A professional dancer (from the current Strictly line-up, the previso) is ineligible to compete as a celebrity contestant within the same format, as "it would undermine the fundamental premise of the competition", which is "the journey" of a novice celebrity learning to dance with a professional partner.

Before I start I have to say footballer Karen Carney and her professional partner Carlos Gu's tribute to Birmingham in their Argentine Tango performed to the Peaky Blinders theme tune was everything Strictly Come Dancing is about for me. A professional competitor, never danced before trained up by an expert, putting the hours in and Cor Blimey look what can be achieved and yet they didn't top the leader board for the Strictly Halloween Special 2025. Head scratch, the epitome of everything the show format professes to be about. Karen could be the first female sports personality to ever win strictly. As of last night she has my vote and I don't even like football.

Lewis Cope gets the first 40 of the strictly come dancing series 2025 except when I watched the tap section on top of the piano it reminded me how many hours of practise I had to put in to master a wing, a three beat step where simultaneously each foot slides out to the side and returns with two beats whilst jumping in the air. 

I thought it was a dancing competition for non dancers and whilst I appreciate the boundaries have been stretched in the past, Debbie Magee, an ex White Lodge Ballet student competing in strictly aged 60 plus, Ashley Roberts, 2018 strictly ex pussycat doll with a dance background and 2023 year star of the west end Layton Williams performing with Nikita I think when the celebrity looks better than the pro, in this case the Lewis Cope and Katya Jones partnership the show has lost the plot.

Don’t get me wrong I loved loved loved the Halloween number performed by Cope and Jones, a couples choice to Creep by Radiohead. Katya Jones is an outstanding dancer and choreographer and been my favourite professional for years. Not a stranger to show controversy which may be the reason (still surprising to me) she has only lifted the glitter ball once in 2017 with celebrity partner Joe McFadden. Lewis and Katya's routine is the best number by a mile I have ever seen on the show and as a die hard fan I’ve watched pretty religiously since the show began 23 years ago. However when I am seeing steps as a dancer I know aren’t mastered in a few weeks working solidly with a pro I have to question the authenticity of the format.

The show have capitalised on Lewis Cope’s story, (the real life Billy Elliott) growing up in Hartlepool, in the North East, one of 14 children with a passion and overwhelming desire to dance, pulling at the heart strings whilst delivering incredible numbers, all the while forgetting to mention his dance background, and being a front runner with his dance group Ruff Diamond on two prime time shows, Britains Got Talent where they reached the semi finals and Sky’s Dance competition show Got To Dance, 2013 where they were runners up.

These are two massive achievements and could not be achieved without years of training and practise in the dance discipline. To my mind whilst currently acting on Emmerdale, Lewis Cope is a professional dancer.

When strictly come dancing are actually casting professional dancers, Amber Davies, partnered this year with Nikita Kuzmin has been strongly criticised in the press because of her dance expertise and training, she’s clearly trained, it’s no longer credible as the Saturday night BBC flagship family entertainment show.

The idea is supposed to be about “the journey” non dancers take with the help of professional teachers, not up and coming stars of stage screen, TV reality and movies getting a leg up with the massive profile hike a show like Strictly delivers for three months a year.

With Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, the shows female presenting lineup since 2013 already stepping down from the show, the real reason for which we’ll probably never discover and this year’s cast being too professional really to make the show actually authentic and credible, it may be the end of the road for me as a loyal fan when the curtain comes down on 2025.

I already gave up watching it takes two, the strictly spin off show during the week when Rylan was replaced by presenters Fleur East and Janette Manrara.

I used to rush home from work to catch it, and I have to say I don’t miss it so like any habit when the reward and enjoyment is no longer such because you feel it’s all a bit of a con, giving up is not so tough.

I’ve watched the brilliance of the Lewis Cope Katya Jones number about 10 times now. Of course it deserved a forty, but if ex judge and star of the Royal Ballet Darcy Bussell was introduced as a celebrity competitor next year (not that she’d ever do it, it would be ridiculous) would we, could we buy in? I fear not and for me the casting is so close, too close to the line even in 2025.

It’s a shame, in the desire to produce spectacular content, for me producers and casting directors have lost sight of the whole point of the show.

I picked Katya and Lewis to win without any background information from watching them pair up on the very first show. Just from witnessing a few steps, they stood out, the talent jumped off the screen. Now I understand why, and why despite the enormous talent of the Jones Cope partnership, I believe it's unlikely the public will never select them as the winners. How could they?