Wheelchair dancing is coming to BBC Three

If you've been glued to the hit BBC show Strictly Come Dancing in recent years, then here's some big news: wheelchair users will soon be getting the ballroom glamour and glitz treatment too.

Later this year, BBC Three will be showing a six-part series with the working title of Dancing on Wheels, in which some top celebs join forces with wheelchair users who have never danced before, all of them competing for the top prize of a place representing the UK in the Wheelchair Dance Sport European Championships, due to take place in Israel in October. They'll have only five weeks to master everything from the Cha Cha Cha to the Paso Doble.

The celebrities include some former Strictly competitors - M People singer Heather Small, medal-winning swimmer Mark Foster and rugby legend Martin Offiah. In addition, lead choreographer Brian Fortuna - a professional ballroom dancer who appeared in the last series of Strictly, and who has been teaching wheelchair dancing for the last eight years - will be putting the couples through their paces each week, as they take on a variety of exhausting dance disciplines.

The wheelchair users are: Simone, a 22 year-old Cambridge graduate; Diana, a 48 year-old magazine editor and mother; 27 year-old Carolyne, who enjoys nothing more than a night out; James, a cocky 31 year-old with some impressive acrobatic abilities; Paul, a 24 year-old festival-goer who is looking forward to Glastonbury this summer; and 23 year-old Harris, who recently got married to a girl he met whilst travelling in Thailand.

Wheelchair dancing is an extremely popular international sport, which is practised in 22 countries and with competitions and championships held across the world. In the series, the couples will be competing in the 'combi' event, where a standing able-bodied dancer partners a wheelchair user. If you want to get a taste of what it involves, check out this amateur video clip we found on YouTube.

We'll bring you more details on the series as we get them, and keep a look-out for it on BBC Three later in the year.