Mike's story behind this dastardly deed
On Saturday 12 August 2006, we took 6 unsuspecting dancers from Route 66 to see the recording of the Brian Conley “Let Me Entertain You” show at Teddington Lock Studios.  What the dancers didn’t realise was that they were to be the stars of the show and perform a line dance in front of a national TV audience on BBC 2.   Many people asked me how this all came about so here goes.

The story starts some 3 years ago when BBC3 contacted me about filming Route 66 at the Broadwater WMC, where Margaret and I were teaching at the time. That show was called “Resistance” and featured Andy Bird having his entire face painted with the stars and stripes USA flag in a henna tattoo. I recall we danced the tush push for the cameras.
The researcher for that show was Michelle Woods who was later promoted to the position of Producer at Lion Entertainments, who were producing the new Brian Conley Show for BBC2. Michelle telephoned me and asked if I would like to surprise 6 of our line dancers on the new show, which would be a talent competition, with money prizes involved. The only catch was that the dancers must know nothing of the surprise.

Of course we would do it – Route 66 is game for a laugh if nothing else. But I wanted to use a dance that would be very visual, would demonstrate the versatility of line dancing in 2006 and yet I needed to be confident that the dancers would know the steps. I chose Home To Mamma the Italian song and dance choreographed by Hazel Pace. As the date of filming approached, Michelle and I were in regular contact and she advised me that BBC2 would pay £300 for a minibus to transport us all to the studios. All fine and dandy so far but a minibus !  not for me.  We hired a stretched limo for the day.

Now for the dancers. Who knows Home To Mamma and would be fun on the day ? Well Kevin and Val Stevens had worked really hard in arranging and supporting our new venue at Ashington, Rob and Kim Crooks work hard on the website and help out at all our lessons and dances and Graham and Sue Lade support us at Beecham’s and deal with admin issues there. So they seemed like the likely victims for a day out and I knew they all enjoyed Home To Mamma. I told them I had tickets to see a live TV recording, they were all available, and so the stage was set.

Only 3 days before the filming at Teddington, Michelle rang me to say I couldn’t use Home To Mamma because the song was only 2 minutes 28 seconds long, needed to be over 3 minutes. I had to find another one.  Panic stations !  Got it.  The song Hillbilly Shoes for the dance Feet Don’t Fail Me Now – a classic.  I rang Michelle back with the change and she once again set off to obtain the performing rights.   Thursday night at Beechams I played the song to see just how good the dancers would look on TV the coming Saturday. Disaster ! Both Rob and Graham walked off the floor as they either didn’t enjoy or couldn’t do that particular dance.

Friday morning I had to ring Michelle again and tell her my problem.   Overnight Margaret and I had racked our brains and came up with This Is Us by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris and Gaye Teather’s dance of the same name. That was our final choice. Michelle went off to get more performing rights.
On the day of filming, none of the dancers knew what was going on, although Kevin Stevens was very suspicious. As we had all brought champagne with us in the limo, we had to keep a very strict handle on how much they drank. As we all know to our cost, line dancing and too much alcohol do not mix. 

The show went well and was broadcast on 5th September. We enjoyed ourselves and lasted 1 minute 50 seconds before 50% of the audience pressed their buzzers and we were gone. We won £100 for our performance and it paid for our evening meal at Smith and Western at Box Hill, Surrey on the way home. Our host Brian Conley was very charming and full of praise for our dancing. In the October issue of Up Country there was also a very nice letter from Sue Marshall in Yorkshire who saw the programme and was suitably impressed. Most people who saw the show enjoyed it and we enjoyed our 15 minutes of fame.
Thank you to the dancers who suffered on the day, but I know deep down that you all enjoyed it.  By the way I have some tickets for another show coming up soon ………….. anyone interested ? 

Mike and Margaret Howarth (Mike Derrik)

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