They'll have the time of their lives, as a new TV show aims to teach a group of celebrities all of the routines from Dirty Dancing.
The 1987 blockbuster, which starred Patrick Swayze as Johnny and Jennifer Grey as Baby, is regularly voted one of the best dance films of all time.
The show-stopping lift at the climax of the movie, set to the hit soundtrack of (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life, by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, is a must-see moment.
Now, TV bosses are hoping that a group of celebrities will work up a sweat to reproduce the action, and score another TV dance floor success as big as Strictly.
An insider told The Sun : “The moves aren’t easy. After all, the late, great Swayze was a professional dancer. This is one of the best-loved films of all time and offers a really clever theme which will allow them to get celebs dancing.”
Tripping the light fantastic on telly has proved to be a big hit over recent years, with the latest show, ITV’s The Masked Dancer, reaching an audience of five million for its final earlier this month.
There is no news yet on who the celebrities will be or even which channel will broadcast the series. So while we wait, let's look back on the times when that much-admired jump and hold has been copied on screen, with varying degrees of success.
In the 2011 romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love, Emma Stone rushed towards Ryan Gosling once he’d taken off his shirt (well, who wouldn’t?) They copied the scene faithfully, complete with the right background snog. The couple reunited in dance when they starred together in the 2014 Oscar-winning LaLaLand.
That same year, Miss Piggy was hoping that Pepe the king prawn would be able to catch her in the air and raiser her above his head, In a funny scene from the movie The Muppets, Kermit walks in on their rehearsals as Pepe wearily says, “One more time? OK, on my count.”
The two Bolton bouncers recreated the moves, in an episode of the 2004 sitcom Max And Paddy’s Road To Nowhere. Paddy McGuinness’s character teaches his pal (played by Peter Kay) to impress the ladies in a nightclub.
Late Night talk show host Jimmy Fallon usually lip-synches to his favourite songs, but in 2015 he mimicked the dance moves too, with Drew Barrymore, in a floaty pink frock as his partner. They managed the overhead lift by Jimmy lying on the floor, allowing Drew to 'float' on his shins and hands.
Paddy McGuinness must be fond of his routine, as he tried it again, this time with Keith Lemon in a 2017 episode of The Keith & Paddy Show, where they did a step-by-step parody of the film.
