Im very confused by this thread, what do you consider a 'known' celebrity, OP? I consider all this years as celebrities apart from one. Surely everybody knows Lulu, Rory Bremner and Jason? Edwina, Audley, Russell Grant - most will know who they are. Robbie is an ex-footballer, so that's down to whether you take an interest in football. Chelsee is on a current BBC programme which is watched by millions. Alex Jones presents 5-days a week on BBC1. Anita is well-known even though she is not currently on tv. McFly are one of the biggest UK groups of the last decade, they still have a big fanbase.
Holly - well I knew who she was but I think considering she hasnt been in Neighbours for many years, I dont consider her much of a celebrity.
Nancy- I think people knew who she was, but I dont consider her a celebrity. Dan Lobb- I didnt know much about him before strictly.
As for winners - Kara was on Eastenders, so the highest rating programme on BBC..im sure she was known before strictly.
So who would you want as contestants?

As you'd given Bros () as an example, neither was I.

One thing to consider is that, like DOI, Strictly has auditions each year to decide which celebs go on the show - I'm pretty sure Ricky Whittle once said he had to audition twice before he was picked.

^^ Although saying that, I reckon some of them were hand-picked by the producers.

Yes, it's a dance competition in which celebrities (and Nancy Dell'Olio) take part.

The "Strictly" comes from the film Strictly Ballroom and the "Come Dancing" comes from, well, Come Dancing. The clue is in the title.

If all you need to do to win is be a well-known celeb, why don't they just call it Strictly Come Standing? Or Strictly Come Turning Up and Showing Your Face?

Tbh there was only one person this year who I'd never heard of and that was Chelsee.

It's true that A listers won't appear on Strictly. I actually thought this years line up wasn't too bad.........

I can see where you're coming from. Of the 8 people who have won Strictly so far I would say that only three (Natasha Kaplinski, Darren Gough, and Mark Ramprakash) were well known. Only one person can win each year and there have been a lot of well known and fairly major celebs over the years - Lesley Garrett,Lulu and Felicity Kendal to name but three.

More to the point I would like to see an Oldie win it, Pamela Stephenson has been the nearest so far.

BIB - really? They're only known if you're into your sport. I'm not a typical woman, I love most sports so I'd heard of the sportsmen, but I'd say Kara or Jill known to more people as they'd been in EastEnders watched by millions, rather than sportsmen, Mark Ramprakash especially, as he had a very hit and miss England career.

I'm with Cat J, quaint I know, but I want the best dancer to win, although that can be very subjective. However, I think we can all agree that Darren and Chris Hollins were never the best dancers in their respective years.

Fair enough.


I knew more celebs than ever this series. I didn't know Chelsee, Harry or Dan - that's all.

Yes Widdy had a real struggle, "I'm reliably informed" that they made her complete an Army assault course twice, to prove she had sufficient physical strength and dexterity to enter the competition.

Sorry, an up-date coming in.


The BBC phoned her up and said;

"Would you like to?"

She said; "Yes."

They said; "You're in!"

My opinion won't count for much, as I don't live in the U.K., but I think perceptions of what is "well-known" will differ greatly from viewer to viewer. This year? I was familiar with Lulu (saw "To sir With Love" in the cinema. Eeek.) and Jason Donovan (watched "Neighbours" but not long enough to know Holly) and had NO IDEA who the rest were. Past seasons? Maybe ten contestants total whose names were familiar. It didn't matter; I liked getting to know them through SCD, and loved watching their progress (the training VT's strengthened the involvement, in a way that this year's OTT clips don't). It's been fun seeing minor celebs become major dancers, and having a "superstar" winner would not have added to my viewing experience in any way.
I'm a "let the best **** win" kinda person, and if the most famous were the best, fine, but never otherwise.

Ahem. Not quite true: I did know who Edwina Currie was. But she was out before I realised she was in.

Me neither!

And we can all be grateful for that.

