EXCLUSIVE – Strictly Come Dancing returned for the 2025 series last month
Olivia Wheeler Content Editor Screen Time
18:30, 18 Oct 2025
Strictly Come Dancing returned for the 2025 series last month (Image: Guy Levy/BBC/PA)
Strictly Come Dancing is back again this Saturday for week four of the competition with fans treated to two Couples Choice routines and the first Argentine Tango of the series.
So far the likes of Amber Davies and Lewis Cope have been topping the leaderboard with their professional dance partners after wowing the judges with their impressive moves each week.
Amber, 29, and Lewis, 30, have plenty of dance experience as Amber is a West End star while Lewis starred in the musical Billy Elliot.
The former Emmerdale star also reportedly represented the UK in the World Hip Hop Dance Championships as part of a group in 2013 and even appeared on Got To Dance, where he finished as a runner-up with the hiphop dance troupe Ruff Diamond.
Lewis Cope and Katya Jones topped the leaderboard last week(Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
Some viewers have claimed it’s “unfair” to have trained dancers in the line-up while presenter Lorraine Kelly took a swipe at all the dance experience after her co-star Ross King was eliminated from Strictly on Sunday.
One person who knows the BBC One dance competition well is Debbie McGee, 66, who finished as a finalist on Strictly Come Dancing 2017 and won the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special in 2019.
Talking exclusively on behalf of WhichBingo, Debbie revealed how the judges make it “even” for the celebrities regardless of dance experience and why they can be tougher on certain stars.
Debbie said: “When someone shows they’ve got a bit more ability in the very early weeks, the judges can be a bit tougher.
“But that’s because the way it works with the judges, because they’re judging on technique, if you start Strictly and you’ve never danced before and you’re not very musical, they don’t give you so much of the technique in the dance.
Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin on Strictly Come Dancing(Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
“But, if you’ve got more ability, they give you more. So that’s what evens up this, if you’ve had any training, dance training before or not, they’re underlying it. It evens it up a little.
“It does even it up because the technique is so difficult and that is what the judges judge on. So it would be like, something like in a Waltz, if someone’s got more ability, they would expect their feet to be placed and the way they move through their feet.
“Where if someone who’s never had any training before doesn’t do that of course they’re going to mark them down, but it’s not going to be so important, let’s put it that way. That’s my understanding of it.”
On Sunday (12 October), Scottish presenter Ross, 63, became the second contestant to leave Strictly with pro partner Jowita Przystal following a dance-off against actress Balvinder Sopal and her partner Julian Caillon.
Thomas Skinner and pro Amy Dowden were the first duo to be eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing 2025.
The remaining 13 couples will return to the Strictly dancefloor next week on Saturday at 6.30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.