Strictly Come Dancing with the Stars.

I have often wondered about the two titles of the two shows which are identical; the original series was many years ago and was watched by our mams and dads and was simply called Come Dancing; it was a perennial and went on for years and years. The dancers had numbers on their backs and as they danced the commentator would say who they were and what they did for a full time job: 'number seven is George Slade; when he's not winning dance competitions he can be found cleaning out the drains; it's in his family the whole family have been down the drains for years.' And there we are looking at a straight backed dinner suited man, elegantly guiding his beautifully dressed dancing partner around the dance floor, cleverly steering her between the other fixed smiled competitors.

Of course it was only ballroom dancing then and the name Peggy Spencer seems to spring to mind who I think ran some kind of dancing school.

In the eighties there was a great TV thriller on BBC called Edge of Darkness – I remember the theme music played by Eric Clapton – and there was a character in it played by the American actor Joe Don Baker; he was a CIA agent or something similar and his character would watch Come Dancing and marvel at the idea of having such a show on TV in Britain.

By the way Edge of Darkness is the same as the Mel Gibson feature film; it was released just as Gibson was persona non-grata in Hollywood so was a flop.

The current titles are as follows: in the UK it's called Strictly Come Dancing and in America it's called Dancing with the Stars. Strictly Come Dancing is a live show on Saturday evenings then two of the judges go straight to Los Angeles on Sunday and do Dancing with the Stars, which is actually produced by the BBC. First time, I think that a British company produces a show for a main channel in America. That goes out on a Monday evening there – both shows, by the way, are live for the dancing and then the results, are recorded later when the voting lines close and go out the following evening.

This season the head judge, Len, (above on the left) retired from the show in Britain but he is still the judge in America; Bruno travels over on the Sunday for the Monday show. When he didn't appear on the UK show recently it was announced that he was away due to a prior commitment – why didn't they just say he was doing Dancing with the Stars?

DWTS they call it in America and over here they just use the one word Strictly!

I despair as to why things always have to be shortened in show business. I was doing a Shakespeare play in Northampton, one time, and a casting director asked me if I was in As You! It sounds so ridiculous shortening such a short title from As You Like It!

Most of the shows you see on British TV and are hits in America don't get shown on the main channels. The Office, Graham Norton, for example, went and go out on BBC America which seems to show commercials every ten minutes and most of those commercials are really trailers for other BBC shows – in fact I think they still call them trails. Well happy trails to you.

The BBC classics go on to PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) which very few people ever watch or have even heard of. The other so called hits like Top Gear go out on other minor cable channels and some other dramas will go out on A&E which is on cable.

PBS, by the way, has different names (KCET in LA) in other parts of the country and some of the 'red neck' states heavily censor it.

In my time there I never saw a show made by a British TV company get shown on any of the terrestrial channels: CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox. Most hits from the UK were remade by the Americans so Strictly Come Dancing must have been the first show to be made by a British Broadcaster. American Idol, which was Pop Idol in the UK was made in the USA by ABC.

But back to Strictly Come Dancing with the Stars. The old show, many years ago, was produced by a greasy smarmy guy called Eric Morley, who also did Miss World. He died in 2000 but his wife inherited the title – Come Dancing – and on every episode of the UK version she is credited with giving her permission to use the title. In the IMDb it says she is credited with one episode – well she is on them all.

Look out for it at the end when the credits come up – it's the second card.

Now don't tell me that no money changed hands there – maybe she asked too much for the American version or maybe they were wise to change the title – which is better in any case.

Hey!! There's no business like show business.