Strictly Come Dancing is back for its 2025 season and will run weekly on Saturday nights until nearly Christmas. It is without question great entertainment even for those like me who are not particularly interested in dancing.
The news that the show’s hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are to step down at the end of the series underlines the entertainment angle, which seems ever more to the fore. One wonders if some of the judges will also be retiring or to put it another way refreshed..
I’m old enough to recall the predecessor programme Come Dancing, with David Jacobs etc. I’m not sure it was entertaining but it was definitely about dance
The above statistic (Times 20th Sept 2025) looks at the number of maximum marks (ten) that have been awarded since the show started. The number of maximums has increased significantly and I suspect this reflects a drift away from a focus on the technical aspects of dancing towards a more entertainment focused perspective.
As the series goes on, based on recent years, technical details will be more important and there will be an emphasis on how the amateur dancers are improving, or not.
Even so in the days of the late Len Goodman I sense things were more austere on the marking front. Craig Revel Horwood the only judge to have featured in every series is a strict marker, while Anton Du Beke who has featured in five series has already given out more maximums than Craig.
The big puzzle however is why Nigel Farage has never been on. After all he features in most other things the BBC does. Of course it might conflict with his actual job as an MP but this hardly seems to bother him..
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