Pixie Lott, Caroline Flack and Frankie Sandford brought the glamour to this year's troupe of celebrities taking on Strictly Come Dancing.

The pop stars and presenter embraced their glitterball makeovers with Lott in a revealing yellow lace-up outfit and Flack in a sequinned version of her trademark shorts.

Singer Lott, on being the bookies' early favourite to win, said: "I don't think you can look at it that way so early. Who can predict what's going to happen?"

Flack is a former presenter of ITV X Factor spin-off show The Xtra Factor, but said she had not entirely defected to the BBC in the Saturday night ratings battle.

She said: "You can't think of it as a rival really otherwise it ruins all the fun.

"I love The X Factor, I always will, I'm still going to watch it. But I need to put my heart into this, so it's just something different."

Saturdays star Sandford dazzled in sequins alongside tennis mother Judy Murray, Mrs Brown's Boys star Jennifer Gibney, This Morning presenter Alison Hammond and Casualty actress Sunetra Sarker.

The male contestants were also looking dapper, although MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace said his kitchen mate John Torode had not been overly encouraging.

He said: "John sent me a text saying, 'Wish you the best of luck mate, I wouldn't do it.'"

Blue singer Simon Webbe, former The Only Way Is Essex star Mark Wright and ex-rugby player Thom Evans also glammed up in sequins, along with Bargain Hunt auctioneer Tim Wannacott, EastEnder Jake Wood, naturalist Steve Backshall and BBC Radio1 DJ Scott Mills.

Recently retired presenter Sir Bruce Forsyth led his former co-host Tess Daly and replacement Claudia Winkleman onto the red carpet at Elstree Studios and they were joined by judges Len Goodman, Darcy Bussell, Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood.

The celebrities' professional dancing partners for series 12 of the contest will be revealed in the BBC One launch show on Saturday.