Bbc Archive
@bbcarchive·780K subscribers·1.9K videos
1986: Dancing Up a Storm at Blackpool | Forty Minutes: Dancing in the Rain | BBC Archive
Posted
December 13, 2025
Views
13,730
Likes
335
Comments
43
Engagement
December 13, 2025
13,730
335
43
2.75%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
37:58Now PlayingTo the boarding-houses of Blackpool, buffeted by howling winds and high seas, come 700 hopeful couples with one thing in common - a passion for dancing.
Competing in the World Ballroom Dancing Championships - the most important ballroom dancing contest of the year - are a 6ft 4in plumber, a 56-year-old gas fitter, a secretary from the Ministry of Defence, two shop assistants from a smart London store, and a teenage couple still at school. They're all tough, fit and determined; prepared to sacrifice everything for a sport that can cost well over £3,000 a year.
It is an evening of excitement, tension and humour in which much is at stake, with moments of high drama for couples who, for a whole year, have dreamt about 'winning at Blackpool'.
Clip taken from Forty Minutes: Dancing in the Rain, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 16 October, 1986.
You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.
Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss a single stop on our amazing journey through the BBC Archive
You can also dive into plenty more BBC Archive on our website
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
