Then Craig:

3. "Total theatre. Right up my straza."

And then Bruno:

4. "This was not a paso doble for vegetarians. I've never seen so much prime beef in such splendid display."

Week 10 was the quarter finals. Always lyrical, Len said to Kellie on her salsa:

5. "Your bum was bionic, flying about…"

Anita and Gleb’s rumba prompted ever more poetry from the head judge:

6. "What's all that through the legs business?"

Despite Craig saying that he loved his performance skills, Peter Andre’s American Smooth nearly finished him off. And even when it was done he could barely recover:

7. "I’m not going to lie, this is the most nervous I’ve ever been, ever. I’ve been shaking all day. I’m still nervous."

Week 11: Musicals week and the quarter finals. Gleb freed Anita from prison to lead her in an Argentine Tango to Cell Block Tango, a number from Chicago. But for Craig…

8. "This dance has exposed all your weak points… you have a tendency for pigeon toes."

So it was good that Helen changed the tone with her highest scoring dance of the series: her Viennese waltz. 

Tess thought Darcey looked enraptured and she was right:

9. "It was like being in your dream. You are such a treasure to watch… the details, the feeling, the gliding, how you used the floor… thank you."

Helen told Claudia she was about to faint and that was before she got three 10s from the judges – having never had one before. Bruno gave one of the 10s:

10. "I am charmed to the core. It looked weightless, like you were dancing on a cloud."

And the finesse continued with Georgia’s foxtrot which Darcey marvelled at. 

Georgia said she’d be wearing that Disney princess dress to bed, by the way.

11. "There were beautiful moments where you hovered in every transition. Beautiful."

The drinks are on the ’ouse!! Kellie's rowdy turn to Oom Pah Pah! from Oliver Twist was a Viennese waltz like we, and Craig, had never seen:

12. "Not elegant. It had no class darling, was common as. And you know what? I loved it!"

You just never know which way that man’s going to go. Darcey, in a much more Darcey way, also expressed her love for Jay and Aliona’s rumba to Falling Slowly from Once.

13. "You've both brought tears to my eyes. It was fabulous."

Their waltz the following week had a different effect on Craig, however:

11. "Storywise, it looked like Aliona had just dumped you."

If you hadn’t gathered from the above clip, rumbas are meant to be sexy and Kellie and Kevin didn’t do much for Bruno with theirs.

12. "It was like a brother and sister dance... I'd like it a bit hotter, that's all."

Len (the self-said ‘cup of tea in world of skinny lattes’) brought a gentlemanly appreciation of Katie's classic waltz to Puccini.

13. "In a world of razzamatazz, it's nice to have something quiet and understated."

It was sore throat week for poor Georgia and still her waltz got a more contemporary response from Bruno:

14. "Right on the money, honey!"

Anita's acrobatic salsa had Tess and Craig both saluting her bravery and Darcey wholeheartedly agreed:

15. "You are so daring. Most ladies would have cut half of that out. I mean, I am so impressed."

Kellie's American Smooth really was breathtaking – please just go 50 seconds in and take in those four fan lifts. Sigh. What else is there to say, Darcey?

16. It had glamour, flair, all the Hollywood quality we wanted. Oh my… that was heaven

From that heady atmosphere plonk back down to earth with Len on Anita’s dance to New York, New York.

17. "The American Smooth you did was lovely. However. I was looking for the foxtrot."

Fiona Wickham is the editor of the BBC TV blog.

The Strictly Come Dancing final is on Saturday, 19 December at 6.35pm on BBC One. It will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Director Ben Whalley was always adamant that this wouldn’t be a programme full of stars on stages, he wanted housewives and children and family parties.

But would anybody allow us to come and film them in their homes and would our cameras somehow interfere with the genuineness of the event?

There is something of a Catch-22 situation for the foreign flamenco aficionado who pays to see flamenco on a stage and thus allows flamenco artists to live off their art and for the flamenco way of life to survive.

But at the same time he secretly suspects that he is seeing the sanitised version and the real stuff happens when the foreigners clear off and the real party gets going.

Luckily people were incredibly willing to invite us to enjoy their performances at their homes and their parties on our journey around Andalusia from Malaga, to Granada, Seville, Jerez and Cadiz.

They were incredibly generous and hospitable and they seemed to be keen to show us this lesser known side of flamenco by fostering a real party atmosphere.

I don’t believe that any of the flamenco we saw was in any way tame: every artist seemed to pour their heart and soul into their performances to the point where some of the most emotionally susceptible members of the team, ie presenter Elizabeth Kinder and myself, were moved to tears from the sheer intensity of the singing.

The first time I saw a real flamenco party was in the blacksmith’s forge in Cabra. The owner of the forge had invited all his friends over. The wine was flowing.

