1. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES be the best dancer
2. Cry
3. Talk endlessly about your "amazing journey"
4. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES be the best dancer
5. Try to be cute
6. Get people to say you look cute
7. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES be the best dancer
8. Invent a 'cookie' nickname for your partner / couple
9. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES be the best dancer

Funnily enough though Alesha and arguably Ramps got away with breaking rules 1,4,7 and 9 to win. I'm bored with people whom say the best dancer doesn't win - a) it's a matter of opinion whom the 'best' is - best marked by the judges? then I'd have to accept Lisa should have won series six and I just can't. Crying didn't seem to help Lisa to victory either.

The wining formula seems to be dance well and have a bit of persononality ain't rocket science - helps if you're cute then arguably Ricky W was more attractive than Chris Holils so hey hum.

And surely Saint Jill was best in her year too?

Dancing & personality is the willing combo. As shown last year... (Sorry Ricky fans, but no (Tina) Sparkle in that pairing!)

Another rule could probably be to NOT be too up front about wanting to win.

I'd say a good path to winning is as follows:

1) Don't start off by being the best in week one- as far as I recall, no-one who won week one (or won overall in boys/girls weeks) has won the title. You're setting yourself to be SMUG! and/or TEACHER'S PET!, not to mention losing out to someone on a JOURNEY!

2) Get on really well with your pro, but don't ever talk about how they're your soulmate as it seems needy or forced.

3) Don't annoy wardrobe. They can get their revenge and then some.

4) Likewise the producers. They decide what goes in your VTs, and don't think they can't make you look like a miserable smug teacher's pet even if you spent 95% of your week laughing like a loon.

5) Think carefully about when you're going to do Rumba and Samba. You don't want to wait till semi-final when someone else has a got a Waltz.

6) Waltz is your wildcard. Use it carefully.

7) If you can manage it, try to be male, less than 40, either white or mixed race but not black, and not partnered by Anton, Erin, Natalie or Brendan.

8) Working for the BBC seems to get you mysteriously good VTs. I wonder what that's all about....

*Get the right mix of dancing and personality. All of the winners have got the balance mostly right. Even if their dancing isn't a perfect 10, their personality makes them entertaining and carries them far. In my opinion, the couples who tend to go for technical perfection and show little/no personality are really boring to watch.

*Try not to be judges' pet. This is generally not the fault of the couple(s) involved. If they're judges' pet, mistakes are often overlooked and they're marked generally highly, whilst another couple would be savaged for a similar mistake. The public don't like biased judging and this costs couples the title.

*Don't be great in week one. The British people seem to love the underdogs who try hard and eventually do well after being useless to begin with. I don't think anybody who topped the leaderboard after their first dance has ever won, though I'm not 100% sure of this.

*Have a good working relationship. Chris and Ola built up a fanbase last year because of their dance partnership, as did Darren and Lillia in series 3. On a similar note...

*Don't fall in love with your pro. We don't care. It doesn't win our hearts.:yawn:

*Work for the BBC. Natasha Kaplinsky. Jill Halfpenny. Tom Chambers. Chris Hollins. Most of the winners have been BBC employees. It may be a complete coincidence, but it does seem to help.

Have a sporting connection?
Darren, Ramps, Chris.

Leaving us with Gavin. A possibility at this stage.
Peter? Not in this or any other lifetime.

I think they'll promote a woman this time but you can damn them with teacher's pet-status and fall flat on your made-up face.

Don't take yourself too seriously. Have a sense of humour.

Excellent! Shame so many people took your post so seriously OP. You're so right about the best dancer thing, but this is England after all

Their darling Bill Turnbull stayed in a lot longer than he deserved, too.

I'm tempted to create a thread on tips for watching Strictly.

If you think simply being the best dancer is enough to win, then you're tuning into the wrong show!

It does help you big time though.

To win Strictly it helps:

1. Not to be mega-famous. It's better to have millions of people wondering who you are than to have them hating you already.

2. To want to do your best but not to win at all costs.

3. To have good timing, so that you're still watchable even if the steps go wrong.

4. To start off nervously and grow in confidence as the series progresses.

5. To surprise yourself by falling in love with dancing (this really is the big one)

6, Not to be partnered by someone the audience doesn't like - you need every vote you can get when you have an off week/have to do the Rumba

7. To have a fair amount of dancing ability. Without that you won't win, but you'll probably get far enough to really hack off the judges and a fair number of posters on this forum.