Strictly Come Dancing 2024 Launch, review: If we’re judging on jokes, Chris McCausland will win by miles
Strictly Come Dancing is back and Chris McCausland is already the winner, if we’re judging it on good gags. After contestant Dr Punam Krishan was introduced in the studio, McCausland deadpanned: “None of us can believe that we’ve managed to get in the same room as a GP.”
Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly responded in their respective presenting styles: Claudia burst out laughing, while Tess set her grin a little harder and acted as if she hadn’t heard him. Tess’s reaction rather fit the tone of this launch show for the 20th anniversary series, which was pretending that everything is fine.
The bullying scandal, which is currently the subject of a serious investigation by BBC bosses? The abrupt departure of two of the show’s most popular professional dancers, Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima? The fact that only six female celebrities have been persuaded to sign up, and that chaperones are now stationed in every rehearsal room? Not a mention. Instead, we are led to believe that everything is shiny and happy in Strictlyland.
Mind you, Strictly has always dealt in a level of artifice. Take, for example, the pro dancers’ reactions when they meet their celebrity partners for the first time, which verge on delirium. Nobody could feasibly be this ecstatic to find out they’re being paired with an actor from EastEnders or the man from the Go Compare adverts, however nice they may be. The only pro not joining in with the hysteria was Gorka, who finds himself paired with the little-known Dr Punam and clearly thinks their chances of picking up the glitterball trophy are slim to nil.
The emphasis was firmly on fun, perhaps a response to criticism that the show had become too competitive and highly-pressured. The opening number - taking place aboard a bus with a ‘Brucie’ numberplate - wouldn’t have looked out of place on CBeebies. The launch show is always a drawn-out business, an episode we have to get through before the real competition gets under way. But there were some nice moments. Amy Dowden is back as a professional after undergoing treatment for cancer, and was given a starring role in one of the group dances. Vito and Ellie, last year’s winners, performed for us again, demonstrating that at the least one of the pairs from last year’s series still gets on and isn’t communicating solely via representatives from Schillings and Carter Ruck.
And doesn’t the world just feel a better place for having Johannes in it? He’s paired with Montell Douglas (Fire from Gladiators). “I don’t think there’s a person on this earth who doesn’t want to be partnered with Jojo,” she said, and I think she’s right.
As for some of the other contestants: Paul Merson looked faintly terrified. Shayne Ward looked over-confident, and spouted all the guff about being “on a journey” and “feeling blessed” (he was previously on X Factor, so is well-versed in talent show cliches). Toyah Willcox informed us that she’d like to be the first 66-year-old to abseil down to the Strictly studio. JB Gill is, I’m pretty sure, the only person who can put “pop star and turkey farmer” on his CV.
At the outset of every Strictly series, some viewers complain that they’ve never heard of half of the people on it. Partly, it’s a generational thing: if you can sing along to It’s A Mystery by Toyah, you probably don’t know who Pete Wicks is, and vice versa. But in the end it never really matters, because you end up rooting for someone who a month ago you couldn’t pick out of a line-up.
Are there any early favourites? Sarah Hadland looked pretty good on the floor in the closing group dance. But if this series is all about entertainment, then Chris McCausland might go all the way. He joked of his partner Dianne Buswell: “She’s absolutely over the moon having me, because she really wants November off.” I’ve got a feeling they’ll be around longer than that.