And doesn’t the world just feel a better place for having Johannes in it? He’s paired with Montell Douglas (Fire from Gladiators). “I don’t think there’s a person on this earth who doesn’t want to be partnered with Jojo,” she said, and I think she’s right.
As for some of the other contestants: Paul Merson looked faintly terrified. Shayne Ward looked over-confident, and spouted all the guff about being “on a journey” and “feeling blessed” (he was previously on X Factor, so is well-versed in talent show cliches). Toyah Willcox informed us that she’d like to be the first 66-year-old to abseil down to the Strictly studio. JB Gill is, I’m pretty sure, the only person who can put “pop star and turkey farmer” on his CV.
At the outset of every Strictly series, some viewers complain that they’ve never heard of half of the people on it. Partly, it’s a generational thing: if you can sing along to It’s A Mystery by Toyah, you probably don’t know who Pete Wicks is, and vice versa. But in the end it never really matters, because you end up rooting for someone who a month ago you couldn’t pick out of a line-up.
Are there any early favourites? Sarah Hadland looked pretty good on the floor in the closing group dance. But if this series is all about entertainment, then Chris McCausland might go all the way. He joked of his partner Dianne Buswell: “She’s absolutely over the moon having me, because she really wants November off.” I’ve got a feeling they’ll be around longer than that.