It’s that time of year again.

A few weeks ago it was picnics and hanging the washing outside. Now kids are back at school, the nights are drawing in – and Strictly Come Dancing is back.

There are 15 couples hoping to waltz their way to the glitterball trophy, with the first live show taking place on Saturday night.

A former Love Islander, a cabaret singer and a YouTube star – this year’s Strictly has a packed line-up of celebs.

I’ve been backstage to meet some of them, to hear just how gruelling the training has been, what they’re most looking forward to – and what they’re most terrified about.

Before that, though, here’s a reminder of who’s on this year’s show.

On last week’s launch show, we found out which celebrities were paired with which professional dancers. Here’s the list in full:

• Alex Kingston and Johannes Radebe
• Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin*
• Balvinder Sopal and Julian Caillon
• Chris Robshaw and Nadiya Bychkova
• Ellie Goldstein and Vito Coppola
• George Clarke and Alexis Warr
• Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Karen Hauer
• Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Lauren Oakley
• Karen Carney and Carlos Gu
• La Voix and Aljaž Škorjanec
• Lewis Cope and Katya Jones
• Ross King and Jowita Przystał
• Stefan Dennis and Dianne Buswell
• Thomas Skinner and Amy Dowden
• Vicky Pattison and Kai Widdrington

*announced later

Former Love Islander Dani Dyer had also been due to take part. But she pulled out this week after breaking her ankle. Actress and West End star Amber Davies, who is also an ex-islander, has been drafted in as her replacement.

Game of Thrones actor Kristian Nairn also withdrew from the line-up earlier, on medical grounds.

Two pro dancers – Warr and Caillon – are new for this year.

But not everything has changed.

This year’s hosts are the same – Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.

There’s no change to the judges’ panel either. Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and head judge Shirley Ballas will be watching every step taken by the dancers.

Weeks of intense training lie ahead. So why would anyone go on the show?

Alex Kingston, a star of stage and screen for more than 40 years, including in Doctor Who and ER, said she’s taking part to show others “anything is possible”.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t feel necessarily any different than I did 20 years ago,” the 62-year-old said.

“And so I just think, if it’s something that you want to do, go for it. And also it’s important to stay healthy and to learn things.”

Meanwhile Neighbours star Stefan Dennis has a very personal reason for wanting to appear on Strictly.

“I actually am doing this for my wife, so I can dance with her,” the 66-year-old told me.

“My wife was a professional dancer, she is still is a dancer, and she’s married to a bloke who can’t dance to save his life. And it would just be really nice to take her out dancing.”

When I meet the couples at Elstree studios in Hertfordshire, they’ve been busy practising for the group routine.

Not everyone showed up for the interviews. Former Apprentice star Thomas Skinner dropped out of his slot the night before.

Skinner also walked out of a press event early, after seeing a message on a reporter’s phone which – he later said – “caught [him] off guard”.

I asked the celebrities who did turn up, how the training was going.

“It’s hard for me to let go of the whole, ‘I don’t dance’ thing, and just fully get into it, but that’s what I want to do. And I feel like I’ve started a bit… maybe,” said YouTuber and podcaster George Clarke, 25.

Clarke also told me he was ready for some hard home truths about his moves.

“I think it would be silly for me to turn up and think, week one, well, I’m going to go out there and the judge is going to say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’,” he said.

“I’m inviting it, because I think I’ll most likely be like, that’s fair enough.”

Former Team GB sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey – also known as Nitro in Gladiators – is no stranger to performing in front of audiences.

But the 37-year-old said Strictly is “totally different” to anything he’s used to.

“I’m learning more about myself through the process,” he said.

“Obviously, I’m not trained in any capacity in this way of life,” he added. “So I’m quite excited to see how I deal with that.”

That’s not to say there aren’t nerves though.

EastEnders star Balvinder Sopal, 46, said being on Strictly was a “dream”, who fell in love with the first series and has been hooked ever since.

“And now that I’m here, I’m absolutely petrified,” she laughed. “I don’t really know what to expect. I just keep thinking, have I made the wrong decision? I haven’t, but yes, it’s quite terrifying being on the actual other side of it.”

Model and actress Ellie Goldstein, 23, also admitted to feeling nervous.

She said she was particularly worried about learning the Charleston and the tango.

But Goldstein – who is the first star with Down’s syndrome to take part in a regular series of the dance show – also gave an insight into what she is most looking forward to.

“The spray tans, the hair and make-up, and the sparkles, the costumes… and the glamour,” she said.

Strictly, which has been airing since 2004, has faced multiple controversies in recent years relating to the behaviour of some of its professionals and celebrity guests.

This summer, the Metropolitan Police said it was investigating allegations of drug use on the show.

Separately, an unnamed star from the show was arrested on suspicion of rape. It is understood the man is not related to the new series of Strictly.

When asked whether the various controversies had put her off taking part in the show, Kingston said they hadn’t.

