Gethin Jones has lifted the lid on Strictly Come Dancing, revealing the efforts BBC staff go to to ensure the Saturday night live shows run smoothly. Taking to Twitter at the weekend, Gethin shared a clip filmed during the Strictly special at Blackpool Tower, which he captioned: "And a word for the amazing @bbcstrictly team. Phenomenal – the bits you don't see." The clip shows three showrunners dressed all in black and sliding around the dance floor on their stomachs as they gather up bit of confetti, tinsel and streamers ahead of the next performance, with only a few minutes to complete their task.
© Photo: Getty ImagesGethin Jones has taken to Twitter to reveal a behind-the-scenes Strictly secret
It's not the only secret that Strictly staff keep up their sleeves – in September a new Radio 5 show, Puttin' On The Glitz: The Strictly Story, revealed some lesser known facts about the BBC dance competition. Head costume designer Vicky Gill told Emma Bullimore: "Everybody comes out and is a little bit scared of costume. They are always concerned about how skimpy the outfit may be, or how bright… Susanna Reid, obviously, because of her day job, really wanted to enter into the fun of it, but was just like, 'I need to be careful, make sure they're not too short, not too revealing'. By the end I wouldn't say she was in skimpy costumes because she wasn't, but... her Latin skirts definitely got a bit shorter."
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She also revealed that there is safeguarding in place for the men, to avoid any costume mishaps. "The shirts are often stitched on to pants, on to boxers. It's an all in one garment so then when they're dancing their shirt is not going to unravel," she shared.
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Props Master Bobby Warans, meanwhile, admitted that the coveted Glitterball Trophy was a last-minute addition to the show. "When we did show one, nobody thought about what they were going to win," he said. "It got to about two shows from the end, and the producer said, 'What are we going to give them? Can you find something, Bob? So I bought a big glitter ball and my lovely prop maker did the Strictly Come Dancing logo on a lovely Perspex, which we wrapped around, and we put it on a very heavy base. In fact the original one, which I still have, revolved. I quake every final when they pick it up by the glitterball. I think, 'Oh no, the base is going to fall off'."
