At about 8.45am this morning on 5Live, Chris and Ola were interviewed in quite a lengthy slot by Colin Paterson and the other two couples in the semi didn't get a look in. Fair and balanced BBC? I don't think so.

Realistically, though, I genuinely don't believe that there is an agenda for Chris because he's a BBC employee. I think the whole marketing of Brand Cola has been developed by Chris & Ola & the BBC has found itself with a ready made package and has run with it with vigour.

Almost every single VT edit has shown the package in a good light. Was I the only one who thought last night's training clips showing a very grumpy Ola and a glum Chris broke the mould? Maybe if we'd had more realistic edits, things might not have worked out as they have. I have noticed that, every time there's a jolly moment, Ola checks the cameraman has clocked it.

There again, I do think Chris is a genuinely nice and witty man (not convinced by the reinvention of Ola though) and perhaps this connection with the audience would have happened without favourable edits - we'll never know.

Where I'm left though is that, in my eyes but also backed up by the professionals' opinions, the most exciting and skilled dancer of this series in both Latin & Ballroom is more than likely going to join the pantheon of "best" dancers never to have won Strictly.

Good points about the edit.

Why would the agenda have to be because he's a BBC employee, though?

I suspect it's because he's popular, isn't an especially good dancer, and the powers that be think that makes him an ideal winner after the beating SCD took last year for taking dancing too seriously.

I have no problem with him winning [to be honest I do] The problem is they are not showing an equal balance of footage. Last night was the worse ever on ITT and this is the day before the semi final. As a previous poster said, The North of England is not Outer Mongolia, get a camera crew up there.

Sorry Veri - it's my bad sentence construction I don't think there's been an agenda 'cos Chris is an employee. "Brand Cola" has been a godsend to the BBC and the interest it's generated has saved what has been a pretty lacklustre series - really bad dancing with mistakes galore (even my dancing god Ricky isn't exempt from the odd error!).

The viewing public is always going to be influenced by editing - we have no control over what we're fed. What has irritated me is the lazy way Ricky has been airbrushed - presumably 'cos the BBC couldn't come up with a convincing story for him & his absence from London didn't help and it's been left to his dancing and good favour with the judges to suffice and, as I suspect we'll discover tonight to no-one's great surprise, good dancing is not enough.

My phone's armed and ready for a good Ricky vote-hammering tonight though

Perhaps this is the test case about the celebs training away from London.

Carol Smiley stayed in Glasgow because of her family but was willing to provide more through Carol Cam, which Matthew happily engaged with. John Barnes also decided to stay close to home because of family commitments but there was nothing over and above training footage and little in the way of interviews.

Ricky has been working 'full-time' as well as training, and perhaps neither he or Natalie saw the need and/or value of offering ITT anything over and above the training footage. There may have also been contract issues with C4/Mersey Television. I haven't seen Australia's version of DWTS: Natalie may have been exposed to a different type of behind the scenes experience there, which she perhaps assumed she could replicate here.

As for Team Cola. I've been supporting them since week 1. Chris has drawn in the voting public, and perhaps the early non-committed, and I find him hugely entertaining. He comes across as a charming yet self-effacing individual who is at ease in his role as sports presenter, foil to Bill and Sian, and co-conspirator with Carol Kirkwood on occasions. He makes time for people who queue outside SCD and to his credit has made a huge difference to Ola, how she is perceived and has perhap succeeded in turning SCD into a much more positive experience for her overall. They have also tapped in to the 'fans' moniker of 'Team Cola', the unintentional catch phrases and the none too PC 'nipple tweaking'. They are responding to the fans, building a rapport. As to ITT coverage - they have normally had one interview slot, and equal comments on training footage. The one disadvantage is that the BBC decided to give James a roving reporter role on ITT after Zoe was knocked out; so maybe, just maybe, for certain programmes they could have swapped in Matthew Cutler from 'Strictly Confidential'.

