HOWZAT

Locking in with Snowdon, Cole positions her spine with the tips of his fingers. He doesn’t like what he feels. “PICK UP, PICK UP, PICK UP, PICK UP!” he shouts, as they whirl, faster and faster, with Snowdon shouting, “I DON’T know what to do with my ARMS!”

Friday September 19. The day before the first episode of Series Six of Strictly Come Dancing. BBC Television Centre. 6.30pm. A vast, dark, empty hangar. Six strip lights, way above us, struggle to cast any light at all. In one corner of the room, a tiny portable stereo – the kind you buy for £30 in Woolworths – cranks out a tinny rendition of The Rainbow Connection.

Dancing between the pools of strip lighting are Austin Healey, rugby hero, and his professional partner, Erin Boag. Healey looks like both Ant and Dec melted together – “Dant”, maybe, “Aec”. Frames locked in perfect posture, they glide through a waltz as if their joints were spritzed with silicon lubricant. There is a music-box lightness and precision to their routine. Healey, it is noticeable, is not shouting, “I DON’T know what to do with my ARMS!”

“I’m going to get straight on the phone to the bookies when we leave here,” the photographer mutters. It is clear they will very quickly become favourites to win.

Watching Healey and Boag is Gillian Taylforth, aka Kath from EastEnders. She should be rehearsing also, but even though she is just standing still, she is managing to do so with a pronounced limp.

“My leg was swelling and swelling,” she says with a breathless, almost hyperventilating rush, “and I went to see the doctor and he was fiddling with it and it went, ‘Pop!’ and I said, ‘What are you doing?’ and he said, ‘I’ve just popped your kneecap back in. It’s been dislocated. It must have been out for a week.’ I’ve got it strapped up, I’m living on painkillers, but it’s bloody agony.”

Healey’s rehearsal finished, he, Boag, Taylforth and her partner – the unique and deeply eccentric Anton du Beke – sit in the canteen, talking about the way that Strictly can change people’s lives. While the professional dancers – Boag and du Beke – discuss it with a calm equanimity, Taylforth and Healey – new to the process – have a certain amount of trepidation. Strictly is often a catalyst in people’s lives – for good or ill. In last year’s show alone, EastEnders’ Matt Di Angelo began a tabloid-catnip relationship with his professional partner, Flavia Cacace, Blue Peter’s Gethin Jones began a relationship with guest-star Katherine Jenkins, and Alesha Dixon – the show’s eventual winner – completely revived her moribund career, and is now on course to have a hit single.

There are also, of course, downsides to taking part in such a high-profile show.

“You had a load of shit last year, didn’t you?” Healey says to Anton du Beke. In February of this year, the Sunday Mirror accused du Beke, wholly falsely, of having an affair with dance partner and GMTV presenter Kate Garraway – to the distress, and eventual legal proceedings, of Garraway and her husband, former Labour spin-doctor Derek Draper.

“Yeah,” du Beke says, cheerily. “She got a six-figure payout from that. Not bad.”

“That’s ’cos she’s married,” Taylforth says, gloomily. “I’m not married. If they accuse me and you of having it off, Anton, I’ll get a three-figure pay out.”

Anton: “£110.”

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010