AJ paired on Strictly

There was a local twist, if you will excuse the dancing pun, to last night's launch of Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1 with Burleydam professional AJ Pritchard making his debut, the youngest professional ever on the show.

British and European Youth Latin and Ballroom Champions, AJ Pritchard, 21, and Chloe Hewitt, 20 of Pritchards Dance Academy of Burleydam fame both feature in the show with Chloe performing in dance routines while AJ, as he is known on the show, taking on the full responsibility of training a celebrity.

Last night he was paired up with an even younger celebrity, Claudia Fragapane, the Bristol based Olympic gymnast. They were immediately dubbed the 'Pocket Rockets'.

Unfortunately, no Audlem celebrities were selected this year as the professionals' partners – but maybe next year!

This was our original story in July announcing the news they were on the hit show which will be screened on Saturday nights:

New dancers are set to join BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing line-up this year... including the youngest ever ballroom professionals who happen to be very local!

The BBC has just unveiled the identities of the three new dancers joining the popular series and they include the British and European Youth Latin and Ballroom Champions, AJ Pritchard, 21, and Chloe Hewitt, 20 of Pritchards Dance Academy of Burleydam fame.

Not only are they extremely talented but are also the youngest ever professionals to take part in the programme.

British National Champion Neil Jones will also be waltzing onto the dance floor.

This comes after professionals Gleb Savchenko, Ola Jordan, Kristina Rihanoff, Trisan MacManus and Aliona Vilani quit the competition.

A J Pritchard and Chloe Hewitt have featured on AudlemOnline before and the photo is from two years ago when they became Junior Champions.

Strictly this season will certainly have a local twist. The big question is, will AJ and Chloe put Burleydam on the national map as Kevin Clifton has done for Grimsby!

Our thanks to Ian Haughey for spotting this breaking news.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.