I,CLAUDIA

Strictly Come Dancing is seriously good Saturday night television. A mainstream light entertainment show that is currently doing some heavy lifting.

The show, hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman is raising the mood of the country. Viewing figures have risen from a relatively low (for Strictly) 8.5 million for the launch show in September to a rollicking 10.5 million – with a higher percentage of the total Saturday night audience than even last year.

Strictly offers a vital window of joy during the dark days of another pandemic winter. Talk about public service broadcasting – the way the show kept our spirits up last year, despite strict social distancing rules and the lack of audience making it challenging to bring the Saturday night sizzle and sparkle, was truly heroic. When we couldn’t dance or go out, we could at least watch. But Strictly and its audience has, like so many of the celebrities that have graced its dancefloor over the years, been on quite a journey since it launched in 2004.

“Strictly decided a while ago to try and widen who was doing it,” says Winkleman, whose post-dance interviews combine a quick wit with real care for the dancers who have just put their dignity on the line on live television. “Because representation is everything.”

Christopher Isherwood’s 1954 definition of camp – yes, we like.