The EPGs for Saturday 19th are starting to appear and, whilst there's no programs filled in yet, the TBA slots give us a good idea of what shows will be on when.

And, good lord, the BBC may have done something sensible...

Merlin - 6:50 - 7:35
SCD - 7:35 - 9:15

They've actually managed to put both programs on at a sensible time and have booted Casualty back to 9:25.

This isn't final confirmation but it seems very likely.

Is Merlin a new series? Hope it is, I really enjoyed the last series.

Hopefully thats right Claire. Thats a good time slot, not too early and not too late

Yes, it is.


I hope so too. I don't want either program to suffer by being on too early.

Is the 19th the show when we'll be introduced to the couples (i.e. no dancing)?

That's more like it BBC .

Not to spoil things though () but the week 1 show last year did start at 7:30 but from week 2 onwards went back to its 6/5.30pm slot .

We'll just have to wait and see .

Woo Hoo! Merlin is back as well. I'm off to organise my takeaway menus and stock the "wine cellar".

Yeeeeesssssssss!!

Thank you

No, the competition starts on Friday 18th with half the couples dancing; the other half dance on the 19th..... This is to stop the all male celebs one week, and all female the next, which no one seemed to like.

It's going to be on Friday & Saturday for the first 2 weeks, then just on Saturdays after that.

They're dancing that night. And the night before too.

That's a point actually, I don't think there is a intro show this year, is there?

Ta for the info girls

It's a shame they are skipping the preliminary show where they film the couples meeting for the first time, especially as I'm unfamiliar with quite a few of this year's celebs.

I 'tweeted' and asked and was told NO, that the couples first meetings would be covered in the first couple of shows

Bad timing for those whose young children love strictly I can see bedtime battles unless we skyplus and watch fridays show on saturday and saturdays on sunday at a earlier time.

factually incorrect people..

the first 8 couples are dancing on the 18th (a ballroom) and then they dancing again on the 19th (a latin) and then one of those 8 get chucked out..
4 girls and 4 boys
The first 8 are:

Joe and Kristina, Matt and Martina, Darren and Lynda, Brian and Ali, Aliona and Rav?, Ola and Chris Hollins, Erin and Ricky G and Ian and Jade


then the other 8 couples dance similar the next Friday and Saturday
The second 8 are:
Vincent and Natalie, Flavia and Craig, Lilia and Richard, Tufnel and Katya, Brendan and Jo, Anton and Laila, James and Zoe and Natalie Lowe and Ricky W.

Hope this helps.

And the 2nd 8 will be doing a group dance in the first week.

Don't worry, as they will surely show that many times as part of the endless and tiresome recaps ......

It's a Saturday, no school the following day, (same applied to Friday of course), everyone can have a lie-in Sunday morning, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Yup but conversely being on too early is a problem for many others - for people who have been out shopping or the some such on a Saturday, starting at 6pm means they miss the start of the show.

Interesting that they're saving the more widely appealing Latin dances for the big show on the Saturday night. The Friday will just ease us in gently with some nice ballroom ...

x x x x x

I don't know if someone has already said this (apologies if they have) but are they not going to run out of dances earlier? They've the same number of couples but they're doing two dances before anyone goes, and so won't they need to pad out the series with extra dances? I'm not very keen on this, although it's nice that each celeb gets two chances to prove themselves initially.

Vikki - I actually prefer the ballroom but accept that I'm probably in the minority (although last year's winner and some of the previous ones have actually been better ballroom than latin dancers).

Last year they had to repeat a dance but with different music so they'll probably end up just doing that twice this year or starting two dances a week later.

I do prefer the ballroom dances too, so I'm looking forward to a show just of Waltz and Tango. Hopefully the pro dance will be quite good also, to top the evening of nicely .

hello everyone



i really hope they stick to this time every week

Is Saturday's show recorded seeing as the Friday one is live?

they would dare record the saturday show would they?

friday show is only for the first two weeks i think

They're both live as we get to vote during the Saturday show .

Good stuff!