BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Shirley Ballas 'excited' over major move away from ballroom

Shirley Ballas has said she's 'excited' as she confirmed a major move away from Strictly Come Dancing. The show's head judge has landed a big-money deal to adapt one of her novels into a six-part drama.

Shirley, 64, has sold the rights to her book Murder On The Dance Floor, which dropped last year and took inspiration from her own experiences in the competitive ballroom world.

The novel - which was followed earlier this year by Dance To The Death with a third book on the way - focused on coach Lily Richmond, who has to solve a murder with one of her students after someone died during a competition.

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She told the Daily Star newspaper's Hot TV column: "It has been picked up for a series. It's very exciting. I'm not sure on how long it'll take for it to be made. This is a new project for me and I've not done this before, so I don't know how long it'll take. But I'm excited."

Shirley will be heavily involved with producers to make sure the series matches her vision, right down to casting choices. She said: "I will be involved in it all and I'll be taking guidance on who will be in the cast."

But the 'Queen of Latin' never expected to see one of her novels turned into a series, but she's thrilled by the opportunity. She added: "When I was going into meetings, I was staring out and thinking, 'Seriously?' It's going further down the chain as time goes on, so it's a very exciting process."

The inspiration behind the novel itself came as Shirley was working on her autobiography, but decided some of the ballroom stories weren't suitable. She previously told the Huffington Post: "It's a behind the scenes look at what I think people guess in their mind goes on and I'm just writing about it."

"I mean, it's quite true to life. It's saucy, it's sensual, there's lots of love going on there and hate! And backstabbing!" She added: "People will be intrigued to think, 'did Shirley take part in that? Did she witness it? Or is it fiction?'. You're going to have to guess."