Come Dancing

• As head judge on Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2016, Goodman brought a no nonsense honesty to his role, as well as his wealth of expertise.
• For children of the 1970s like me, early memories of ballroom dancing probably came from late night screenings of Come Dancing, the amateur dance contest that inspired Strictly.
• Although Come Dancing was to stumble on for another decade or so, ballroom dancing looked like it was finished.

How ballroom shaped Britain

• Ballroom dancing was one of the most important social and cultural features of 20th century Britain.
• First codified by dance teachers in Britain in the 1920s, the foxtrot, waltz, quickstep and others were later joined by the jive and the twist.
• In between, fashionable interlopers such as the Charleston, the Big Apple and the jitterbug briefly pushed their way onto the dance floor.
• Romantic music, close embraces and dim lighting made the ballroom the place to meet.

Len Goodman’s influence

• Len Goodman was one such dance-mad Brit.
• Born working class in Bethnal Green, London in 1944, he came to dancing relatively late at 19.
• He soon made up for this though and by his twenties he was winning dancing competitions up and down the country.