It’s officially time to get out your glitter, step into your dancing shoes and lay the fake tan on thick – the BBC has confirmed the start date for Strictly Come Dancing 2022.
The long-running competition’s 20th season will kick off on Saturday 17th September with its highly-anticipated launch show, in which we find out who the Strictly Come Dancing line-up will be paired with.
Strictly officially announced the date of the launch show with a teaser trailer of the professionals’ first group number set to Nina Simone’s Feeling Good.
#Strictly is back and we’re feeling so good ✨ See you in the Ballroom on Saturday 17 September pic.twitter.com/hlNrvABktD
— BBC Strictly ✨ (@bbcstrictly) September 7, 2022
The mid-September start date won’t be a huge surprise to many after professional Johannes Radebe confirmed on The Big Breakfast last month that Strictly would be back on the 17th.
“It is exciting. You would know, you’re in the same circle, everybody else is waiting for it, I know,” he told host and last year’s Strictly contestant AJ Odudu.
Making their ballroom debut in 10 days time are stars from the world of TV presenting, music, acting and sport – from former footballer Tony Adams MBE and Paralympian Ellie Simmonds to Ted Lasso’s Ellie Taylor and BBC Radio 2 presenter Richie Anderson.
They’ll be joined on stage by soap stars Kym Marsh and James Bye, as well as Bros singer Matt Goss, comedian Jayde Adams and Countryfile’s Helen Skelton.
As for this year’s professional dancers, there will be four new faces joining the cast – Vito Coppola, Carlos Gu, Lauren Oakley and Michelle Tsiakkas.
While fans can expect the likes of Kai Widdrington, Nikita Kuzmin, Cameron Lombard, Giovanni Pernice, Gorka Marquez, Graziano Di Prima, Johannes Radebe, Neil Jones, Amy Dowden, Dianne Buswell, Karen Hauer, Nancy Xu, Nadiya Bychkova, Katya Jones, Jowita Przystal and Luba Mushtuk to return to the show.
Strictly Come Dancing will return to BBC One on Saturday 17th September. Find something to watch with our TV Guide or visit our Entertainment hub for all the latest news.
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