New preview show for Strictly Come Dancing

This year's Strictly Come Dancing contestants will be revealed in a special launch show ahead of the new series, the BBC has confirmed. The one hour show, which will air on September 11, will also feature the celebrities, judges and professional dancers meeting for the first time. It is the first time in the show's history that viewers will be able to see the stars meeting their professional partners in front of a live studio audience. In previous series, first meets have been filmed in advance either in training rooms or workplaces and shown on the first show of the series. The programme, which will feature stars and dancers arriving at BBC TV Centre on a red carpet, will be filmed on September 8. The actual series will begin on October 4. It is thought stars will be paid on a per-show basis this year instead of given a flat fee for the series, while Bruce Forsyth has revealed he will be taking a pay cut this year. And the Sunday results show will return after viewers complained that last year's Saturday night show - which featured routines and results in one programme - was too long. "In a series that features more excitement and glamour than ever before, a red carpet event is the ideal way to launch this year's Strictly," said the BBC's Controller of Entertainment Commissioning Mark Linsey. "This, along with a fantastic line-up of celebrities, even more professional dancers and a revamped set, will see this series getting off to a great launch." Actress Felicity Kendal, former MP Anne Widdecombe, ex-Coronation Street star Tina O'Brien, Holby City's Patsy Kensit and Charlotte Church's ex Gavin Henson are among those rumoured to be taking part this year.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.