19 September 2023 , 18:00
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Anton Du Beke spoke of how "brilliantly excited" he was ahead of Saturday evening's live launch of Strictly Come Dancing. The fabulous ballroom dancing star teased just what viewers can expect throughout this year's sparkling season.
Famous faces, from EastEnders fan-favourite Bobby Brazier to legendary news reader Angela Rippon, this year's star-studded line-up could well be one Strictly's best. "The frocks are fantastic, then you have all of sets and the lighting," Anton explained.
Speaking in his pre-show interview with the BBC, he added: "I tell you what, I am naturally, brilliantly excited about the whole thing, I can't wait. For me it's just a magical time of year when Strictly returns to our screens.
Anton is excited to return to Strictly this weekend (BBC/Ray Burmiston)"It's just brilliant. The excitement about Strictly Come Dancing coming back with all the celebrities and just being in the building with everybody milling around, delighted and happy and joyous and all the brilliant teams back together. It's so wonderfully exciting."
Anton added: "The biggest challenge is eliminating somebody and sometimes it’s tighter than you'd want it to be, but that's the job and that's what I’m there for, so that is the most challenging part. Trying to be encouraging, trying to help people - that's the fun part."
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Opening up about last year's programme, Anton admitted his favourite performance was Helen and Gorka’s couples choice dance to Mein Herr. He also said that Hamza "did some numbers that were staggering".
Strictly are returning to Blackpool once again, a move Anton admits was "brilliant". "It's such a massive production and we all go up to Blackpool and then rig it all up and it takes ten days," he explained.
"I mean it’s a huge thing, but it's so worth it! It's a wonderful moment in the series as well, but it means so much more than just going to Blackpool, we're going for the tower ballroom which is such an iconic venue."
He detailed the moments he's most looking forward to this year, before revealing the one thing he dislikes most about Strictly. "I am really excited about the Judges number at the beginning. What I would love to do one year, is to do a dance with one of the professionals for one of the artist numbers like I used to."
Anton added: "There’s nothing quite like performing, it’s magical, the thing about dancing with a celebrity is you get voted off, and that’s the bit I hated!"
Amongst the 2023 line-up is TV presenters Angela Scanlon and Nikita Kanda and fan-favourite EastEnders star Bobby Brazier. Also in this year's show is actresses Ellie Leach and Amanda Abbington and Family Fortunes presenter Les Dennis.