I don't think it makes that much of a difference personally. It's nice to have big names in the cast, but I'd rather 12 interesting and talented Z listers over 12 boring A Listers with poor dance ability.

I don't think the public cares that much either. The winners list alone proves you don't need to be the most famous to win the show. Martina Hingis is probably more famous worldwide than the rest of the Series 7 cast combined, but she was still voted off first. (Which still angers me!)

Thanks for all the responses, everybody, But getting to my original OP, i am not looking for a A lister, but i do expect at least to have a vague idea of who is who on show, in relation to Soaps people watch a soap but could just as easily not recognise a minor actor on such shows, i do not begrudge any young person getting a few breaks on such a show, however only if they have a personality, which sadly i think some don't.

To get public votes, these people have to be "accessible" in that viewers have to believe that they would be able to talk to them if they met them in the street.
The more famous a person, the less likely they will have any rapport via the TV with the viewers.
No one really knew Martina Hingis, she was just a big star tennis player.
Someone who regularly appears in a soap, not necessarily a high profile cast member, stands a better chance.

why I would like a popular person who can dance well win

I certainly do not want someone to win because of their age

I would like someone with a personality to win Strictly

I think the point i was making was in the middle, you will not get A listers nor for reasons we know ordinary members of public, but i think the point of my thread is that in last number of years we have 'ordinary members of public' by default, some will say that is ok, but why bother calling it a celebrity competition when in essence it is not.

I agree. And Martina doesn't have a great reputation anyway. It still pissed me off though!

I am not talking about someone being international famous like Martina, just a few more local known personalties, is that so much to ask for?

Well, what you seem to be asking for is personalities who are known to you specifically, whilst not allowing for the fact that many people do know this year's contestants, and also there's no guarantee that those you pick would be better known to viewers other than you.

This just proves that there's pretty much nobody who we'd all recognise except maybe the Queen.

My partner is always astonished that I don't know any of the 'acts' on the Sunday programme. The alleged singers. But I don't listen to pop music or music radio so I have no clue.

I was amazed when forumites said they'd never heard of Navratilova. Just shows how naive I was!

I think you just have to accept that "local known" is a relative concept.

This year, they've picked people "local known" to the older demographic (Lulu, Jason, Edwina, Russell, Anita), people "local known" to sports fans (Audley, Jason), people "local known" to light daytime TV and soaps fans (Chelsee, Alex, Dan), people "local known" to the younger demographic (Harry, Chelsee), etc etc.

I am rarely familiar with more than a few of each year's Strictly contestants. But I'm aware that it's a light entertainment programme and the reason I don't know many of the contestants is that I'm not a part of any light entertainment zeitgeist. I don't watch breakfast TV, the One Show or any other light news-type programming. I don't watch soaps at all and very few episodic dramas. It's the only reality TV show I watch.

So it's me that out of kilter with the type of person that will be "local known" to the Strictly audience, not Strictly that's out of kilter with what is "local known".

I think you are living in cloud cuckoo land, OP.
No celebrity with a care for current reputation would risk going on Strictly - it means subjecting yourself to the tabloids and to being the subject of fun (read Monkseal et al blogs).

The Widdy was not a well-liked politician, but is usingTV to turn herself into a lovable old lady. Is this really your idea of celebrity??

Finally, it's not for lack of asking. Every year people post their ideas on DS on who should be asked to do the next season - when you look closer, it appears that nearly all of them have said 'Thanks, but no thanks'.

Anyway, it's time this tiresome word 'celebrity' was chucked out of the dictionary. Just go for 'celeb' instead - that means anybody whose divorce or body has occupied the central pages of major tabloids for more than 10 weeks in any year. Then see if they are actually fit and ready to dance.
Then see if they are actually free.
Then see if they want to do it.
Then see if their agents let them.


I'm all for Harry and Chelsee and actors/musicians generally - they make by far the best contestants!!