditions attracted a diverse and often surprising mix of dancers, of all styles,
abilities and ages. “We had a 75-year-old woman who did the splits at one audition; she’d brought her whole family with her and they were all cheering her on with ‘Go on, Nan!’ She did hold out her hand for me to help her back up, but watching a 75-year-old woman do the splits was pretty impressive, I can tell you.”
And Graham admits that wasn’t the only visual feast for him and the team – some of the dancers’ costumes had to be seen
to be believed. Graham chuckles: “We did see some great outfits but there were a few tragic ones,
too. There were a few nasty white shiny suits à la John Travolta; and one girl even came along made up as if she were auditioning for Cats, with back-combed hair, whiskers and a fake fur cat suit.”
But while Graham was having fun and enjoying what he does best, interacting with the hopefuls and keeping everyone smiling
through long days of auditioning, there was also a serious task at hand and, occasionally, a little sympathy was in order, too.
He continues: “Sometimes it was hard when two people auditioned together and one is really good but the other isn’t quite
so good. If one gets through and the other doesn’t, they can get a bit upset at first when they’re asked to dance with
someone else. But then often, when they dance with a new partner, they’re suddenly like, ‘Ah, this is what it can be like, this is
good’. In fact, some of the couples have got quite close already!”
Luckily for some of the dancers, Graham was on hand to fight their corner on the odd occasion he disagreed with the judges,
even if he wasn’t always that successful. “I get on really well with all the judges but they hate me sometimes because I
emotionally blackmail them,” he continues with a grin.“I almost persuaded them to let someone into the dance mansion at the
final auditions but they didn’t make it through the re-calls in the end.”
Despite Graham’s opinion sometimes being overruled by the judges’ expertise, he thinks they’re a really great
team. Viewers will recognise Arlene Phillips and Stacey Haynes from the last series of Strictly Dance Fever, but this year they’re complemented by two new faces:Wayne Sleep and Ben Richards. Graham is full of praise for the resident expertise of Arlene and Stacey but admits to being slightly surprised when he first heard that Footballers’Wives and Holby City star, Ben Richards, would be a new judge.“I never realised he’d been in musicals, I just knew him from TV. But then I discovered Ben had a huge background in musical theatre and he was absolutely at the top of his game in the West End, so doing Strictly Dance Fever is really closest to home for him.” |
