You forget that many of us had no idea who Mcfly are, and had never heard of Harry before this series.

We vote for him because we like his personality (which is certainly not dull) and because we consider him the best dancer.

I must confess to taking an instant dislike to Chelsee when I first saw her. I have completed altered my opinion of her since then, she seems to be a really nice girl, a terrific dancer, and a worthy opponent to Harry in the finals.

Looking at my prediction thread from about week 2 or 3 of this year's competition:

* Harry and Chelsee were the only two who satisfied both criteria that all the previous winners had in common (ie under 40 years of age when competing and born in England)

* Harry probably just has the edge as most of the winners were from London and the southern counties (think Jill, Darren and possibly Mark were the only exceptions).

I'm one of those people who likes both Harry and Chelsee. On previous trends, Harry's the winner, but I actually think it will be Chelsee:

1. Chelsee and Pasha have a more dynamic partnership than Harry and Aliona (imo)
2. The possibility of a showmance for Team Chasha may be a small factor in people voting (as I think it was for Kara and Artem last year, and Ali and Brian the year before)
3. Chelsee's much more consistent than Harry - some of us forumites worked out the averages for the final 5 in Ballroom and Latin last week, and there was only about 0.2 of a mark between Chelsee's averages, whereas there were nearly 4 marks difference between Harry's (Harry's slightly better at Ballroom, but Chelsee's much better at Latin)

^ Taking all that into consideration, I think Chelsee will be the eventual winner, but that it will be close in the final vote between her and Harry (I think Jason will be the third finalist and he'll finish third with the public), as it will depend on the night as well.

Either way, if Harry or Chelsee win then they will be the youngest ever winner of Strictly - that's pretty damn good.

Harry is winning all the online polls I have seen apart from the DS one.

Mark's from Hampshire. Tom was an exception though - he's a Midlander.

Cheers Monkseal, wasn't too sure on Mark

Hold on, Tom's a Midlander? I never thought he was one of us Do you know where in the Midlands he's from? (as someone who lives in the West Midlands and is at uni in the East Midlands I'm surprised I never picked up on it)

He's from Derbyshire - went to school at Repton (which probably explains the lack of regional accent...)

Which polls are they? I would love to have a look.

They went to his local pub often enough in the VT's Cant remember where he got married in Derbyshire (does anyone remember he got married half way through the show)

Interesting, especially the bit about ballroom and latin scores.

Ah, just had a look at it on Google Maps, it's in that weird bit of the country that I can never tell whether it's East Mids or the north (it's right by the Peak District where he's from, but Sheffield isn't too far away and that's in the north).

Damn you Derbyshire for confusing me with your geography!

EDIT: In that case, Tom's a bit like Richard Hammond - grew up in Solihull near Birmingham but you can't detect it in his accent at all.

Exactly!! I cannot understand why fans of certain celebs consider it a requirement to attack the personality or background of their rivals. Criticise their dancing ability by all means but their schooling etc. has absolutley NOTHING to do with SCD.
I like both Harry and Chelsee for one reason and one reason only. They both dance extremely well. It is for this reason I will vote and none other.

Chelsee will appeal to the Iceland clientele, so it
all depends on how big that fanbase is.

Why does every thread have to degenerate into criticising Harry or Chelsee? Is it because the 'supported' couple are actually so hard to support that the other one has to be run down to create an excuse? The Strictly forum should be nicer than this.

Re. criticism: to those who are saying Chelsee is getting undue criticism - yes, she is. It's horrible. But I highly doubt Harry would be delighted to read he's as dull as dishwater either; both of them an unnecessary (and the same goes with Alex, Holly and Jason too). Two wrongs do not make a right.


I think DS is a far better barometer for Strictly Come Dancing than any other show, mainly because I think Strictly has a stronger fanbase on here than other programmes do. Tom was favoured ahead of Rachel and Lisa; Chris was well liked ahead of Ricky; Kara was preferred to Matt. Yes, the gap wasn't great in some instances but the MOMENTUM was clear in each case. And for this series, the momentum is most definitely with Chelsee.

Probably because both Tom and Richard come from the sort of families that dont have strong regional accents despite where they live, and they both went to private schools. Not saying thats a bad thing...just a fact.....I am a midlander, from a midlands family but I dont have an accent, the only way you would know is because I say baath rather than barth.

