Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood says he 'thinks there will be same-sex couples' on next year's show

Revel Horwood said there's 'no reason' why the series' format can't be changed
Aime Grant Cumberbatch11 September 2017

Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has hinted there may be same-sex couples on next year’s show.

The long-time judge told Lorraine Kelly that he saw “no reason” why celebrities couldn’t dance with professionals of the same gender in the future.

“In the world of competition there are same-sex couples that do it as well so there is no reason why that can’t happen,” he said on Monday’s episode of Kelly's ITV chat show.

“It’s just I guess the Beeb have to decide whether they want to do that one year and I think it’ll probably happen next year.”

But despite the judge’s enthusiasm for greater diversity on the dancing series, Strictly bosses appear less keen to introduce same-sex couples.

Strictly Come Dancing 2017 - In pictures

1/14

Earlier on Monday, the BBC revealed it has ‘no plans’ to switch up the competition’s format.

“Strictly has chosen the traditional format of mixed-sex couples and at the moment we have no plans to introduce same-sex couples in the competition,” a spokesperson told The Metro.

But Revel Horwood isn’t the only Strictly castmember to voice their support for same-sex dance pairings.

Contestant the Reverend Richard Coles, who is in a same-ex relationship, said he has ‘discussed’ the possibility with producers.

‘We’ve had a discussion about [same-sex couples], actually, and I don’t know,’ he revealed to Digital Spy. “It makes absolutely no sense that anybody resists the idea, in principle.”

Meanwhile comedian Susan Calman, who is also gay, was forced to defend her decision to dance with a male professional after she received criticism on social media last week.

In an interview with the BBC she said that she felt her appearance on the show and support from her wife made a ‘powerful' statement.

"No one can say I haven’t stood up for my community. I think politically, there’s nothing more powerful than having an openly gay woman on the biggest show on television, whose wife’s on the front row, doing what she wants to do,” she told the publication.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday, September 23 at 7pm on BBC One.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in