“I don’t really follow anything that’s outside of the actual show or the programme itself. So no, that didn’t bother me at all actually. I just wanted to get on with learning how to dance.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” added Australian actor Dennis. “Remember I come from the other side of the world.”

The Strictly live shows will run from Saturday right the way up to December.

This year’s series will also include all the usual theme weeks, including the Blackpool week.

Earlier this month, Strictly proved it remains a hit with viewers, who voted it best talent show at the National Television Awards.

Gemma Botting burst into tears when she saw the news headlines this week about a treatment for Huntington’s.

“I must have cried for three hours. Then the kids got home from school and I showed my daughter the BBC story and she burst into tears.”

Gemma’s husband, Matt, was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease in 2011. The condition resembles a combination of dementia, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease (MND) and is normally fatal within two decades after symptoms start to show. Matt became symptomatic two years ago.

Until now there has been no treatment. But on Wednesday researchers reported how a new gene therapy had managed to slow progress of the disease by 75%.

“It is like winning the lottery 10 times over,” says Gemma, 45. “I had accepted I would never get to grow old with my husband and that he might never see the kids become adults. That has all changed now.”

Gemma, who lives just outside Swindon with Matt and their two children, Amelie, 11, and Hugo, eight, says they have tried to make the most of the time they have had together.

When he was diagnosed, they took a break from their jobs in the logistics industry to travel the world. “We went for a year – got all our holidays in at once before we had the children,” Gemma says.

But even having children was something that took some navigating. They decided they wanted to screen out the gene that causes the disease. They had two options – either have a version of IVF whereby the embryo is tested for the gene before implantation, or conceive naturally and have the developing embryo tested.

They opted for the latter, but to be eligible for this couples have to agree to abort the foetus if the test is positive, as it was in their second pregnancy.

“We thought carefully about what we wanted to do. In the Huntington’s community not everyone agrees with screening it out. But we both knew we did not want our children growing up with the possibility of having this gene. It is such a cruel, cruel disease.”

Matt, now 43, is still able to walk, but has become clumsy with his movement and also been affected mentally.

“He has angry outbursts and has no empathy altogether. For example, if one of the children hurts themselves he will laugh. It’s worse when he’s tired. That’s how Huntington’s works – it alters your personality and that is incredibly hard for the children to understand.”

Matt no longer works, having had to retire on health grounds when his symptoms started to develop.

“In some ways we are lucky he got past 40 with no signs of it,” says Gemma. “His mother died from the disease when she was 40. And now we have the prospect of a treatment. We have got hope where there was no hope.”

She says that is a sentiment that will be felt by the whole Huntington’s disease community.

“I work in the evenings as a counsellor, often with people with Huntington’s disease. I trained partly to give something back to the community and because we needed the money as Matt is no longer earning.

“I often support people just after they have been tested for it. Depression is the most common issue as they feel all is lost. That is why the news about the treatment is so important. It will give everyone a lift,” she explains.

“Our neighbours and friends are even talking about fundraising so we can pay for the treatment. I just hope it is made available on the NHS quickly.”

That, of course, is the question on the mind of everyone who has been affected by the disease.

The BBC has been contacted by numerous families who have lost whole generations to the illness and others who have lost their loved ones to suicide because they were unable to face the inevitable decline that follows a diagnosis.

Dave, 73, from the West Midlands, lost his wife to Huntington’s. His son now has the disease and he is worried the gene may have been passed on to his granddaughter.

“It is horrible to see your loved ones suffer,” he says. “This treatment is desperately needed on the NHS.”

Whether and how quickly the treatment will become available is not yet clear.

The company behind the therapy, uniQure, says it will apply for a licence in the US in the first quarter of 2026.

Once regulators there have assessed it and, if they approve it for use, the UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), can piggyback off their work and put it through a quick regulatory process.

But that is only to decide if it is safe and effective. It will be up to another body, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to decide if it is affordable to be used on the NHS in England and Wales. A separate body makes that calculation for Scotland.

As a gene therapy involving brain surgery, it will be expensive. However, sources at NICE say that is not necessarily a deal-breaker. They point to the fact that a sickle cell therapy that costs £1.65 million per patient and a haemophilia B one that cost £2.6 million have already been backed by the health assessment body.

Sources there said the earliest the Huntington’s therapy could possibly be expected to be approved is the first half of 2027.

But that’s only if everything else goes smoothly – and there are more hurdles to overcome.

So far, just the headline findings have been released. Scientists say the full study needs to be published and assessed by independent experts to properly assess what has been achieved.

The study is also relatively small – there were just 29 participants who were followed for 36 months. This is not unusual for gene therapies, and others have made it onto the NHS off the back of small-scale trials. The case for this treatment is particularly strong given there are no current treatment options for the disease.

But even if this therapy is licensed, it is only going to help a small portion of Huntington’s disease patients as it’s aimed at those with early-stage symptoms or those who haven’t developed any yet. The complex nature of the surgery also means only specialist centres will be able to perform it.

Some scientists have pointed out that it is not yet certain the benefits will last long-term.

