Strictly Come Dancing pro says 'we need to cut the deadwood and have more British dancers'

Former Strictly Come Dancing professional James Jordan has offered his verdict on this year's 2025 series of the beloved BBC One dancing show.

James, 47, served as a professional dancer on Strictly between 2006 and 2013, partnering with numerous celebrities including Alex Jones, Gabby Logan, Denise Van Outen and Vanessa Feltz.

Speaking exclusively about the approaching series on behalf of Freebets.com, where he serves as the resident entertainment betting expert, James claimed that the show needed a huge shake-up of its pro dancers.

Talking about Strictly welcoming new pro additions, Alexis Warr and Julian Caillon, to the 2025 series, James claimed: "I think the show does need a bit of a mix-up of the pros. I think next year, actually, I'd literally cut 50% of them.

"Some of them have been on the show and, you know, you've got deadwood. Eventually, you need to kind of just get rid of it. So yeah, I would say they need to kind of change the pros up a little bit more next year. That's just my personal feeling.

"Give other people a chance, right? If you've been on this show for a really long time, you know, you need to know when it's time to step aside because you do become...

"You know, I did the show for eight years. Was I as hungry my last year as I was the first? Not really. So I just think maybe, yeah, they need a bit more of a refresh with the pros."

James went on to say: "Maybe get a few more British people on there as well because there's lots of good British dancers that would love to do the show that I know personally would love to do the show, that are very, very good.

"Listen, my wife [Ola Jordan, who was also a pro on Strictly between 2006 to 2015] is Polish, so I'm all for diversity and having foreign dancers on the show.

"But if you've got good homegrown people in this country looking to do Strictly, I think they should have that opportunity. That's just my personal feeling."

Strictly Come Dancing starts this Saturday at 6:40pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.