“I declare there will be joy”, so goes the Raye song that the producers chose to open Saturday night’s first live show. Perhaps they didn’t know just how ironic that selection would turn out to be. Or maybe, as the professional dancers twirled around the dance floor, they were simply attempting to forcibly inject some cheer into proceedings. Because the show that followed was decidedly lacking in that promised joy.

Let’s start with the most obvious reason: the three-person presenting team did not work. While Emma Willis was the perfect mix of easygoing and professional, Josh Widdicombes’s nerves were palpable through the screen, leading him to miss his cue several times, and Johannes Radebe was uncharacteristically wooden (when you could hear him over the cheering crowd).

finds itself on a sticky wicket here. To change the plan now would be to admit they were wrong – that Widdicombe and Radebe aren’t right in their current duties, and that hiring them might have been a mistake. To stick to their guns and keep the presenters where they are risks making unwatchable. But I reckon the show has a much bigger, much more existential problem in its complete lack of fun.

In these early weeks, it’s best not to take too seriously. With a whopping 15 celebrities taking to the floor, it’s nigh on impossible to properly compare their samba points and shimmy boxes (yes, that’s a real move), and the real competition doesn’t start until at least half the contingent have been sent on their merry way. It’s in these weeks that we saw the late Ann Widdecombe dragged across the dance floor by Anton Du Beke, Ed Balls stomp his way through “Gangnam Style”, and Scott Mills dressed as a crab.

Until at least week 10, I just want to be thoroughly entertained. Yet an hour into Saturday night’s show, I found myself bored, wondering when the parade of middling-to-good dances would come to an end.

A huge part of the problem is the fact that there’s no joke act. One could argue that dog trainer Graeme Hall had been cast to fill that role (why else would they make him shake his bum straight to camera to the tune of “Hound Dog”?), but his Cha-Cha-Cha turned out to be surprisingly adept and landed him in fifth place on the first leaderboard. As it turns out, Hall has previous dancing experience and has taken part in amateur dance competitions. There goes any chance of him being our weekly jab of joy.

You’d think the honour would therefore fall to former England winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, who has as much rhythm as a drum kit falling down the stairs. With the exception of last year’s winner Karen Carney, footballers don’t tend to fare too well on , but Wright-Phillips, bless his soul, is particularly bad – so bad, in fact, that it’s difficult to watch. He comes across so earnest, so eager to do well, that the induced cringing doesn’t invoke laughter, but a despondency incongruous with ’s ethos.

Wright-Phillips is at the bottom of the leaderboard with 15 points, but he’s not alone. Gavin and Stacey actor Melanie Walters and Paralympic legend Dame Sarah Storey are down there with him, but it doesn’t feel right to paint them as joke acts either; both are taking the competition seriously and the producers haven’t made them dress up in any daft outfits… yet.

Perhaps it’s cruel and not within the spirit to want a contestant who is only there to make me giggle. But over the years it’s become a staple feature of the whole thing, so much so that I feel quite protective over our right to have a laugh with (not at!) someone who has willingly put themselves up for scrutiny.

This new era of has a long way to go to reach the heights of the Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman era, and starting with creating a bit of jolliness is a good place to start. Then we can tackle the Josh Widdicombe problem…

‘Strictly Come Dancing’ continues next Saturday at 6.15pm on BBC One