I missed ITT, what did Matt say?

Something his PR guy told him to say

I am obliged for the light shed on the subject.

What a sensible post, totally agree


This isn't really a thread about Matt and Aliona's partnership as a whole though, this is a thread about whether Aliona's swearing in training was a good or a bad thing. It's not about whether Matt and Aliona have a good relationship or not, unless I'm being misled by the title? I was saying that the swearing does not in itself constitute any meaningful indication of what the atmosphere in their training room is like, I think it's irrelevant to that.

Lol, sorry

He did some damage control about the horrid VT moment for M&A on Saturday by saying it was sad they showed that 'swearing' row because it couldn't be further from the truth of everyday life between them. Which just further irked me. I love honesty and if he'd just said, yeah we piss each other off sometimes (like Kara has said about her and Artem) I'd think yeah okay, it happens. But he just wanted to paper over it and that just comes off as a desperate move and makes him look fake to me. Wish he'd just left it alone.

Thanks.

They can let it all hang out in body language in the paso doble to come.

Wow, way to reinterpret what he actually said.

All he said was that he didn't like that part of the VT because it misrepresented their training relationship. He said he wouldn't change anything about the way Aliona teaches him, he didn't say that it's all sunshine and light and that they never piss each other off.

Where have my other posts gone, incidentally?


ETA: he probably could have left it alone if a load of people on a forum hadn't decided that a few seconds of a VT was proof enough that Aliona is a bad dance teacher and terribly mean to him

I admit I only watched it once so didn't have it committed to memory so if I misrepresented him, I apologise. But the way it came off to me, my boyfriend and my friend (who was over when it was on and hasn't watched Strictly this year) was that he was doing a little PR to counter the VT that showed their relationship in a less than favourable light.

I only watched it once and to me it sounded more like he was defending Aliona.

He didn't even directly explain what he was talking about, which to me meant that he was addressing the people who would have understood the oblique reference (i.e. obsessive forumers like us!).

If it was a PR/damage limitation exercise he would have been more explicit, because it would have made no sense to the more casual viewer.

Anyway it'll be on iplayer soon so everyone can chew over it at their leisure.

You and your friends weren't the only ones to interpret it that way. I felt he over-egged it.
But I can't get inside his head and neither can anyone else. Some people think they have 'amazing chemisty' whereas I think they hate each other. Don't see why mine (and your) perceptions are somehow wrong and those who perceive the opposite are somehow right.

The question is, Did the tape represent their relationship.

and he felt strongly enough to get the point over on TV that he felt it was a dissappointing choice of a segment to air and it misrepresented them..

I have no reason to doubt what he says, he comes across as a real gentlemen.


You can't go over analysing 10 seconds of tape.
They are a fabulous team.

When other couples have had less than favourable moments from their training shown, they haven't gone to the lengths Matt did tonight to say that really they love each other and the VT moment was an anomaly and blah blah blah. It makes me think he has a stake in wanting everyone to believe that everything's usually sunshine and roses and that says to me that winning matters to him and he knows what the public have to believe about their partnership to vote for him to win. And that in turn makes me think he's just doing some PR to keep him on track to win. If not, why bother to water down what was shown? Why not just get on with it, continue to have fun, not fight, get along famously, enjoy each other's company? Actions speak louder than words.

He didn't say all that!
I think you might be over-egging it yourself tbh



He only had a few moments and said he was dissappointed at the section of the VT they showed as it wasn't representative.

and
All the celebrities praise their pros.
All the celebrities want good PR and to win.

That's what I mean. By saying their fighting wasn't representative implies that most of the time, according to him, they get along well or very well and that's what I was saying.

Yes all the celebs and pros praise each other but I haven't seen anyone else take the time on ITT this year to say that what we see in the VTs isn't representative of their relationships. Not their constant relationship but what VT can do that much in 10 seconds? It shows snippets of what they can be like together, which he seemed to be denying. They're clearly not like that all the time as we've seen them laughing and clowning around too but Matt saying them fighting wasn't an accurate representation came off as very false since we saw them fighting in the VT on Saturday and not for the first time. If he looks at a happy VT and says that's not representative of our relationship, I'll think he was doing it just to clear something up. Until then, I'll think he was doing some papering over the cracks for the benefit of the voters.

Perhaps he is just a genuinely nice chap. There are some.

Nice would be saying they were over it, not implying that it was a manipulative VT. He came off as sneaky to me. But that doesn't mean I think he's evil or anything lol. I just think he's a lot more media savvy than people here believe. Just like Chris Hollins.

No other couple has had such a strange VT show just before they're about to dance! And all other couples have spoken about their relationship on ITT - it's a topic of conversation for Pamela and James every week!

If you'd thought a VT wasn't indicative of your true self, wouldn't you want to correct it given the opportunity? And we did not see them fighting, we saw Matt asking Aliona not to swear. If you think that's fighting, then what on earth were the likes of Brendan and Fiona Philips ever doing? Or in fact every single couple to ever set foot in a Strictly training room, I'm willing to bet none of them have gone through the series without an argument. So no, it wouldn't be right of Matt to say they don't fight, but he didn't say that, he was talking about that one clip, which was clearly not a fight!


And let's face it, not many of the voters actually watch ITT, so if it was a PR exercise it was a bit pointless...which to me shows that he did it because he was genuinely annoyed at the VT making out that they never get on, when they clearly do.

I don't have a grudge over professionals swearing, they shouldn't do it really, but can't help themselves sometimes. Aliona is working her butt off to get the best out of Matt. As a result she is getting frustrated, thus swearing altough I will let her off.

As always Tangy, I agree with you.

I never get the idea that Matt wants us to believe that everything is hunky dory, rather than he gets along with Aliona and that they try hard every single week. I think, that what he was protesting about was the fact that they showed a controversial moment, she was swearing. They have shown many times when they have small disagreements or when he complaints about something and he hasn't complained about them.

The fact that he talked about it made like him even more, he seemed upset with the fact that the vt depicted badly his partner and showing that right before their performance is rather off putting.

He may have done it for PR reasons, but isn't all good behavior for true PR reasons? We want our relations in public to be the best they can be because it is how most of us have been brought up.

Of course he is. everyone in that show is very media savvy, or otherwise would not be there, including Kara, Pamela and of course Scott. The one that I have more doubts about would be Gavin.

Strange week for Matt allright..

He'll be thinking they are all against him, with that odd VT to show and the low scores!

I don't really think that the VT was that bad at all and that's why I was a bit suspicious when he referred back to it. He should have just left it, as I said earlier, it was almost like he was protesting too much. I don't think that he was doing so to hide anything major, just that he strikes me as someone who likes everything to be correct and perhaps that includes how his partnership is perceived as well.

Matt should give the viewers more faith though because surely nobody takes those few seconds at face value, we know they are manipulated to tell a little weekly story.

I mean, does anyone honestly think that Scott continually moaned for hours about being tired and did nothing else, or that all Gavin said all week is 'I hate this dance'? Both of those were pretty negative VTs as well but hopefully the viewers aren't that daft.

Unless he read some forum threads where viewers apparently did extrapolate from a few seconds of VT that Aliona is a terrible teacher who has no respect for him and that they obviously hate each other...

Exactly. Well said.