A crew of firefighters from Cambridge whose safety video got everyone talking on social media are set to appear on a prime-time dance show on New Year’s Day.
The five-strong group, who work at Cambridge Fire Station and are all members of Black Watch, were chosen to appear in a dance entertainment show after producers saw their Halloween video promoting safer Halloween costumes.
In the Halloween video, the firefighters re-enact Michael Jackson’s Thriller - with the opening shot of one of the firefighters crawling out of a drain dressed as a zombie, with another member of the crew sliding out of a drawer at the back of the rescue vehicle.
The video was viewed more than 220,000 times on Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue’s Facebook page, featured in an article on The Mirror online and reached countries including New Zealand and Australia.
The five-strong group of firefighters - made up of Myles Strickland, 23, James Ball, 35, Chloe Housden, 26, Dom Mould, 29, and crew commander Jeff Whitlam, 40 - will be performing in ‘Diversity Presents Steal The Show’.
It is being broadcast on ITV at 7pm.
Hosted by dancer and choreographer Ashley Banjo, from the UK’s top dance troupe Diversity, the show sees three unknown dancers come together in a dance off, culminating in a prize trip to Las Vegas.
Also part of the show is ‘The Office Dance Off’ - where the Cambridge firefighters go head to head in a dance-off with a group of dentists.
Performing with Black Watch on the night will be Diversity dancers Perri, Warren and Terry, along with Britain’s Got Talent stars Stavros Flatley, a Greek father and son comedy dance duo consisting of Demetrios Demetriou and his son Lagi.
The group is up against a team of dentists from London who are dancing with Ashley and other members of Diversity along with X-Factor rapper Honey G.
At the end of the show, all the dancers come together for what ITV is describing as a ‘show-stopping finale performance.’
Black Watch commander Darren Thompson was in the audience on Friday December 16 with station commander Jamie Johnson and chief fire officer Chris Strickland when the show was recorded.
Darren said: “I was immensely proud of them. They did amazingly well.
“To ask somebody to stand up on stage in front of 400 people is one thing but then to know you are going to be seen by about three million people on New Year’s Day on ITV is another.”
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