Strictly Come Dancing: week 11 – live

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Paddington makes his Strictly debut

The duffel-coated Peruvian bear will appear in the ballroom tonight during a special number from the new Paddington musical. Hey, maybe he’ll dance to Lady Marmalade.

Hold onto your large felt hats, it’s 10 minutes until the clock strikes sequins…

On your dance cards tonight

As well as the Dance Relay, this week’s five “proper” routines from our couples are heavy on the Latin and speciality dances, with a Charleston, an Argentine tango, a salsa and a samba. Om;y Balvinder Sopal is flying the flag for ye olde trad ballroom with her Viennese waltz.

Extra dancers are also back for the first time since Blackpool, lending that big production feel to the musicals-themed numbers. Fifteen minutes until that ba-ba-da theme tune…

Let’s play Strictly bingo (Broadway edition)

Cross them off as you spot them on-screen! Take a drink for each! Get manhandled out of the theatre by usherettes for singing along too loudly! Threaten to sue and then fall over! Here’s your 10-point spotter’s guide for Musicals Week:

• Training VT sees couple visit the West End cast of the musical they’re channelling for “tips”

• Celebrity gushes unconvincingly about how much they love musical theatre

• Overuse of the words “iconic” and “legendary”

• Anton refers to his Musicals Week routines of yore, even though he only made it this far twice

• Fickle Claudia transfers her affections from Dave Arch to Paddington

• Craig modestly mentions his West End choreography credits

• Anton ropes in a secretly delighted Shirley to demonstrate waltz frame or tango hold

• Motsi says someone “brought their A-game” or “shut this ballroom down”

• Someone gets compared to Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers/Gene Kelly/Bob Fosse

• Shirley picks up a female celebrity on her footwork fundamentals but male celebs get away with it

A new bookies’ favourite for the glitterball

George Clarke has headed the betting for most of the series but in the wake of last week’s perfect 40, Karen Carney took over this week as the new glitterball favourite.

Unsurprisingly, poor Balvinder Sopal is odds-on to depart the dancefloor this weekend. Again. It’s 25 minutes until the spangly safety curtain comes up…

Sparkly batons at the ready for Dance Relay

Following the runaway success of last week’s enjoyably chaotic Instant Dance challenge, there’s another new innovation tonight. A special relay-style performance will see each couple take it in turns to hit the floor as part of a high-energy celebration of musicals.

It won’t be scored by the judges but is just an extra bid to win viewer votes. If Instant Dance chaos is anything to judge by, it should be interesting. Wonder what Nikita will wear this time? We’ll get our first clues in half an hour…

Who will make a show of themselves in Musicals Week?

It’s time for Strictly’s annual night out at the theatre. Good evening and welcome to week 11 of Strictly Come Dancing 2025. I’m Michael, your fellow thesp for tonight’s musicals-themed quarter-final. I’d love you to watch along with me as our couples perform routines inspired by West End and Broadway hits, hoping to make it through to the semi-final. They will also tackle Strictly’s first ever Dance Relay in their bid for viewer votes.

Last week saw two perfect 40s from Karen Carney and Amber Davies but these were thoroughly upstaged by the first ever Instant Dance challenge. Our couples raided the Elstree Studios clothes rails in a panic – cue Claudia Winkleman wearing a fruit hat, Nikita Kuzmin in the world’’s flounciest sleeves and George Clarke in a red fur pimp coat – before improvising mini-routines. Bonkers and brilliant. Alex Kingston and Johannes Radebe were eliminated after defeat to dance-off destroyer Balvinder Sopal.

Now just five pro-celebrity pairings remain in the race to become the next glitterball champion. You know the deal by now. Tonight’s scores will be combined with the public vote and the bottom two will dance-off for survival on Sunday night. Balvinder is bookies’ hot tip for the chop yet again but she’s defied the odds five times already. Who would be foolish enough to write off this year’s great survivor?

It’s showtime at 6.50pm on BBC One. I’ll be liveblogging from 6.20pm, providing build-up, rolling coverage, analysis, reaction and heckles from the stalls. So don your theatrical finery, pre-order your interval drinks and I’ll see you on the sofa.

As always, I’d love to hear from you too. You can tweet me @michaelhogan, contact me on Bluesky or Threads @michaelhogan100, email me [email protected] and the comments section below is for your first night reviews. I’ll pop a coin in my opera glasses occasionally to peer at you’re all saying.

It’s week 11 and we’re off to musicals heaven. Nearly time to staaaart all-singing and all-dancing!