Strictly Come Dancing legend Craig Revel Horwood delivers his real verdict on new hosts – and assesses entire line-up

I’m really loving this new season of Strictly, and I love the new hosts. I think they provide an extra oomph of energy. Josh is very funny, and Emma is the ultimate professional. And it’s great that we’ve got JoJo upstairs, who can demonstrate a bit of dancing as well. He’s the first host we’ve ever had who’s an accomplished dancer.

Of course, it was a little bit tentative at first without Tess and Claudia. It’s a jolt, like changing your family members. On the first show this year, we were all thinking, “Oh, how’s this going to go? What’s going to happen?”

And I feel like we’ve got over all of that, and everyone knows what they’re doing. Like all good relationships, it takes time to develop. And I think it’s developed really nicely.

We’ve also had new twists like the three-way dance-off on Halloween. It was a very different atmosphere judging to send someone home, rather than save them – normally there would be, for instance, applause after you save someone. But when you’re judging to send someone home, it adds tension. And I liked it!

I think change is what breathes fresh life into the production. People’s tastes change every year – fashion, music, culture – and Strictly is always keeping up with that. I think that’s what holds it at the top of its game, because it’s constantly moving with the times, and introducing new dances, styles and types of dancers every year.

I’ve given it 22 years of my life so far. It was original, and we created it all together. We didn’t know for one minute that it was ever going to work. In fact, Len Goodman – bless him, and rest his soul – and I both said together, “We give it three weeks”.

We thought it would be off air after that. But it won the hearts and minds of the nation. There’s something to be said of human nature – people love dancing and have done since the beginning of time.

How can this year’s celebrities get to the final? Learning the dance routines and getting a perfect score is one thing, but it doesn’t matter unless you’ve won over the audience. You need the fifth judge at home to vote for you.

It’s about being who you are. You can’t falsify that, people see through it. The important thing is to tell your life story and dance that!

Craig's verdicts on the current couples

Dani Dyer and Nikita Kuzmin

Greatest strength: Dani is prepared to throw herself all in and I think that’s really, really important. Even if it’s something that she doesn’t think she can do, she will put her whole mind and body and spirit into it.

Biggest weakness: She judges herself too much.

Her next move: To beat the competition, Dani needs to go in with a confident and forward-thinking opinion about the dance, so she can really jump on the back of it, and try to nail all the technique.

Delta Goodrem and Kai Widdrington

Greatest strength: Delta’s a performer, and used to performing in large arenas. And she’s got very good timing. Her other strength is that she’s got the length of bone to create those beautiful, long, elongated lines, which really helps in ballroom and when she’s in hold.

Biggest weakness: Ironically, Delta’s greatest strength is also her biggest weakness – she’s got very long limbs that she’s got to control. That is harder for a taller person. In fact, that was my own battle as a dancer, because I have very long arms.

Her next move: Improving her footwork would take her dancing to the next level.

Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby

Greatest strength: Cach is fantastic. His greatest strength is that he’s a naturally gifted and talented dancer.

Biggest weakness: He’s experienced in one style but he has to get out of that and go into the ballroom world, which is the total opposite. He’s used to dancing into the ground, and what you’ve got to do in ballroom is glide across the floor.

His next move: He needs to completely get to grips with the technique of each dance, and throw himself into the technical side of it a little bit more than he has been.

Will Best and Dianne Buswell

Greatest strength: Will’s strength is his personality. He really puts 100 per cent into absolutely every dance he does, whether it looks crazy or not. But he also really tries to get the technique down.

Biggest weakness: He can be a little bit mechanical. He needs to get more rhythm.

His next move: He should calm things down a little bit. He can be quite wild on the dance floor. He needs to make a concentrated effort to apply just a little bit more grace to his dancing.

Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola

Greatest strength: Lacey’s done really, really well. She was very nervous, and that was stopping her from dancing brilliantly. And then suddenly she found a dance – the Charleston – that she loved, and she did that with great success. I think she’ll fly through the rest of the competition.

Biggest weakness: Her weakness before the Charleston was her lack of confidence. She just needed to believe in herself, and get one fantastic dance under her belt. I absolutely loved that dance. She got the full swivel. She was on time. And her lifts were spectacular.

Her next move: I think she’s going to approach each dance with more love, and that’s what I would ask her to apply to herself.

Jaime Winstone and Carlos Gu

Greatest strength: Jaime’s such a fantastic dancer. She needs to believe in herself a little bit more, and know that she can do it.

Biggest weakness: I think she gets terribly nervous and that stops her from performing to her best ability.

Her next move: She needs to mentally prepare for the journey to come, because you can get halfway in the competition and start doubting yourself. She needs to trust herself and her judgements.

Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley

Greatest strength: He’s great at adapting and he has extremely good timing and rhythm. And he seems to be able to cope with most of the styles of the dances.

Biggest weakness: He dances, sometimes, a bit small. He needs to dance a bit bigger. And he needs to control his arms better.

His next move: He should avoid closing in on himself in solo bits. When he does his solo dances, he needs to really take the floor by storm.

Tabby Stoecker and Mark Karmalita

Greatest strength: She’s bubbly, she’s excitable. That really comes across on the dance floor. And she is so gorgeous to watch.

Biggest weakness: She can be sometimes a little bit timid. She dances in a very small, personal way. I would say that hampers her a little bit.

Her next move: Going forward, if she creates more of an impression and is more explosive on the dance floor, I think she’ll win the day.

John Nellis and Katya Jones

Greatest strength: John will give anything a go and that’s what I love about him. He’s very approachable. He listens carefully and really wants to get it right.

Biggest weakness: He’s not as naturally gifted as some of the others, and has to work a lot harder at nailing the routines. So, he needs to commit and rehearse probably a bit more than other people in order to get the styles.

His next move: He should keep working hard on technique and on his acting. He needs to better portray the characters in every dance.

Checkmate – Craig's take on why these celebs went home...

Chris Appleton

Chris was an adorable character and he really committed to it. But the fact of the matter is, he clearly didn’t win over the audience.

Melanie Walters

She was great, but I think she struggled with a lot of the different styles of dance. And in Strictly, it’s really important that you can do all of them well. She was a bit more of a ballroom babe than a Latin lover.

Dame Sarah Storey

She had great energy, she was fantastic and gave us some really spectacular routines. But I don’t think she could keep up with the rest of the dancers in the competition. She came to a full stop.

Shaun Wright-Phillips

Shaun was good, but sadly not good enough! I think he probably hit the limit of what he was capable of achieving.

Lawrence Robb

I loved Lawrence and really wanted him to go further in the competition, but he was up against two extremely good celebrities. And sadly, he went wrong in his dance-off.

Bethany Antonia

I am absolutely gutted that Bethany left. She was naturally gifted, but needed to technically master the routines.

The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.

Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One.

Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast