'Forced jollity aside, Strictly's launch show shrugged off controversy in style'

When Strictly Come Dancing scooped the big Best Talent Show prize at last week’s National TV Awards, Tess Daly was positively beside herself.

"Claude, my heart’s beating!" Tess yelled at her co-host Claudia Winkleman, and while some observers may have thought that was simply her anatomically-based rebuff to those who have accused her of being a robot, you could tell the victory really meant something to Tess — and to the whole Strictly crew on that 02 Arena stage.

Given the tumultuous year the BBC’s flagship show has had, who could blame Tess for thinking that winning such a prestigious public poll was some kind of vote of confidence from British TV viewers?

It’s a fair point, although it would be wrong not to mention here that in the comedy category those same viewers somehow picked Mrs Brown’s Boys ahead of the hilarious final series of Ghosts. The truth is it will take more than a National TV Award to convince us that Strictly is out of the woods.

Following the Huw Edwards scandal and the recent news about The Repair Shop’s Jay Blades, it feels like the entire BBC desperately needs Strictly to be more brilliant and uplifting than ever this year.

To that end, the launch show was a reasonably promising start. I can’t pretend it was an all-guns-blazing triumph though.

The opening routine, with the pro dancers touring the country on some kind of nightmarish dayglo AI reimagining of the Venga Bus, looked supremely cheap and went on for far too long. There also seemed to be a massive emphasis on everyone having fun this year, which felt a little jarring. Strictly is always fun. The last thing it requires, and the last thing viewers want to see, is forced jollity.

Honestly, there was such an air of staged positivity in the joint it felt like the whole show had been inspired by The One Where Ross Is Fine. I was half-expecting Tess and Claudia to instruct everyone to "Keeeeeep Grinning."

We all know there’s an elephant in the room, guys. I’m not saying you should give it a mention, but you shouldn’t try too hard to pretend it isn’t there. Even the BBC’s main news bulletin later on Saturday night focussed on the scandal during a rather odd two minute report, which had the air of a Chinese State Broadcast.

The behind-the-scenes turmoil clearly had an effect on the booking process this year. Out of fifteen contestants there are just six women. It was such an obvious imbalance, I was surprised the opening number wasn’t It’s Raining Men.

That’s not the only issue with the celebrity line-up. When our first contestant, blind comedian Chris McCausland, said, "This is a complete unknown for me" I wasn’t sure whether he was referring to his lack of sight, or simply going through a list of his fellow celebrity dancers.

I know that complaining about the lack of star quality is a Strictly opening night tradition. However, this is perhaps the first year that, pound for pound, the pro dancers are bigger household names than the celebs they are teaching.

Which is why I had to laugh when Dr Punam Krishan introduced herself by saying, "I’m probably best known as the resident GP on Morning Live." Probably?!

Unless of course, the BBC made her say "probably" on the off chance that one of her patients was watching and knew her better as the nice lady who gave them some cream for their conjunctivitis.

Dr Krishan’s wasn’t the only notable intro. I was also taken with Pete Wicks, who declared that he is a 'Podcaster and TV Personality' and not that bloke off TOWIE who likes to cosplay Captain Jack Sparrow; and EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick, who tried — and failed — to downplay the fact that he’s already won the Strictly Christmas Special.

Elsewhere, Sam Quek somehow forgot to insert the words "and last" when she boasted that she was "the first female team captain on Question Of Sport", while Toyah Willcox was delightfully enigmatic when she revealed "I’ve been waiting to say yes to Strictly for twenty years." Man, that’s a long time to be on a reserve list.

My favourite intro though came from Wynne Evans. You know, the TV presenter. Come on, that guy off BBC Radio Wales. You must know him, he’s that opera singer with the No.1 album.

Honestly, with everything that’s gone on you’d think the last thing the Strictly producers would be worrying about would be breaking the advertising guidelines by mentioning Wynne is the Go Compare guy, but here we are.

Wynne could turn out to be a great booking though. And, as this launch show unfurled, it soon became apparent that he may not be alone in that. Which was a relief.

In terms of intentional entertainment, Miranda actress and Strictly superfan Sarah Hadland should be good value, while Nick Knowles could easily provide the unintentional laughs — especially if the rehearsal room chaperone allows him to sneak the guitar in.

As for potential winners? After she bagged Johanes Radebe, it would be foolish to rule out Gladiators star Montell Douglas, and the same could be said for ex-Love Islander Tasha Ghouri, who landed returning hero Aljaž Škorjanec.

It will also be interesting to see how Shayne Ward fares following his early display of self-assurance, and I’m intrigued to discover whether JLS singer and poultry farmer JB Gill can outdo his turkeys by surviving till Christmas. There is, then, much to look forward to over the next thirteen weeks.

However, for me the two biggest hints that Strictly is probably going to be okay came in the shape of Chris McCausland, who dished out so many brilliant one-liners that failing to vote for him should be made an actual crime; and ex-footballer Paul Merson, who is evidently no stranger to cheeky banter himself.

Merse’s true purpose on this year’s show became apparent once the first dances were revealed: He got Vindaloo by Fat Les. That’s me sold. See you at 7pm next Saturday. Put the kettle on.

Strictly Come Dancing is streaming on BBC iPlayer.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/strictly-come-dancings-launch-show-controversy-100256077.html