The cast of the Strictly Come Dancing tour fully ingratiated themselves to their Newcastle crowd on Wednesday night - mentioning a certain football result on more than one occasion as the show threatened to become a United love-in.
The Strictly tour is a massive audience puller across the country year after year and it’s arrival on Tyneside came less than 24 hours after Newcastle United booked their place in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, with a 2-1 victory over Southampton.
Now, while a Strictly show and a football match could be seen as polar opposites, it didn’t take long for the references to the Magpies getting to Wembley to come flooding in inside the Utilita Arena.
First up, after he performed his first number, Kiss FM DJ Tyler West admitted that he’d had “a bit of a late one” the night before after arriving in Newcastle hours after the final whistle blew, before using that as his cue to don a black and white scarf round his neck.
As he and Helen Skelton waited to take to the floor, Kai Widdrington held up a bit of paper with Toon Army clearly visible on it, before mentioning his connection to the city due to football playing dad Tommy, a former United keeper.
And, making his debut as a live tour judge, the always enthusiastic Anton Du Beke also got in on the act and earned a huge cheer from the crowd by backing Newcastle to win the cup, declaring it would be “marvellous” if they beat Manchester United at the end of the month.
While the result of the Carabao Cup is still very much anyone’s game, victory on night one in Newcastle went the way of Helen and Kai, with the Geordie audience voting for them as their champions, ahead of the evening’s runners up Will Mellor and Nancy Xu.
Our Carabao Cup final special is available to pre-order now! CLICK HERE to get your copy as Newcastle United prepare for a historic day out at Wembley. Also available to purchase through local participating retailers from February 15th.