The reason for the apparent lack of coverage could be contractual or down to personal choice on the part of Ricky and/or Natalie. Either way, for me Ricky is a gifted dancer who underperforms on occasions and has a talented but openly competitive partner. He is someone I know little about so I haven't warmed to him or the partnership; and I don't feel sufficiently entertained or impressed to support him with my vote.

Ricky hasn't featured much but it's quite a studio-based programme. Cheap.

They could have had RickyCam for sure in the interests of fairness unless his own filming is too arduous to take on an extra burden.

I feel sorry for him. Nothing wrong with him (except that gas-guzzler of his and maybe some other stuff) but Cola have the"cute" factor for a lot of us. Other times I'd have been very pro-Ricky but he's had Natalie. Enough said about her. That topic has been done to death. Plus he just seems like a natural and to have a slightly unfair advantage. That's just me being sentimental but I'm clearly not alone.

Fair points I also wish he'd had a RickyCam but he has blogged regularly and tweeted and I do think a webcam would have been useful for his fans but I'm not sure it would've added many more who were disinterested.

I've also got some time for the observations of Ricky that his style of dancing such as the hot Cha Cha last week which wasn't "party" appeal as much as "raw animal" might not do much for the average SCD early evening viewer who wants to be charmed and entertained. Earlier on in the series I was irritated by the "aggressive" criticisms as I felt they were a bit stereotypical i.e. young black male = aggressive & fitted preconceptions but maybe his style on the Latin has been too overt. Natalie did try to change the style with the Jive choreography but it didn't work. Ricky is who he is and he has provided some wonderful dancing & I've enjoyed every second of his appearances on this show.

Sorry for rambling on

No, Apricot, you didn't ramble.
I'm not sure people thought "aggressive" as much as "competitive". And you know how that goes down like a lead balloon!

Actually ITT probably doesn't count for much so I doubt if he's lost out seriously due to fewer appearances.

Bit of a Catch 22 for this couple. The choreography hasn't been fabulous. The jive was a disaster. I hated the final lift in the AS. Natalie says this is for public consumption and not to please stuffy old Len but a lot of us are quite traditional in our tastes and they got a lot of criticism on here for that AS.

I've warmed to Cola and that's all there is to it. He's more Mr Average than Ricky and I find that more appealing.

I think you've totally hit on the issue for Ricky and Natalie, more ITT coverage might have helped, but if seeing more of them showed they actually were competitive and Ricky was better than average, I don't think it would have helped much.

I think it's a very British thing to prefer average and non-competitve rather than the will to win and excellence.
Perhaps that explains our football team

I don't think the lack of ITT coverage made any difference. Colin Jackson trained in Cardiff and appeared on ITT very little, possibly less then Ricky, yet never appeared in the bottom two and ended up as runner up. The public just haven't warmed to him and Natalie as a partnership - simple as that, and having a great partnership is vitally important in winning SCD.

I can't argue that the public haven't warmed to Ricky & Nat's partnership but Colin being Welsh probably meant he had a big home-nation vote (where's Ricky from? his dad being in RAF must have meant quite a lot of moving around). Also Ricky's image is, to my mind, edgier than Colin's & less crowd-pleasing and Colin, despite being the better dancer in the final two, didn't actually win.

Anyway, all will be academic in a couple of hours - let's enjoy the dancing......

I think you could also argue that Colin danced in a series before the audience had seen any exceptional male celebrities. Aled Jones laid the foundations and Colin took the standard to a new level; he was the first of the brilliant men.

However, we've been there and done that now. Being a brilliant man isn't enough - we need something else as well. Had Ricky danced in Colin's series he'd probably have finished exactly where Colin did.

Yeh totally. And the driving mishap didn't help.

I don't think it makes the slightest difference as the viewing figures for ITT are far, far lower than for the Saturday show .
Most Saturday voters won't have watched the week night ITT and so have no idea who has been interviewed , who has been on a lot and who hasn't .
Aled and Lilia appeared on one ITT together , their exit interview . She went all over the country with him , and out of the country as he was filming for Songs of Praise.

I wouldn't be too sure about the big Home nation vote , similarly with Aled and Gethin , none have hugely high profiles in Wales.