Myself, the stars and the town are all excited for Strictly Come Dancing’s Blackpool Week

This weekend on Strictly Come Dancing, the stars will be dancing at the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom rather than Elstree Studio as the highly anticipated Blackpool Week is here.

As expected, the stars all raved about Blackpool Week in these exclusive chats earlier this week and I genuinely believe how excited they are.

Even before Blackpool rehearsals begin, the stars were taking to their Instagram to show how delighted they were at a little change of scene, for example a photo of Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell wearing Blackpool goggles was doing the rounds as early as Wednesday.

Blackpool too seems just as excited to have them - with the Tower lighting up especially for Strictly last night- which I hope the stars enjoyed, particularly Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystał who were definitely in town to see it.

I do feel bad that Shayne Ward didn’t get through to Blackpool Week last weekend as he gave one of the most personal reasons for wanting to make it there - that it was the only time his mum would be able to see him dance.  

Nevertheless, as I had said in last week’s Strictly Diary, I did expect Shane to go- for some reason the public just weren’t voting for him and his dance on Saturday night was not enough to change public opinion.

I am glad the other bottom two couple, Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebes, were saved as I think they’ll love the theatrical opportunities that Blackpool has to offer -Johannes has even shared his love for the seaside town with me before.

Last year’s Blackpool Week saw the legendary actress Angela Rippon say farewell but who’s turn will it be this year?

My money would probably be on opera singer Wynne Evans this week - not that I would make much money from betting on it though as he currently is the bookies favourite to be eliminated with average odds of 8/11.

I’m just not sure Wynne has a big enough fanbase compared to the other stars - Montell too also has this issue but I think she and Johannes will put on a blinder of a performance as mentioned just above.

Pete Wickes is the bookies second favourite to leave but the Towie star hasn’t even been in the bottom two yet, which is testament to how well he must be liked as it’s not been high scoring dances that have kept him safe.

Whoever bows out of Strictly this week, I hope they still look back at the Blackpool Week with pride and fond memories- I know the Strictly Blackpool Week is certainly well cherished by the town long after the curtains close.