Completely agree .

I think it's time to call off the dogs now - for Laila's sake. You can say what you like about Anton, but I don't think there was any doubting her sincerity when she said she wanted to put it behind them and get on with the show.

I thought she was a classy lady tonight, and she deserves the chance to enjoy the rest of her Strictly experience like anyone else.

I agree , Laila asked us to put it away now and so we should respect what she wants and do just that ,.

Agreed.

I just hope that all those who were looking to vilify Anton will let it rest now, if only for the sake of Laila.

I do wish though, that people would stop comparing a week of bad press to witch hunts, hangings and execution, bit over dramatic no?

There's been a lot of drama from a lot of people with a lot of different points of view. Enough now.

Fair comment, though I doubt Anton du Beke's exactly had a fun week. The encouraging thing is that the vast majority of people on this thread agree that the p-word is unacceptable - they just differ on the required response.

It is what we in the trade would call a slow news week - nothing note worthy to report so digging up a bit of dirt and being a dog with a bone over it.

NOTW is more than likely in the pockets of X FActor so any dirt they can rake up to sully the reputation of a competitor is a financial gold mine for them!

I still would like to know which bright spark (and I use that term loosely) thought it would be a good idea to give Laila a fake tan in the first place - totally redundant!

i see as well as enjoying casual racism he believes that all fat people should be shot. comes across as such a lovely fella doesn't he . it makes one wonder what people see in the ignorant twåt.

Perhaps all fat people should take up dance training and watch the pounds fall off instead.

I said earlier he should go on IT2 to apologize and he has.I accept his apology and will give him the benefit of the doubt over his sincerity in his apology so I am quite happy to move on

This was what he said:

I've always been slim and active. I weigh 71kg and I'm 6ft tall. Diets are all nonsense: they don't work. Just don't get fat in the first place.

I've no time for fat people, they should all be shot.

What really upsets me is when I see fat kids. They've invariably got fat parents and they're the ones who are to blame. They need a good slap for having forced their bad ways on their kids.

When I was at school, there would be one fat kid in the class. Now there are hordes of them. I don't understand the psychology of fat people, nor the flip side of that, size zero.

I once taught dance to a girl with an eating disorder. I had to send her back to her mum because she had no stamina.

I don't mean to sound like a body fascist. In fact, it can be quite pleasant to have someone with a bit of wobbly flesh dancing with you.

I'm in two minds about whether very overweight people should be refused surgery unless they slim down. They have paid their taxes and they're entitled to treatment. But maybe they should be shoved to the back of the queue if someone comes in with a condition which isn't the result of eating themselves to 400st.

*******************************************

He's obviously not referring to those who were just overweight, but obese. But being careless by using a generic term 'fat'. Not nice things to say for some who can't 'slim down' no matter what they tried, but I don't think he was referring to those people.

trouble is, the only thing he's really sorry about is being caught out.

Are you a mind reader?

Well either we accept it and move on or we sack him but to do that you got to be 100% certain that he is not genuinely sorry as you suggest but this cant go on past this week.The show must go on

Nah - he just wants to go on chewing the bone.

Yeah, this poster definitely enjoys mind games, no wonder he/she posted on Derren Brown's show as well.

*throws a proverbial bone on the thread and leaves it BARKley to gnaw*

I was angry that ITT and the BBC bottled it tonight re the Anton affair.

When there have been any contentious issues in the past they are usually good at making it clear. Watching Claudia and Anton on ITT tonight you would have no idea what is supposed to have happened and why he felt the need to apoligise.

Why no mention of what happened, when and how it happened. All the furore could have died down and we could once more enjoy the dancing. Now I'm not so sure.

I don't understand what you are trying to convey. Could you please elaborate?

I don't think they actually said what had happened, anyone who doesn't read newspapers was probably baffled.

Claudia interviewing Laila and Anton and Claudia talking about the furore and Anton apoligising without once mentioning WHY.

I thought it was clear why. If it wasn't clear to the viewers, surely it wouldn't bother them that much?

So are we to assume that ITT thinks all its viewers know what happened and why he's apolgising. No one is clear about exactly what happened in the first place and how he came to say what he did.
I thought after tonight all this would have been made clear.

ITT is not Newsnight nor Question Time. Inicidentally, both the latter shows discussed the issue in greater detail. I am sure newspapers will piece tonight's ITT broadcast to the background of the whole furore. If the viewers are truly confused, they would get the background information in the media the following day to be sure. Otherwise they either couldn't be bothered with the issue or had been living in a cave.

It didn't occur to me since I knew what the issue was, but it's a fair point to say they could have mentioned it. I don't think it's fair to say they bottled it though. It probably didn't seem necessary as it has not only been in the papers every day but on every news and discussion show this week. I can't think there were many watching tonight who didn't know what they were talking about.