Ah, a fellow Midlander on here, hi

I see what you mean, I'm from Wolverhampton/Dudley way but I don't think I have much of an accent unless I use some Black Country phrases/slang in conversation.

Us Midlanders don't tend to do well on reality shows, so it was a bit of a shock to find out Tom's one.

Have liked Both Harry and Chelsee and have found it difficult to pick a favourite, but I have now and would like Chelsee to win

Can't deny I want Chelsee to win, and believe that her fans will come out in droves to make sure it happens.

Although I have to admit, that if you go on statistics, male contestants are always more likely to win, particularly if they are minimally aggravating, which Harry pretty much is.

I really don't get some people's comments about her accent: I understand it, along with quite a few other British, as well as other country accents, and I've lived in London all my life. Admittedly, I am good with languages. Nevertheless, if you can't understand what someone says, you listen carefully, you don't just give up on them because you don't like/can't understand their accent.

Concerning "vertically challenged", I'm short too, but I've never heard of vertically challenged either, no one knows everything in the world, I'd be more willing to understand criticisms of Chelsee's intelligence, if she asked something like "where's America?"

Twitter is not a dictionary, or an exam, it doesn't matter if you spell everything correctly, and even so, have some of you not read the statistics? There are large numbers of children and adults in this country, that have left school not being able to read, spell, do mathematics, or not being diagnosed with a learning difficulty until a significant degree of time has passed.

No individual is the same, and people need to stop judging others like they are.

Sorry but you have your facts wrong because I said no such thing. I actually wrote that I thought both Harry and Chelsee to be worthy winners but, if pressed, I preferred Harry because I find Chelsee's apparent dimmed witted persona (yes, apparent because I have no idea if she really is in day to day life) unattractive together with her accent (actually poor English). I also repeated at the end of my post that I didn't mind which of them won!

Please get it right!

Yeah, so she has difficulty spelling. I don't understand what's controversial about that.

I didn't bring up her spelling. I think what Tissy wanted to say was that the poster calling her stupid wasn't exactly displaying the best linguistic skills themselves. But what she actually said was that Chelsee could spell, implying that the poster couldn't. That isn't true, Chelsee isn't a very good speller, so it seemed to me a bizarre comment to make.

The fact is don roberto, your earlier post is offensive to those from working class backgrounds, who have regional accents. Not everyone can afford the best public schooling (unlike Harry). Im sure if Chelsee had come from a privileged background like Harry, she would be every bit as eloquant and educated. I think its disgusting that you would discriminate on her based on those reasons...

Too difficult to call. The default voting mode is for a male on most reality shows - except when the females are obviously clearly better and don't run into any biases on class, accent or success. Harry has a big dedicated fan base that will turn up in wider polls but may be not in the vote. He can't act very well and is pretty dull but that won't matter to fans or people voting if Aliona can avoid anything that requires acting. Chelsee on the other hand is rightly now scoring a bit better, is better over the two classes of dance and has the journey story. Journeyy stories though have not mattered much for quite a long time. its either a fight Chelsee can win on the night, or there's a massive vote there for Harry even if he's comprehensively beaten. Aliona and Pasha will be tested with the showdance. Jason's older fans may vote in the final. Almost anything coulkd happen , or it could end up being already decided by fanbases.

From twitter #scd TeamHali (Harry and Aliona) seem to have the most support.

It will be close I think, personally I hope Harry and Aliona win

& on the official page it's Chelsee. It really is impossible to tell.

Oh come on, lighten up and let's not make this some sort of Party Political thing.

For what it's worth I have a regional accent and my parents were not landed gentry. I have worked all my life (does that qualify me to be "working class"?)
I had no idea Harry went to a public school until I read it here, so what? Does that disqualify him in any way?
I merely said that if pressed, I prefer Harry but I also said in my original post, and I'll repeat it for the third time both are worthy finalists and I have no strong feelings as to which one should win!

Now can we get of the high horse, please?

OK lol i may have overreacted slightly....And by the way i have nothing against Harry being privately educated, just i dont think people should be judged for their lack of priviliged education either....