Strictly Come Dancing: How (and why) it moves to Blackpool every year

The judges get dressed in broom cupboards, the physio’s treatment room is in the disabled toilet, and the props won’t fit through the doors. But Strictly Come Dancing loves coming to Blackpool.

When you move Britain’s biggest TV show to one of the country’s most historic ballrooms, you have to make use of every available space.

“We turn broom closets into dressing rooms for our cast. They literally are tiny little broom closets,” explains Strictly’s line producer Kate Jones, who is in charge of all the backstage logistics.

“Which everyone loves,” she adds, slightly unconvincingly. “We even use a large toilet as our physio room. So the poor physio gets to spend the whole day in the toilet. We do cover the

The Strictly celebs and dancers – plus members of the crew – have made the trip from Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire to Blackpool for the show’s annual seaside outing this weekend.

But the ornate ballroom, which was opened in 1899, wasn’t designed with the demands of television in mind.

The backstage area is a warren of cramped corridors, dark stairs and small rooms. Behind the doors, there are makeshift wardrobe rooms where costume ladies busily adjust outfits amid racks of bright clothes. Or you might find a room filled with rows of tightly-packed, brightly-lit mirrors where the stars will do their make-up and hair

toilets for them.”

BBC