There’s always a gleeful risk lurking just below the surface of the Strictly Come Dancing Launch show. No, not that the BBC’s fully-automated android presenter Tess Daly might malfunction and take out half the studio in a Westworld style bloodbath.
More that as trembling celebrities are paired off with smiling professionals, there’s the hope that the Strictly producers have got it terribly wrong and at least one couple will be loathe at first sight. Who can forget the instant car crash that was Lulu and Brendan Cole whose red-hot animosity boiled over quicker than a pop tart in a microwave.
Annoyingly the pairs had met before their appearance in the studio, robbing us of that unedited first glance/horror. Amidst the dubious VT declarations that every couple got exactly the partner who they wanted, were there any dancers clearly planning a winter getaway and not to the HOME OF BALLROOM ™ Blackpool? Let’s look at the couples…