It was here that I realised how much fun flamenco could be and witnessed the sense of camaraderie amongst the men as they shouted encouragement at each other.

The five of us, the cameraman Ric Clark, sound man Ariel Sultan, Ben, Elizabeth and I were blown away by their renditions of the Bulerías – a more festive, humorous style of flamenco so different to the more emotionally charged and serious songs we had heard up to that point on the trip.

At dusk when we had packed up the cameras the men were lighting a bonfire to cook their steaks on and they broke into a song.

There was a part of us that wished we could quickly grab the cameras and preserve yet another incredible moment but none of us moved, we knew that this was just for us to see and it felt like a gift.

What we had filmed was already so special and perhaps we had to be resigned to not being able to capture every moment.

We left thrilled with what we had done but reluctantly all the same; as we packed up the van we could still hear them and we knew they would be there singing and dancing long into the night.

Laura Kaye is the assistant producer of Flamenco: Gypsy Soul.

Flamenco: Gypsy Soul is on Sunday, 25 August at 9pm on BBC Four.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

When it first appeared in the 1810s, this new dance from Germany caused a scandal.
Obviously, when I was offered a dancing lesson, I couldn't wait to have a go.

Equipped with a red Regency dress and a pair of dancing pumps, I got myself to the Royal Pump Rooms of Leamington Spa.

The Pump Rooms were used for Regency parties and balls, but are actually named for the pump there that produces some rather nasty-tasting spa water.

This water's supposedly health-giving properties lay behind Leamington Spa's spectacular growth as a tourist resort in the Regency period.

At the Pump Rooms I met the dance historian Robin Benie.

He told me how the country dances of the eighteenth century involved men and women standing in long lines, each person forming a couple briefly, in turn with all the other members of the set.

In the waltz, by contrast, you remain clasped in the arms of just one partner throughout, perhaps taking the opportunity for private conversation.

The Times newspaper condemned the new dance for its 'voluptuous intertwining of the limbs'.

Historian Robin Benie gives Lucy Worsley a lesson in waltzing

Waltzing also played a sad part in the unstable Lady Caroline Lamb's tempestuous relationship with the poet Lord Byron.

Lady Caroline was one of Lord Byron's many groupies, and for a while he indulged her in a scandalous affair.

He made her swear never to waltz, as it made him so jealous to see her in the arms of another man. (He couldn't waltz himself because he had a bad foot.)

After their break-up, though, they ran into each other at a ball, and she said to him that 'she supposed she might waltz now'.

Yes, he said, she could dance with anybody she liked.

Poor Caroline was devastated by this evidence that their relationship was really over.

She immediately got hold of a knife, cut herself, and blood went all over her gown.

I myself managed to get through my waltz lesson without bloodshed and can now twirl very nicely indeed.

And I really enjoyed my afternoon as a Regency Rihanna.

Lucy Worsley is the presenter of Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency.

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency continues on BBC Four at 9pm on Monday 5th September.

For further programme times, please visit the upcoming episodes page.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Nothing highlights the limitations of your body than a physical test like this, especially when you're working alongside a trained dancer, svelte in body and light of foot.

I'm slightly reassured as all around me, from other rehearsal rooms, I can hear the near-silent swish of the choreographer demonstrating the moves then the thunderous thumping of us Let's Dancers trying to copy them.

I have a new found respect for dancers. How do they remember all those moves?

I'm constantly forgetting what comes next, panicking, then doing anything which can be as random as a star jump or just sticking out my tongue.

I boldly declared on the first day, "Yeah, I'm more of a freestyler."

Translation: I usually just jerk around vaguely in time to the music and hope it looks planned.

So far, my biggest issue has been turns. Dancers make them look so easy but they could well be my Waterloo.

Watch on the night as I do a turn and you'll see a flicker of surprise when, or if should I say, I find myself facing forward and upright.

I'm surprised how far outside of my comfort zone this has been. I've had four micro-cries already. One was brought on by telling someone about the first three cries.

There's been a fair few times when I've been curled up on the cold wooden floor asking if I could just tell jokes for my two minute routine. You know, in the style of the act I should be dancing as. No one will spot the difference, I've whimpered.

Alternatively, I may suggest the BBC change the name of the show to Let's Just See Shall We?

Andi Osho is a contestant on episode two of Let's Dance For Comic Relief.

Let's Dance For Comic Relief continues on Saturdays on BBC One and BBC One HD. For programme times please see the upcoming episodes page.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Flavia's dance was made into a trailer, which will be showing on 3D cinema screens and 3D TV screens around the UK for two weeks from today.

It's in support of Children in Need, which is on BBC One on Friday, 19 November.

It won't look like 3D on the web (as you need special 3D glasses to view it!) but if you fancy going behind the scenes to see how it was made, watch the short film on the Strictly blog.

