Strictly live shows to launch with 'biggest ever' performance from the judges

Strictly Come Dancing will open the first live show on Saturday night with the biggest number ever performed by the judges - in which they dance through the decades. And Craig Revel Horwood will appear in four different costumes for his role of compere and DJ, talking the audience through the eras, which kick off with the 1970s.

Across the four and a half minute number, he will sport vastly different looks, starting with an Austin Powers-style pink suit and frilly shirt. Head judge Shirley Ballas has huge hair for her Copacabana-style 80s number while Motsi Mabuse does a sexy rumba to represent the 90s and Anton du Beke goes back to the Come Dancing era of the 70s, complete with top hat and tails.

One source said: “Craig gives a commentary on the decades as he completes his astonishing costume changes which leave him in the present day. He looks happy, which viewers should make the most of. This could be the last time we see him smile for many weeks! For viewers, the opening number will feel like stepping back in time into a Top of the Pops medley of music and dance.”

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First up is Anton, whose 1970s section is “upbeat and joyous” as he dances a Quickstep with Lauren Oakley to a big band version of In The Mood for Dancing. “Anton is wearing a tail suit and wig with huge sideburns that had the audience in stitches,” reports the insider, who has watched the epic number. They said it will thrill those fans who love traditional ballroom elegance. And viewers should also look out for pro dancers Dianne Buswell, Neil Jones and Karen Hauer performing as backing singers. “It’s worth tuning in for the wigs alone,” they promised.

Up next is Shirley, with big hair and a sparkly black cocktail dress, taking the audience to the high camp of the 1980s, dancing a Samba with Vito Coppola. Their performance, to a sped-up version of The Champs' Tequila, is set in a nightclub, and features several pro dancers in “an explosion of colour and fun”.

Craig introduces Motsi’s section wearing double denim with frosted tips. It falls to her to take viewers into the 90s and 00s as she slows things down by doing a rumba with Johannes Radebe to Heart's power ballad Alone. “It's intense, dramatic and sexy,” the source reveals. “Think wind machines and silk sheets flowing from the ceiling.”

To finish up all four judges will take to the stage for a finale in which they groove together to Sophie Ellis Bextor’s pop classic Murder on the Dance Floor.

The opening extravaganza was pre-recoded in the summer and aims to convey that Strictly is “back with a bang and is bigger and more fun that ever before”. The rest of the show will be live, with viewers seeing the 14 remaining celebrities take to the floor with their partners for the first time.

No replacement for Dani Dyer, who pulled out with a broken ankle on Tuesday, has yet been announced, but bosses are understood to be working hard to secure one.

- Strictly Come Dancing, BBC2, Saturday, 6.55pm

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