I'm an ex-Strictly pro - 'tacky' show needs to make one drastic change to stay fresh

A former professional dancer has called some of the new themes on Strictly Come Dancing "tacky and cheesy." James Jordan appeared on the BBC dance competition from 2006 until 2013, during which he danced with the likes of Georgina Bouzova, Gabby Logan, Cheri Lunghi, and Zoe Lucker. The 47-year-old has lifted the lid on what he thinks about Strictly today, and was quizzed about the new show format. Speaking exclusively to Express Online, James Jordan was chatting on behalf of Freebets.com, the home of the best betting sites, where he works as the entertainment betting expert. When he was quizzed about several themes, such as Halloween, Movies and Icons Week, James didn't hold back.

He said, as his favourite, "Probably Movie Week was out of all of the themed ones. I wasn't necessarily a massive fan of the themed ones, because you're restricted on what you can do."

James added, "But out of all of them, yeah, probably Movie week or Halloween was fun. I don't like it when they do too many of them. They add in lots of other ones as well."

A BBC-themed week was held during Strictly 2022 to honour the BBC's 100th anniversary, where couples danced to iconic theme songs from the BBC or a tribute to BBC services.

Speaking about that, James continued: "I don't like all that sort of stuff. I just find it really tacky and cheesy. But the Movie Week one I used to love and Halloween, but I think that's enough throughout the series for me."

The new series of Strictly recently saw the second weekend of live shows dedicated to Movie Week. TV presenter Ross King was voted out by the judges after landing in the bottom two with EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal.

Speaking about his exit, Ross said: "I have loved every single minute of it. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us, all the people who voted - they've been amazing. I want to thank everyone here in this room, backstage, the judges, the crew - every single person here has made me so, so welcome.

"I want to thank a very special lady who has been with me through it all and has been absolutely everything: she's been a mentor, teacher, carer. I could not have wished for a better partner, and I could not have wished to be on a better show. Thank you judges for all your remarks."

The remaining couples will return on Saturday, October 18, at 6.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.