Strictly Come Dancing Live Show, Leeds Arena

FROM October to December, Saturday night is one thing for many viewers – Strictly Come Dancing. Regularly achieving more than ten million viewers it is one of the highest-rated shows on the BBC.

And because of this popularity and the fact only 500 people can see the show being recorded at the BBC studios in London, for the last eight years the BBC has taken the show on tour to various arenas throughout the UK.

It came to the Leeds Arena for the first time in 2014 and has returned again this year for three shows.

And this was a really fabulous show.

The tour was hosted by former contestant and It Takes Two host Zoe Ball, with Craig Revel Horwood returning as judge, but with Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli not taking part this year due to other commitments including Dancing with the Stars in the United States, they were replaced by series six champion Tom Chambers and his professional partner Camilla Dallerup.

Taking part were Thom Evans and Iveta Lukosiute, series 12 winner Caroline Flack and Tristan MacManus, Alison Hammond and Aljaž Skorjanec, Scott Mills and Joanne Clifton, series 12 runner-up Simon Webbe and Kristina Rihanoff, Mark Wright and Karen Hauer and series six runner-up Rachel Stevens and Kevin Clifton with Rachel standing in at the last minute for Frankie Bridge, who had to withdraw from the tour due to her pregnancy.

Each of the seven couples performed two dances, one in each half, and from the interval onwards the capacity 13,500 audience at the arena were invited to text in with the name of the celebrity they wanted to win with part of the cost of each text going to the Comic Relief charity. The professional judges, Craig, Tom and Camilla gave their opinions and scores but it was the audience vote which decides the winners.

All the contestants performed very well – the highlight of which for me was the Argentine Tango performed by Simon Webbe and Kristina Rihanoff.

In the TV series last December they achieved a perfect score of 40 – ten from each judge, and again on this live show they achieved maximum scores from Craig, Tom and Camilla.

The audience must have also liked this as Simon and Kristina were voted overall winners with Kevin and Rachel runners-up.

By John Burland