Fiona Wickham is editor of the BBC TV blog

My first task prior to the show was to decide, along with Tony Revell (the sound supervisor), how the guys in the band were going to be set up. I need to have a sight line to everyone, and Tony has sound considerations, especially placing the drum kit and so on. Hopefully we have come up with something that will work.

I have put together more or less the same band and personnel as last year, comprising of 15 musicians and four singers on this show. Depending on the material we have to cover, I'll be tweaking the line up through the series, but by and large, the instrumentation will stay the same.

For the first show we have five main routines to play, including one featuring all the dancers and their new partners. Now I know who the celebrities are, I think the competition will be fierce and the characters very entertaining.

I am really looking forward to when the live shows kick off in October. I only need to write 14 arrangements before then... now where did I put my manuscript paper?

Dave Arch is the musical director on Strictly Come Dancing and conducts the live band.

Series eight of Strictly Come Dancing begins on Saturday, 11 September at 6.25pm on BBC One and BBC HD.

Please visit the upcoming episodes page to check programme times.

You can read more on the origins of Strictly Come Dancing from head of BBC History Robert Seatter on the About The BBC blog.

After developing an interest in everything Japanese a few years earlier, she soon discovered Japanese pop music and began copying and recording the dances and posting them on YouTube.

One day last summer, she recorded a dance to a rather crazy song called Danjo - and it turned out to be the song that changed her life. Not long after uploading it, she found herself being watched by half a million people 6,000 miles away. She had become famous in Japan practically overnight.

The first time I met Beckii was in a hotel room in London. She was sporting a very small, very blonde wig and looked totally different to the Beckii I'd researched on the internet.

Her managers were trying an image change for a new music video she was making and she was almost unrecognizable.

When I finally convinced myself that I was with the right girl, we introduced ourselves and I instantly began to film Beckii getting ready.

Time was of the essence. We were off to Tokyo in a week and I'd never filmed her before. I wanted to make her comfortable with the camera as soon as possible.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried. She showed almost no self-consciousness about being filmed. For a 14-year-old that is amazing, I thought.

The fact that Beckii was so used to being filmed became both a positive and negative in terms of making the documentary. Because she was so used to going on live TV and being interviewed by news crews from around the world, she wasn't fazed by me following her around with a camera.

But I soon realized that Beckii's experience had taught her a particular way of speaking and reacting to the camera, which wasn't quite what I was after as a documentary maker.

Having gained access to film Beckii's story for the first time, I wanted to get a real sense of what it must feel like to be 14 and to have become famous in such an interesting way.

Getting to that story required Beckii to see me in a different way, to not just see me as a news interviewer after a quick story. What she was very good at was delivering good, short sound bites about her discovery how it had come about, how amazing it was.

I could tell (quite understandably), that she had tired somewhat of telling the same story over and over again. What teenager wouldn't find that a little boring?

Beckii and I had a very good chat very early on in the filming process, as I needed her to understand why this was something different to what she had done before.

I explained that I wasn't part of a news crew and what I really needed her to do was open up to me, and most importantly to think about the questions I was asking her rather than just firing off answers.

Beckii never failed to amaze me the way she would take on board comments like this and try hard to change. From that point on, she made a real effort to not give me the stock answers she had given so many others.

I was always conscious that although Beckii was used to media attention, she was also just a 14-year-old girl.

Asking any 14-year-old to open up their life for an hour-long documentary is a huge deal. There were definitely times when I'm sure Beckii would have preferred to be out with her friends, or practicing a new dance.

But I also knew that she was desperate for people to understand her and see past the news headlines. For this reason, she was always determined to put effort into the filming and to talk about subjects that were sometimes sensitive or difficult.

Although Beckii has a huge fan base of people who think she's amazing and inspiring, she also gets a tough time from negative commenters on the internet and some hassle from kids on the Isle of Man.

She really wants those people to see the real her, to understand that she isn't an arrogant, conceited superstar, but a normal teenage girl who is taking the opportunities that have come her way.

She is always the first to admit that she isn't the best dancer on the internet, or the best singer in the world, that what happened to her is a once in a lifetime lucky thing, but she doesnt think that should stop her grabbing hold of opportunities if they come her way.

One of the biggest problems with making a film about 14-year-old Beckii, was that it was so easy to forget she was 14. Quite often when she spoke about the business, her direction, her image or her fan base, you could easily mistake her for a 17 or 18-year-old.

This is the consequence of being a child in an adult's world. In order to be taken seriously and understand what's going on around you, you are often required to behave older than you are. This can result in a speeding up of the natural growing up process.

I sometimes worry that Beckii puts pressure on herself to be old when she is still very young, but I know this problem isn't exclusive to her as a child star.

