Will we see Matt Cutler back?

I hope Anton & Laila get a chance to explain this on ITT when they're next on.

Yes. Put Laila with Matthew instead. She might have the chance of having a decent latin routine then

Serioulsey though your right. I felt she didnt peform to the best of her ability tonight and I felt like maybe something had gone on. She says that she's forgiven him but im not so certain that she has.

Ohhh yes please!! He'll give her some great latin routines to bring out her rhythm!

Absolutely no offence intended to Anton - I just had sudden visions of Laila and Matthew! Anton's doing a great job with her ballroom.

And we would get to see him again which would be very nice

I notice that somone else has said the very same thing as me!

I'm still taking this with a grain of salt, but I'm just posting this to prompt the invisible post above me to appear...

Well if he did say it he should be sacked.
If it was anyone else they would have sacked them, so why should he be any different?

All smells a bit fishy to me. The story says that this happened 2 weeks ago so presumably she "forgave" him then since when she's danced an extremely good tango and very good quick-step. Why wasn't this complaint aired two weeks ago? Anything to do with the bad press SHE's had from the New of the World this week already? Let's be honest, it's a rag and frankly I'd double-check even the date at the top of the newspaper before believing it.

And what hypocrites here, the only concern seems to be not that he might have used a term which some people find offensive but that Matthew Cutler might come back!

I think its probably Anton trying ,once again , to be hilarious and it falling very flat .,he seems to find it neccessary to the the class clown lately .

I am not excusing it by the way ,.

I think Laila has made it clear in the article that it is in the past and she wants to carry on dancing with Anton.

Exactly!
I really like these two together, I think she takes criticism very well and I think a new partner could maybe change Laila, I know I can speak for a few when I say how good it is how she says her & Anton have occasional "hick ups" and how there partnership is up & down, I appriciate that honesty tremendously

How does that make us hypocrits?

I can't speak for others, but I was talking about Matthew Cutler just because I was imagining what his partnership with Laila would be like. It struck me as a great combination. These thoughts were nothing whatsoever to do with the racism situation conversation had just headed off on a tangent as everything is still a bit vague.

I don't trust the NOTW in the slightest so I wouldn't know what to say about the actual controversy yet and I think many others probably feel the same at the moment. It's all a bit random and more info is needed. If Anton really did say something offensive then he deserves to be dealt with very strongly and care should be taken to make sure that Laila feels totally comfortable with who she is dancing with.

I don't agree that he should be sacked or that anyone else would have been. The only person I can think of who has been sacked by the BBC due to a racist comment is Carol Thatcher, but that was because she refused to apologise. She was told that if she apologised she would not be sacked. Anton has apologised, and Laila has accepted, so he should not be sacked.

It just seems rather bizarre that someone has been accused of making a supposedly racist remark and any "condemnation" of him has almost immediately been superceded by talk of "let's hope Matthew replaces him"! If you accept that he's guilty, and personally I am very sceptical, then Matthew replacing Anton should be the least of your concerns. And I repeat, why is this coming out now when Lailas under such pressure and is talking of her marital problems, missing her daughter, etc? I'm always wary of any stories where insiders ask to remain anonymous, even the man who blew the whistle on the MP expenses row became public.

Engage brain in gear before opening mouth!

Well she obviously does because this happened two weeks ago, before their dances started and they've got pretty much better marks than all of Anton's previous partners!

Agree, though then he'd be as boring as the rest of the male pro's!

I was only responding to someone else's comment that Laila should be able to dance with another pro if she wanted to, and Matthew is the only available male at the moment.

I dont believe Anton will be sacked at all. I think he will get a wrist slap and a stern warning.

Well hopefully this is the case. If it really happened two weeks ago then it sounds as though they have already moved on, but the papers are only just catching up.

Until your next time then, Tony Beke.

If true, he SHOULD lose his job. Its an utterly despicable thing to say and just proves how anti-Thatcher the Beeb have been all these years given how Carol was dismissed for racial remarks made off air that IMO have less racially upsetting connotations than the terms supposedly used by Anton.

He needs to tone himself down this year, hes just coming across as a prat.

Of course he's guilty, if he apologised for it!

As I've already said, Carol Thatcher was sacked for not apologising. She was clearly told that if she apologised she would be sacked, but she still refused. Had Anton refused to apologise I would call for him to be sacked as well.

Indeed. If. It could be true, but I'm not going to commit to believing it definitely happened based on just one story in the NOTW.