Karen Hardy and Anita Rani Talk STRICTLY Live Tour

It will be a decade since its first live tour but, when Strictly Come Dancing takes to the road on January 20, 2017 in Birmingham, audiences will experience for themselves the magic of the TV show at arenas throughout the UK.

The touring entertainment extravaganza will star many of the celebrities and professional dancers currently competing each weekend on BBC1 who'll be recreating their most popular routines from the TV series. Details of who will be touring the country will announced over the next few weeks. (Find ticket deals here)

On top of all the glitz and glamour, there will be two important additions to the show. First up, there's a brand new presenter in the shape of Anita Rani, 38. Anita is a very popular presenter on TV at the moment, from fronting documentaries to being a regular on Countryfile to co-hosting This Morning each Friday over the summer alongside James Martin.

It's her much-praised participation on BBC1's Strictly last year that makes her perfect for this new role. For someone with no dancing experience, the combination of Anita's hard work, energy and joy of learning to dance carried her through to the semi-finals. And the fact that she had the preposterously good-looking Gleb Savchenko as a partner didn't exactly prove a drawback. The two of them then went on to dance on the Strictly UK live tour earlier this year.

So she couldn't be more thrilled, she says, to be invited to present all 30 shows on the 2017 tour. "My initial reaction when I was first asked was that the bottom felt as though it had fallen out of my stomach. And then a split second later, I thought: 'Well, why the heck not?' Here was a new challenge, something that tapped into that side of me that enjoys trying something a bit scary. I'm also excited by the thought that I might even be given a dance to do."

It will certainly be an experience outside Anita's familiar comfort zone. Some of the programmes with which she's been involved have been very serious indeed.

"But, in a way," she says, "that's why the Strictly experience was so fabulous because it was pure, unabashed entertainment. It's also why I love that I'm going to be back in that Strictly bubble. Doing something serious doesn't mean to say I don't want to taste this little bit of glamour again. I get to wear lashes and big hair. I insist on wearing nail varnish, lipstick and eyeliner on Countryfile, but it pales into insignificance compared with my Strictly makeover."

And how does Anita's husband, Bhupi, feel about his wife going on tour? "He loves the idea," she says, "because he knows how much Strictly meant to me. I found I could dance, something I'd never have known if I hadn't had that experience. I discovered something within myself which has become my passion. I really love that I can use my body in that way. I wish now that I'd started learning how to dance when I was three. Bhupi will come and see me, but then all my family will."

The other new addition is Karen Hardy, who's joining the tour as a judge alongside veterans Len Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood. She won the 1998 Professional Latin American Dance Championship with partner Bryan Watson and has a string of British and World titles to her name. She and Bryan also won the Carl Alan Award for services to the dance world.

Then, in 2006, Karen, now 46, won Strictly with partner Mark Ramprakash. But, when it comes to the tour, she says, it's all new. "So imagine my feelings when I got an email asking if I would be one of the judges for the 10th Anniversary Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour 2017.

"I know and respect Len and Craig so much because they each know what they're talking about. That doesn't mean to say, though, there won't be plenty of banter amongst this new Strictly Live Tour judging panel."

Karen has known Len since she was in single figures. "It's no exaggeration to say that I regard him as a legend. There is absolutely nothing he doesn't know about ballroom. In fact, Len was one of the reasons why I was inspired to join Strictly as a professional dancer.

"I've loved my involvement with Strictly in all its forms. It's become my self-indulgence. So it was like Christmas came early when they asked me to be a judge on next year's tour."

She also has nothing but praise for fellow judge Craig. "I know he's cast as the bad boy, the villain of the piece. But, if you listen to what he has to say, you realise he's drawing on a well of dance experience, much of it learnt via his choreography work in the theatre. Yes, some of this putdowns can sometimes seem a bit harsh, but he's never nasty for the sake of it and, like Len, he's at the top of his game."

Karen currently judges all the Grand Slam dance events worldwide, and her keen eye well known to Strictly's TV audience courtesy of her twice-weekly appearances on Zoe Ball's spin-off show, It Takes Two. But she has former BBC Breakfast presenter Bill Turnbull to thank for her becoming something of a small-screen dance pundit.

The two of them were partnered in 2005's Strictly. Karen was duly invited on to Bill's early morning sofa, where she quite quickly realised that the viewing audience didn't really know the difference between a top line and a ronde.

"So I made it my business to demystify ballroom dancing. I got an immediate feedback from the public so much so that, when I was invited in 2011 to appear on It Takes Two, I jumped at the opportunity. I love sharing my enthusiasm for dance while also helping to show people how it's done."

Karen bowed out of Strictly in 2009 to concentrate on her new project. Meanwhile, she and Mark Ramprakash have remained mates to this day, although their very first meeting might easily have turned into their last if both didn't have a keen sense of humour. "Of course I thought he was gorgeous when I first clapped eyes on him," recalls Karen, "but I didn't know him, only that he was something to do with cricket.

"So I greeted him with: 'Oh, Mark, my favourite cricketer!' Then, at the end of that first meeting, we had to swap phone numbers so we could easily arrange training sessions.

"I apologised that I couldn't remember his surname - in truth, I had no idea what it was - and he said: 'Well, it's long.' So I wrote down L.O.N.G. When I found out my mistake, we both roared with laughter and got on like a house on fire from that moment."

Strictly Come Dancing Live UK Tour kicks off in Birmingham on 20 January and runs until 12 February. For tickets and venues, visit www.strictlycomedancinglive.com or call 0844 875 8758, or find more deals here

Picture credit: Trevor Leighton

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