I think Beckii copes with fame quite remarkably. I still can't work out how she has such a wise brain inside such a young head, or how she holds on to a real inner strength when she puts up with so much.

I was always surprised by how easily she could go from being adored and mobbed in Tokyo, to being a normal school girl on the Isle of Man.

She wouldn't expect attention at home and she wouldn't really miss it. In fact she was often happy to leave it behind.

Her group of very lovely close friends at home always serve to make her feel normal, and rather than resent that she thoroughly embraces it, perhaps subconsciously knowing that in the tough world of showbiz, she needs to hold on to something real and honest to keep her grounded.

Ellena Wood is the director of Beckii: Schoolgirl Superstar At 14.

Beckii: Schoolgirl Superstar At 14 is on at 9pm on Thursday, 12 August on BBC Three, and is part of the channel's Adult Season.

You can read more on Beckii's story, in her own words, on BBC Slink

Once again, it takes a proven, entertainment format, but then turns it on its head, by adding a fresh element, in this instance, wheelchair dancing, a sport we were sure most viewers would never have seen before. A documentary element is also added, for as the series progresses, you will get to learn more about each disabled character's life.

The commission was the idea of an independent production company called Fever. Their pitch, in January 2010, was simple and very effective: they showed me a DVD of wheelchair dancing that they'd pulled off YouTube - something like this.

I was instantly taken with it: here was a real sport, enjoyed by people all over the world, but rarely seen in the UK, despite our obsession with ballroom and all things Strictly.

I then discovered that there was a Wheelchair Dance European Championship being held later in the year that our winning couple would be able to enter. So suddenly we had a real event to focus on. The UK had never entered this competition before.

After a discussion with BBC Three controller Danny Cohen it was commissioned quickly, but with a proviso: we asked that it be cast with celebrities who crucially already knew how to dance. We wanted to give this minority sport as a high a profile as possible on the channel and to bring a mainstream audience to something they would not necessarily know about.

I know this approach is debated by some members of the disabled - and non-disabled - community, who would prefer a more purist approach, but I want my series to be watched, and for wheelchair dancing to be talked about by as many people as possible. I think this is the best way to achieve that at this time.

The first challenge was to convince celebrities that this was a real show as many of them initially thought it was some kind of hoax! Others said they just found the concept too weird. But the more we got this kind of reaction, the more determined we were to make this. Soon it became clear there were a group of celebrities who were up for the challenge, though I don't believe any of them quite knew how it would take over their lives.

The final piece in the jigsaw was Brian Fortuna, the series teacher. As The Independent wrote in their TV review, "Gone was the sappy, nice guy persona he maintains in Strictly, replaced instead by a kind of foul-mouthed New York stage school sass."

Brian's no-holes-barred style in which he made no allowances for anyone's disability and instead, simply pushed them to be as good as they can possibly be, was exactly what the series needed.

His passion to bring able-bodied people together with wheelchair users is what drives the films, for he inspired all the contributors with his belief in it, and many of them surpassed their own expectations and, to be honest, his too.

I know from experience that when you make a disability programme you will always face criticism: you enter a quagmire where you're damned if you don't by the Why Are We Never On TV? lobby and if you do dip your toe in, then your approach can easily be attacked. I absolutely welcome the debate. Even so, I'm always a little shocked that sometimes, a programme like this is almost immediately dismissed, for example, by being accused of producing some kind of freak show.

On the BBC Ouch! messageboards meridi asks why we don't have an integrated show regardless of impairment and Nia says that she won't be watching Dancing On Wheels because she feels it's a shame that wheelchair users "have to be singled out and given a separate different TV program." [sic]

In fact, the whole reason they were singled out is because this is a real sport, with its own organisation and competitions that only an able-bodied and wheelchair using partner are allowed to enter.

David G started a thread on the Ouch! messageboards where he likens Dancing On Wheels to the Black And White Minstrel Show. In short, I fail to see the comparison - that was made up concept and people were blacked up, whereas wheelchair dancing is a real, competitive sport, no one is pretending to be anything they're not.

I understand there is no way this kind of criticism can be avoided, and I would never claim to have made the perfect series, but I am certain of one thing: the more disabled appear on primetime television, be it in comedy, drama or factual, the less prejudice and ridicule there will be for future generations of disabled people to face.

Finally, I will leave the last word to Diana Morgan-Hill, pictured at the top of this blog post with her partner, ex-Olympic swimmer Mark Foster. Diana's a 47-year-old mother who lost part of both her legs in an accident 20 years ago. She said, after a few days filming "It's wonderful, I never thought I'd dance again."

That alone is fantastic justification for making this series, and anyone who doubts this, should watch the final episode where we catch up with the contributors' lives and see what impact taking part has had on them.

Harry Lansdown is commissioning editor for factual programmes on BBC Three