But Prof David Rubinsztein, deputy director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, says the scale of this breakthrough should still not be underestimated.

He says it offers “real hope” for this devastating disease and if the approach is successfully validated in the coming months it could even have broader implications for treating other neurodegenerative diseases from Parkinson’s disease and MND to dementia.

Gemma appreciates there is still some way to go before Matt can benefit, but she says for the first time in a long time she can be optimistic about the future.

“It’s like a dream – I can start thinking about growing old with my husband. That would mean the world to me and my children.”

Huntington’s disease is caused by an error in part of our DNA called the huntingtin gene.

If one of your parents has Huntington’s disease, there’s a 50% chance that you will inherit the altered gene and will eventually develop Huntington’s too.

This mutation turns a normal protein needed in the brain – called the huntingtin protein – into a killer of neurons.

The goal of the treatment is to reduce levels of this toxic protein permanently, in a single dose.

The therapy uses cutting edge genetic medicine combining gene therapy and gene silencing technologies.

The urban planning ideas of King Charles – which once saw him battling with the architectural establishment – are helping to inspire the next generation of new towns in England, imminently expected to be announced by the government.

The housing ministry’s head of placemaking, Biljana Savic, told a King’s Foundation event about plans for new towns that share much in common with the King’s traditional town-building philosophy.

The 12 new towns will be walkable and environmentally friendly, with “gentle density” such as “terraced housing and mansion blocks” rather than high-rise.

TV architect George Clarke says the King’s views on buildings have now become part of the mainstream.

“He was absolutely slammed down by the architectural establishment,” said Clarke of the King’s attacks on some modern design plans, such as in 1984 calling a proposed extension to the National Gallery a “monstrous carbuncle”.

But Clarke says there has been a sea-change and younger architects are much more empathetic about producing buildings that are sensitive to the local place and the likes and dislikes of the public.

“Let’s be honest, the enormous mass of 1960s brutalism was devastating for parts of Britain,” said the TV presenter.

“Too many modern designs had been ‘ego-driven’ and the architectural arrogance was off the scale,” he said.

Clarke now warns that too many people are having to “mortgage themselves up to the hilt” for homes on new estates that are not always well built and with poor access to local services.

“I would live in one of the King’s houses on one of his estates, which are really well designed, traditional pieces of architecture, sustainably done, high quality windows, with beautiful public spaces, places for kids to play, pedestrianised areas, village greens,” said Clarke.

The TV architect grew up in council housing in a new town, Washington, in the north-east of England, which he said was a “very humane piece of design”.

“It wasn’t streets in the sky. It wasn’t concrete carbuncles, it wasn’t anything ugly like that. There were simple, low density houses, amazing landscaping, brand new highways,” which he said provided a “fantastic place to live”.

The King’s support for traditional building styles, and his idea of “harmony” with nature, have helped to shape his own new town schemes, including Poundbury in Dorset and Nansledan in Cornwall.

They emphasise a walkable layout, using local building materials and creating public spaces which help to support a sense of community.

Although the traditional style had been attacked by some critics as inauthentic and backwards looking.

The government said it had received more than a hundred proposed sites for new towns, each expected to have a population of 10,000 or more, as part of its drive to create 1.5 million new homes.

The final selection of locations is expected to be revealed very soon, but Ms Savic, who once worked for the King’s charities, set out the challenges and the framework for how they might be designed.

Previous waves of new towns had been “responses to overcrowding and economic imbalance in the post-war period; they offered affordable homes, green spaces and a sense of community”, she said at an event run by the King’s Foundation, a charity which promotes sustainability and protecting traditional craft and building skills.

But Ms Savic said the post-war new towns “taught us very hard lessons” about being built too much around cars, a lack of maintenance of public spaces, poor transport links, a lack of social life and insufficient jobs.

The new towns will have a “design code” for buildings to create an identity. They will be walkable, with a goal of “environmental sustainability”, and with a significant proportion of affordable housing, said the ministry official.

This will mean a “compact” design with “higher density, but not necessarily in the form of high-rise buildings, but gentle density models that we are familiar with, such as terraced housing and mansion blocks,” she said.

The purpose was to turn “housing into homes and sites into communities”, she said.

The King’s Foundation event, held at Hatfield House, heard from more planners about how other new developments had been inspired.

Robert Davis, founder of Seaside, Florida, which was used to film The Truman Show, highlighted influences that included the Regency designs of Bath, Renaissance Siena and the ideas of King Charles.

The serious social consequence of town planning was emphasised by another US speaker, Jim Brainard, mayor of Carmel, a town in Indiana, which he’d helped to re-design as it expanded.

It had been a town without any centre or public places where people might gather, he said, a problem for this “fractured republic that we have in the United States today, with so much partisanship”.

“It’s so important for people of different backgrounds, different faiths, different races, different religions, to have a place to come together, to get to know people who have different backgrounds.

“Those types of interactions have taken place in town centres forever,” he said.