The problem with a good idea is that it has to be a good idea!

As a reporter for over50 years, I still don't learn.

You are heading to a story and already working out the introduction in your mind - and then the person you talk to gives you a totally different take, sending you straight back to the drawing board.

This was going to be a nostalgia page featuring ball room dancers. It would hang on the hook that the first Strictly Come Dancing celebrities for 2023 have already been named - and Strictly definitely begins he countdown to Christmas.

So there are not many ballroom dancers in Copeland.

That is fine, we can use X Factor instead. Same difference - X Factor races towards the competition for the Christmas Number 1.

Except it turns out that there has been no X Factor for the past several year.

Well,I am not really the correct demographic anyway!

What I did discover during a search of out archives is that dancing is popular in Copeland, if not strictly ballroom.

In fact the area even had a visit from Tim Noble, choreographer for Kylie Minogue, Justin Timberlake and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.. He came to the Cowper School of Dance m Whitehaven km 2010 which must have delighted pupils.

I loved the photo of the Camp Cooks who tried to persuade the public to join in their impromptu jig during a Home and Garden event. No information about who they were and in what camp they were coking, but they certainly look like they were having fun.

Dance seemed to play a significant part of school life in the area with country dancing and school dance competitions.

Orgill school looked to be giving it some welly while doing the jive or jitterbug to Glen Miller's in the Mood .

Never mind all that, though. What I need to say is that Strictly Come Dancing is due to start soon. It is time to start preparing for Christmas!

Don't say you were not warned!