15 pictures as Strictly stars including Pete Wicks and Tasha Ghouri greet fans in Blackpool

Stars including Pete Wicks, Chris McCausland and Tasha Ghouri greeted fans outside Blackpool Tower and posed for selfies with them yesterday before their Strictly Come Dancing performances.

Actress Sarah Hadland and Love Island star Tasha Ghouri jointly topped the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard in Blackpool.

The BBC One show was broadcast from the Blackpool Tower Ballroom on Saturday, celebrating its 20th year by opening with the professional dancers dancing to the Pet Shop Boys performing a medley of their hits, including It’s A Sin, Suburbia and What Have I Done To Deserve This.

The judges gave both Ghouri and Hadland a near-perfect score of 39 points.

Motsi Mabuse described Ghouri’s intense and dramatic paso doble routine to Nathan Lanier’s Torn, during which professional Aljaz Skorjanec flung her through his legs, as the “dance of the night”.

Hadland and her partner Vito Coppola’s couple’s choice routine to Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue was described by judge Craig Revel Horwood as “a little too perfect”.

Horwood told them he knew “it sounds weird”, but felt that Hadland lacked emotion, which he felt “brought you out” of the performance at moments.

Take a look at some of the fabulous pictures.

Strictly’s results show airs tonight on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 7.20pm.

.