Without having seen the celebs dance how can the papers and bookies say who are the early favourites to win?

For all we knew Anne Widdecombe could be the worlds best dancer (i doubt it but you never know)

Do they just take a guess at to physical appearance and perceived level of fitness?

At the moment Gavin is something like 9/2 to win whereas poor old Anne is a 100/1 shot!.

http://www.freebetsblog.com/bookmake...-come-dancing/

I can't see him being very good tbh - his only chance of going far IMO will be if the teenagers all decide they fancy him and keep voting him in every week.

IMO the ones to watch out for will be Jimi, Tina, Michelle and Matt

I cant see Gavin being that good - but will probably pull int he votes though

I see Gaving as being more Kenny Logan then Austin Healey.

I did like Kenny, lovely chap who did it all in the right spirit, but he had the dancing ability of a slowly turning oil tanker - nice butt cheeks though (thank you Ola)

Nope, the Glitterball is surely Paul Daniels' for the taking?

Nope, i dont think Gavin will win - I have my money on Michelle, Tina, Matt, Jimi and possible Scott

I have my money on Felicity.....if she is partnered with who I hope she is then I think they could be the Chris and Ola of series 8

I think Gavin is a bit too muscle bound to be really good like others think Scott, Matt And Jimi out of the guys

I really can see Gavin being the next calzaghe, but then again I did say calzaghe would be the next Austin Healy so it just showes how wrong my predictions are.

I always look at the people just outside the favourites to the middle of the betting. I always put on a couple of bets at the start, then towards the middle of the competition I'll maybe bet on someone else. And in the last three years my bets included Alesha Dixon, Tom Chambers and Chris Hollins.

I have a feeling he will be as bad as Joe...but I hope not!

Matt, Jimi and Scott should be good though....and Kara, Michelle and Tina could be the best out of the women

Are you anything to do with the Pakistani cricket team?

I think Matt stands a good chance, seeing that he is a trained gymnast. Kara Tointon has already done Sport Relief Strictly so she is a good bet from the women. (She won that with Ramps)

What do the bookies know, last year they had Joe as the winner

I think Gavin will be lucky to last 3 or 4 weeks.

The guys to watch, in my opinion, will be Scott, Matt and Jimi. Dark horse is Goldie if he listens to his partner, he seems fairly fit physically and has a sense of rhythm

Did you see him in the video, he was bopping away on the red carpet

Precisely

I'm predicting him as a dark horse now so that maybe I can actually be right about a contestant for once!

I'm sure Gavin himself thinks he's going to win , but I'm not sure, if I had to bet on anyone to be this years Calzaghe, like someone else said, it would be Gavin.

My money's on Felicity Kendal. She and Vincent (if it's true) will be a great pair. Maybe partners Vincent and Flavia will go very far this series with Felicity and Jimi. 2 of my early faves!

You know you're not supposed to post anything remotely resembling a spoiler outside of the spoiler thread until Saturday unless it's tagged

I think it's a bit too early to predict who will do well and who won't - we've not seen how any of them dance with their partners yet! Look what happened last year - people were speculating that Joe Calzaghe and Rav Wilding would be amongst the top five and they both went out fairly early.

I agree - however, I don't think Gavin will win as I don't think he will have the 'likeability' factor.
I would hazard a guess that Jimi and Matt will be good and Tina and Kara. However, I am happy to wait and see them dance first as will probably change my mind

Has it mainly been men that win? Will check with Wiki,

Natasha, Jill, Darren, Mark, Alesha, Tom, Chris.

Slightly more men winners, but we've had an odd number of series so it couldn't have been equal. There have only been 2 women in the top two from the past 5 series, though.