主播大秀

The movie Strictly Ballroom is about an ugly duckling who becomes a swan through dance. The dancing isn鈥檛 Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, it鈥檚 regional Australian ballroom dancing. Its big song wasn鈥檛 even a Number One. The lead actor was a roofer. It shouldn鈥檛 have worked. No one should have seen it. And yet...

May 2004: 鈥淕litter balls, sequins, scantily clad dancers 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 get more public service than this!鈥� was how I introduced the 主播大秀鈥檚 new entertainment show at its press launch. A launch that was met by total derision in newspapers, radio and even on Have I Got News For You. Another example of a terrible idea from 主播大秀 Entertainment. A programme that would not work. And yet, like the film from which we nabbed the title, it was an ugly duckling that became a swan.

Ten years ago, 主播大秀 Entertainment was in pretty bad shape. The launch of reality television caught the 主播大秀 out: whilst we were making Big Break, others were making Big Brother.聽When I inherited 主播大秀 Entertainment, I knew that we had to respond; we needed ideas that could compete in a changing landscape, ideas that were bold, loud and entertaining.

The spark for Strictly came from Jane Lush鈥檚 commissioning team. Jane deserves enormous credit for starting a golden age of entertainment on the 主播大秀: Strictly, The Apprentice, Dragons鈥� Den, still hits almost a decade on, all commissioned by her. She was having a brainstorm with her team, discussing old formats, when Fenia Vardanis suggested a celebrity version of Come Dancing. But could the 主播大秀 make an entertainment show that had celebrities in it? Could we deliver it?

Jane passed the idea on to Richard Hopkins. Richard was the first person I brought in to kick-start the Entertainment department. I got lucky with Richard, he had been behind some of Endemol鈥檚 most recent successes and brought a different energy and perspective. A development team under Amanda Wilson, no more than a bunch of kids, people like Karl Warner, Nick Mather, Chris Sussman, all highly regarded now. And a new Executive Producer, Karen Smith.

Karen joined us in October 2003. Driven, tenacious, with a great eye for detail, she remains the best live entertainment producer I have ever worked with. Karen got the idea immediately. She had just overseen The Games for Channel 4 and she understood that this new show had to be a sporting competition; rigorous, true and authentic. The starting point was never Come Dancing 鈥� I don鈥檛 think anyone even watched the old show 鈥� the starting point was ballroom dancing as a competitive event infused with glamour and celebrities.

Karen and her series producer Izzie Pick started to learn everything they could about the ballroom dancing scene. There was scepticism and even hostility from many in the ballroom world. Surely we were just going to take the piss? There are probably a few dancers and judges out there who now regret refusing to return calls. Some of the characters the nation now loves were in from the start, especially Anton du Beke and Brendan Cole, who bawled out Karen at their first meeting: 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not sequins, they鈥檙e rhinestones!鈥� But it was the dancers鈥� insistence that there had to be proper judging, that it couldn鈥檛 just be a popularity contest, which got Karen to design the 50:50 voting system.

Karen and Izzy wanted a staircase at the back of the set, because of a shared fantasy they had about standing at the top with their prince waiting below. They claimed lots of women did.

Originally there were going to be three judges. There was some push back against our fourth, mostly because of his age, but we needed proper ballroom expertise and that is how Len Goodman got on to the panel. Mind you, I don鈥檛 think any of us thought he would become an international household name.

To pitch the show to the then 主播大秀 One Controller Lorraine Heggessey we had to come up with something different. So we hired a small outside studio. Lorraine was ushered into a totally dark room. Lights came on, music blasted and two near naked dancers, glistening in baby oil, writhed inches away from her. I wouldn鈥檛 suggest this in any way affected Lorraine鈥檚 professional judgement 鈥� but put it this way, it didn鈥檛 do any harm. There was a slot in the summer available, let鈥檚 give it a go.

Casting the first series strained everyone. People weren鈥檛 exactly throwing themselves at us. We struggled to get eight celebrities. The hardest of all was Natasha Kaplinsky. We were desperate for Natasha. Natasha wasn鈥檛 sure it was the thing a 主播大秀 newsreader should do. There were meetings, lots of them. Somehow we got her over the line.

We learnt things along the way. Sports stars were good bookings: utterly competitive, used to training, they raise the commitment of everyone else. We underestimated the level of training the celebrities would have to do, we thought two to three sessions of two hours a week would do.

The first show went on air on 15 May 2004. Even then the critics weren鈥檛 kind. Karen had to go on Points of View and defend it from people who said, 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 Come Dancing鈥�. Typically combative, when she finished, Terry Wogan said, 鈥淪o that鈥檚 told you lot鈥�.

But as the series rolled out, so it began to grow. The highlight for me of that first season was the absolutely appalling, train wreck that was Chris Parker鈥檚 paso doble. But the moment when Strictly started its journey to cherished national icon was in the final.聽 Karen had created a 鈥渢here are no lifts in ballroom鈥� controversy throughout the series, but now, in the final dance, she had bad boy Brendan and Natasha do 鈥淭he Time of My Life鈥� with a big nobody-puts-baby-in-the-corner lift. The roof came off. We had our first winners and we felt we had a show that would probably get a second series.

Karen and Izzie packed their bags for a girls鈥� holiday to Ibiza. On the Monday I called them. Lorraine wanted a second series. But she wanted it for the autumn, we had less than four months, we thought we鈥檇 better start making some calls...

Wayne Garvie is Chief Creative Officer, International Production at Sony Pictures TV, formerly Head of 主播大秀 Entertainment.