Come Dancing BBC4

[Parts]

Oh, the absolute joy of it. Terry Wogan, dancers who look 34 but are actually 19 yr old secretaries and mechanics, awkward descriptions of the enormous sequinned dresses (created by Carol's mother, Sheila), the proper dance band, cutaways to the dinner-dance audience smoking grumpily through the 'now traditional Come Dancing disco section!', brutal marking...

Can't believe my childhood now looks as ancient as a Pathe newsreel.

God, that sounds really negative - I meant that it's just an uncomplicated joy, people who love dancing dancing. And the formation teams are incredible.

I watched last week and really enjoyed it.

DM is disappointed they're doing the disco bit rather than "Offbeat" which was apparently bonkers.

We just watched a bit of that - agog!

The bizarre bit where the professionals were dancing inside and outside on some grass.

I know! Just to prove the BBC had a camera that worked in a field.

I think my highlight is the Frank and Peggy Spencer Latin formation team dancing to the Match of the Day theme.

(I made my mum take me to tap and ballet classes as a direct result of watching Come Dancing when I 'couldn't sleep'.)

Just watching it! The commentary is comedy gold!

’Amanda is a keen shot with a rifle as well as a whiz on the dance floor’.

I loved it! I don't remember it being on TV at a normal time in my 80s/90s youth, was it aired later on? This is the first time I've seen it! It says it ran until 1998 😮

I missed last week, what era are these episodes from? It's reminiscent of early 80s TV to me.

Loved the costumes, the commentary and the seriousness! The formation teams were brilliant 😁

awkward descriptions of the enormous sequinned dresses

For those watching in black and white!

"David Poole, by the way, he's single."

I’m just watching episode 1. Kevin Clifton’s parents, Keith and Judy, doing the pro dancing on the grass! I wonder if any other familiar names will pop up.

When describing one of the male dancers. (Paraphrasing)

’He enjoys Page 3 of a certain newspaper’!

What a different world 1979 was.

I feel a sudden desire to wear a matching wig and dress with seven other girls and join a classical formation team!

Just been googing tango magenta- it is a sequence dance so they have to do the same steps. It's not the only one, there are more.

Good way of comparing technique if everyone has to do the same and no fluffing around.

There are thousands of sequence dances, and dance teachers can compete to make up a new one in things called "inventive competitions". If you win it becomes a real official sequence dance!

I love sequence dancing, I think it's great fun (and less risk of bumping into other people than ballroom or Latin because you're all going the same way!).

The North East formation team tonight were a classical sequence (or old tyme, they've re-named it) team, so their dance was made up of lots of bits of different classical sequence dances.

Amazing! I missed them announcing the names.

I had it in my head that one of the early batch of Strictly pros competed on Come Dancing in his youth (must've been the 90s) but I can't think who. Maybe I made it up. Of course googling only produces a load of Strictly bumf.

No shit 😂

The North East formation team were robbed!

<invested>

I watched last week’s and thought that they all looked so much older than their actual ages. The hairstyles really aged them.

I agree! The identical coral skirts all swirling around like dandelion seeds was straight from Disney's Fantasia.

It's from 1979 but it could be another world - everyone puffing away in the background, the casual 'this leggy lovely is only fifteen years old!' comments, etc. But there's something really endearing about the fact they're competing for 'the North East' or 'Home Counties South' instead of individually. It's like It's A Knockout but with sequins and a lot more make-up.

I’d love to see them introduce sequence dancing to Strictly. That way the celebs could start doing 2 dances per week at an earlier point in time (i.e. their ‘normal’ dance for the week, plus a sequence dance - with all couples doing the same sequence dance so you can compare properly). Blackpool week is crying out for the addition of a sequence dance with all the couples on the floor at the same time.

I think Come Dancing was on BBC2 at the same time as the news (9 o’clock?) during the 1990s.

Oh, I didn’t realise this was on, it on the BBC iplayer?

Here you go Mavis.

I watched a bit of this last night. It was hilarious! The 40 year old looking teenagers! The dancing outside! So funny!

Thanks @PolkadotsAndMoonbeams !

Karen Hardy was. There might have been others too, although this is towards the very end of it so maybe not — I think she was one of the older British pros on Strictly. We might get Len or Shirley though!