About Strictly - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Tickets Dress Designs Musical Guests Choreography No Dance-off this year? Clips Outside the UK Strictly Merchandise Contacting Strictly BBC Children In Need Remembrance Sunday Poppies Performance Order

 

Tickets

Q: How do I get tickets for Strictly Come Dancing?

Tickets for Strictly Come Dancing are allocated by a random draw before each series starts. Applications for the 2011 series closed on Sunday 14 August at 10pm and the Strictly Come Dancing at Wembley Arena random draw closed on Friday 26 August at 10pm.

If you have applied for a ticket, please be aware that they will be sent out approximately 2 weeks prior to each show from the BBC Tickets team. Please don't contact the Strictly Website with any enquiries.

Enquiries about BBC Tickets and attending the show, including accessibility, can be found at the BBC Tickets website FAQ, where there is also a contact telephone number for questions not covered by the FAQ.

Sadly NO TICKETS are kept in reserve to give away to charity events or for other special causes such as weddings or birthdays.

Dress Designs

Q: Can you tell me the name of the person who designed one of the outfits on the show?

We're very sorry, but we just don't have time to track down information about the designers of the dancers' or presenters' outfits. Most of the outfits are created by a team working across different locations - both on BBC premises and in freelance costumiers. The presenters' outfits are also a mixture of high street and specially designed outfits.

Musical Guests

Q: Is the musical guest live every week?

In order to secure the best guests possible for the show on rare occasions musical guests are pre-recorded because of their availability.

Choreography

Q: Are the Professional Dancers responsible for choreographing all of their routines?

Our Professional Dancers are all highly experienced in many different fields of dance - they've been recruited to work on Strictly Come Dancing because of that versatility. However, specialist choreographers are made available throughout the series to help, advise and assist in choreographing specific routines.

No Dance-Off?

Q: Why is there no Dance-Off this year?

We have reverted to the original Strictly format that was in place from series 1-4. The judges no longer have the ultimate power to save a couple who are in the bottom two, and keep them in the competition. Now, the couple who leave the competition are simply the couple with the least overall combined points from both the judges and the public.

We are 'Back to Basics' with a shorter results show, that has more production value and newer performance numbers.

By taking the ultimate decision away from the judges and therefore ensuring the couple with the least number of combined points in the competition that night goes home, we believe is the fairest outcome.

Strictly Come Dancing is an entertainment dance show, and audiences will vote for who entertains them the most on a Saturday night - whether that be a couple who dance amazingly well, or a couple who dance to the best of their ability and who bring enjoyment to viewers.

Clips

Q: How can I get help with watching clips on the website?

The Strictly Come Dancing website uses the Embedded Media Player (EMP), which allows you to watch streaming video clips.

You can find an overview of common questions about the EMP on the BBC News website.

More detailed technical questions are answered on the BBC iPlayer Help pages.

Outside the UK?

Q: Can I watch shows or video clips from outside the UK?

Some clips and packages are not available outside the UK because of rights reasons. If the BBC has secured the rights to broadcast a clip only in the UK, then non-UK users will be unable to access it.

Please be aware that our live embedded video streams, including watching TV channels live over the internet, are also available in the UK only.

If you are viewing the site from outside the UK, you will be unable to access our live video streams and rights-restricted content and should see a message stating that this media is not available in your territory.

Strictly Merchandise

Q: What Strictly merchandise is available to buy?

This year there are lots of exciting Strictly Come Dancing products and Live Events for you.

The Strictly tour is back - more information to follow so watch this space.

For children, there's a new 'Dress-up and Dance' game available in all good retailers and a range of party dresses for girls available online.

Excitingly, there is a new range of Strictly Come Dancing make-up available.

Contacting Us

Q: How do I contact the website or send fan mail?

If you have any specific comments or queries about the Strictly Come Dancing website, or you wish to send fan mail to the TV Office, please visit our Contact Us page.

Please note, all emails are read, but if your email is a general comment or your question is answered on the site or in this FAQ section, we will not get back to you.

Although we'd love to be able to answer all the questions we receive about Strictly Come Dancing, it takes time to research queries and this costs the BBC money. For this reason we would ask you to try to find the answer to your question before sending us an email - the greater the number of queries we receive, the less money we can spend on programmes.

BBC Children In Need

Q: Does money raised from phone votes go to BBC Children in Need?

In accordance with the BBC Code of Conduct for competitions and voting, NO MONEY from calls made to Strictly Come Dancing will go to charity.

The main focus of fundraising at the BBC has always been the big appeal shows on BBC One and surrounding activity. That continues to be the case. Raising money for charity through premium rate phone calls has only ever been an incidental and occasional activity on BBC programmes.

Although we recognised many viewers enjoyed giving to charity in an incidental way through these phone lines, our main concern was clarity for viewers. The new policy of having just two premium call categories - one capped at 15p for all BBC programmes and the other for any charity appeals - would make it even clearer to audiences what to expect when they interacted with BBC programmes in competitions or votes. As such the BBC does not make any money from phone voting.

Remembrance Sunday poppies

Q: When will couples wear Remembrance Sunday poppies this year?

Remembrance Day is once again approaching, and the period of poppy-wearing will start soon. It is normal for the BBC to agree dates between which, for those wishing to do so, poppies may be worn on screen.

Performance Order

Q: How is the performance order decided?

Many factors are taken into consideration when the performance order is chosen. These include the tempo of each of the tracks, the dance styles, and the story-lines and props featured in each performance. The order is varied each week in order to keep some surprises for the viewers and to avoid predictability.