I don't find the spot terribly entertaining, it strikes me as something that is a lot more fun to do than to watch. Each to their own though.

However what is more annoying about it is the needless intro sequence to it, especially when you see it more than once in a show. The show seems to have plenty of time for unnecessary visuals yet is forever rushing or cutting short interviews.

I agree with that! The intro was shown twice last night in the space of 10-15 minutes, do the BBC really think our attention spans are so short that we cannot remember what happened a few minutes ago?

I also remember one time ITT was cut short for some reason (probably due to a sporting event over-running), yet we were still shown a 10 minute VT of Kristina but the studio interviews were stupidly rushed. What's going on beeb?

They're appealing to "the lowest common denominator." In many programmes they bring in unnecessary and unrelated elements if they think it will "engage" a wider audience.

It's all about ratings.

It's all pre-recorded and pre-edited. The digital files are all lined up and ready to go with the press of a button. The original VT editor has gone home and it's far easier to go with what you've lined up and treat the chat as filler than re-edit on the fly. The two sequences may have been intended for different days and would each have had titles pasted up front days ago.

I have seen the keyboard from "Big" in FAO Schwarz in New York. There were 2 pro keyboard dancers who put on a great show. The highlight for me was when the girl did a cartwheel and was bang on the notes!

I saw that in FAO Schwarz too & I plan to show my Mum when we go to New York next year

Here is Bach on the grande piano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CNjb...layer_embedded

Not as much fun as the dance machine, but still quite entertaining. I will echo others however, and vote "remove tedious intro".

I think it's far more entertaining than the Dance Machine (which I found mostly dull after Lilia's bit, especially once it was the male pros turning it into a dick-measuring competition), and would take the theme tune on a loop forever over the fiftieth "Pro's *gimmick* System" Comedy VT, or the entirety of Thursday turning into a tedious discussion about dresses that end up looking nothing like the drawings.

I loved Aliona's attempt. When she just stopped trying and did a little dance