Strictly Come Dancing couples to dance to BBC theme tunes to mark 100th anniversary

Theme tunes of ‘EastEnders’, ‘Blue Peter’ and ‘Grange Hill’ will all be featured on Saturday’s programme

Strictly Come Dancing is set to pay tribute to the BBC’s 100 years this weekend.

The main show on Saturday (22 October) will see each couple dance to a theme tune to a BBC show, or a song heavily featured on the broadcast network.

This will mark the first time that Strictly has based its entire week’s theme on the corporation.

The episode will begin with a group number that will show the Strictly professionals and judges gate crash some of the BBC’s best-known shows.

With several of this year’s celebrity contenders being stars of BBC shows, this week’s theme will feature some of them dancing to the songs that have been a large part of their careers.

James Bye, who plays Martin Fowler in EastEnders, will dance the foxtrot with Amy Dowden to the soap’s theme tune.

Wildlife presenter and cameraman Hamza Yassin, who achieved last week’s highest score of 39 out of 40, will perform a quickstep with Jowita Przystał to the Imagine Dragons track “On Top of The World”, which is heavily featured across the broadcaster’s nature programmes.

Meanwhile, Helen Skelton and her partner Gorka Marquez will dance a Charleston to the Blue Peter theme tune – a reference to her time presenting on the children’s programme from 2008 to 2013.

Skelton with partner Gorka Marquez (BBC/Guy Levy)

Here are this week’s dances and songs in full:

Ellie Simmonds and Nikita Kuzmin will dance the paso doble to “Montagues and Capulets”, featured on The Apprentice

Ellie Taylor and Johannes Radebe will dance the tango to the Casualty theme tune

Fleur East and Vito Coppola will jive to Abba’s “Waterloo”, in reference to Eurovision

Helen Skelton and Gorka Marquez will dance the Charleston to the Blue Peter theme tune

Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer will dance the Charleston to “The Ballad Of Barry and Freda (Let’s Do It)”, featured in Victoria Wood’s comedy work

Kym Marsh and Graziano Di Prima will dance the quickstep to “Ballroom Blitz”, featured on Come Dancing

Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu will dance the couples’ choice to the Grange Hill theme tune

Hamza Yassin & Jowita Przystał will dance the quickstep to Imagine Dragons’ “On Top Of The World”, featured on BBC Nature Programming

James Bye and Amy Dowden will dance the foxtrot to the EastEnders theme tune

Tony Adams and Katya Jones will dance the cha cha to the Grandstand theme tune

Tyler West and Dianne Buswell will dance the tango to the Doctor Who theme tune

Will Mellors and Nancy Xu will dance the Viennese waltz to the Line of Duty end credits

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.40pm, with the results show on Sunday at 6.45pm, on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.