Ooo and also I'll be brave enough to say that I think Kara prob said 'you should have won' to Matt. But of course, that's just a guess.

Evening

A good start to cf, a nice long matt vt,and 2 smaller clips looking good in a brightly big checked shirt, gilet and jeans, lots of walking about the countryside with great views, at least it was dry and no need for the waterproofs. Lovely cute collie puppies with julia.

Oh I see...that's Mr President's fundraising project then. It would be nice if it is 'Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood', just because he is Matt-adore, his flamingo style hands pull through the wrists were amazing. It was the first time I saw a celeb danced on SCD like that. He can master it now but can the lucky winner do Paso? That’s a good question. People my choose VW which is much easier to follow his lead.

Well, I voted for the VW on FB

I suspect they won't try and re-enact the Strictly dance, just sway about a bit!

well I vote for the showdance song for a laugh. Partly cos I dread to think how they'll 'sway' to that ...and partly cos I hope they'll just recreate the butter advert with the cows 'I love the way you moo-ve'

this really is unfair you know. Heres us thudding away for 2 years....traipsing all over the country to see him, re-writing every song known to man and not a sniff of a tango hat thrust in our direction. Along come these YF types and he's auctioning off dances for them.

I mean really...................sniff

Let's hope for the sake of the winner that voters don't choose the showdance!!

PS. Posted before I read your post bee. We're thinking along similar (but not identical) lines

Moving away from SCD for a moment, was nice to see Matt on CountryFile again (in his bullet-proof jacket) after last week's absence. Interesting item about bastles, or bastilles, or whatever they are. I knew very little about them, and now I know just a little more Liked the little puppy dogs too - less so the insects.

I've just rewatched the showdance. He's totally amazing. Each time I watch that dance it gets better. And so do the biceps

Hellaw peeps. Better late than never

I appreciate Matt's dances so much and the showdance is becoming a new favourite of mine especially the bit where he lifts Aliona up above him....what power in those arms Right, now I've thudded myself out, it's definitely time to CCM.

CF was good with interesting segments, Northumberland was scenic, the gilet was a bit big, but all in all the thuds were in evidence by the end of the programme As one of our number said it perhaps wasn't a classic but it certainly made our Sunday evening 100 times brighter!

Loving all the discussion re the voting for one of the 4 songs to which Matt will dance with the lucky lady at the convention. I would go for I Like The Way You Move so the young lady farmers would get a chance to see those hips in action And so might we!

Off to the Land of Nod, early start in the morning CCM and nighty night......:sleep: xx

Morning all. On the choice of dance for the NFYFC 80th birthday party surely it has to be "Young Hearts Run Free" for the Young Farmers.

And as he danced that samba far more than any other of his final dances there's a chance e might remember the moves

Good morning all

Havent yet seen yesterdays CF, fully intended to watch it after work but my car put payed to that!

Still a very nice man from the rac rescued me and got me to my garage, where the poor car is sitting and will hopefully be patched up today!

Time permitting after the ironing, housework and helping my son move the last of his belongings out (without a car) i will watch cf later

Morning. Well whatever dance is chosen, let's just hope someone manages to get some footage of it

Well, we can tell it's now Autumn . Rating for Countryfile last night was 6.43m which is pretty good going. And next week it's on after the Strictly results - so 7:30pm. That surprises me as last couple of years it's been on before and picked up viewers switching on early for Strictly. Wonder how this order will work out for both shows?

That's very good Don't have a percentage I suppose?
Next week's scheduling is a poor choice I feel, as it's up against first Corrie then Xfactor results! Wonder how it will hold up. I'm sure Xfactor must be losing it's appeal for many by now. I managed to watch first 10 minutes then last 10 minutes on Saturday and thought it was dire. People must surely be getting fed up with the same old things being repeated week-in, week-out, year-in, year out, along with mediocre talent. Surely they must! And with Corrie - well I suppose it depends on what's happening in the storyline. We'll see.

Anyway 6.43 is excellent

No percentage yet as that was just an initial ratings announcement. When there's a full update later I'll post it if it's there.


Unfortunately it's not a poor choice - it's the right one by the BBC. The alternative is that Strictly Results would be up against Coronation Street and X-Factor. That would harm the ratings of the BBC's flagship light entertainment show and probably lead to ITV complaining to the press about the BBC's scheduling being unfair to them (it happened last year).

This year Strictly actually stands a chance of rating higher than X-Factor consistently. The X-Factor audience is down about 15% year-on-year and Strictly is already showing signs that it's holding steady and may even be a bit up. They can't risk that by scheduling it incorrectly.

And whilst that may not please the people on this thread that means that Countryfile - which has a stable week-in week-out audience gets the tougher slot. They don't have to worry about it rating particularly highly as it's not a risk for them, it'll do it's job Works for Merlin on Saturday's - that manages to get as good an audience as Doctor Who going head-to-head with X-Factor, if you have a different set of viewers you can cope OK

Oh I do hope so Rita, I do hope so. We will be thudded into oblivion whatever the choice.

SG - I love that showdance as well - the sheer audacity of it. Darcie would have given it a 10 - she likes people who take risks If only she had been around in 2010..................... And ahem - the biceps do get better with each viewing

Not an X factor fan myself and quite frankly once you've seen one boy band youve seen them all.

Seems a good time was had by all in Guernsey and at least the weather was good .

Cass - hope the poorly car is fixed at the car hospital and that you are mobile soon. Either that or get the bike out. Perhaps Ricktoria could be hired

Hope the weather is better with you for the move. Its dire here

It's a shame. I would love to know what Darcy would have made of Matt. I think she's been great so far on the show. I thought she was poor when she was a guest judge, but maybe that's because she was a guest and was aware of her position as such. So far since it's become her job, she's offered constructive advice to the contestants, which I find such a pleasant change from "you was great" and other such pearls of wisdom from her predecessor.

Hellaw... update on song choice voting is that Young Hearts is currently winning with 4 votes. (MInd you- only 7 votes have been cast altogether and 4 of those are by B'kerettes! ... Me thinks we have the power to determin this outcome!)

We do! But do we agree amongst ourselves?

Wonder if he can be persuaded to wear the samba shirt and trousers - probably won't be the same in a dinner suit

No we are split! I voted for the waltz song as, although I prefer the samba as a spectator ... if I was to dance with him I'd much prefer to be in hold,

...and think it would, in reality, be less embarrassing all round!

Hellaw all, still a lot of debate about which song to vote for!! Gosh, I hope the winner knows that thousands of women would give their eye teeth to be 'in hold' with Matt.

Had disastrous time in Londinium today as so careful to remove all extraneous cards from purse (fear of mugging as OH always warns me!) that I inadvertently took out my debit card and left it at home. What a numpty! Managed to purchase couple of items including a sequinned shrug, which caught on the spangles of my evening dress and tore off some of the sequins! It hasn't been the best day.......

On to more happier topics.....wonder what our man has got in store for us today! I did see a beeb promo advertising CiN 'coming soon' etc. so there might be mention of what the OS is going to do this year.

Cass, hope the moving out of your boy isn't too for you! Men will always return to the family home when they want a good hot meal, clothes mended, or 'Mum, only you can wash my favourite sweater properly...'
Trust the motor is now back on the road as you are going on a short journey on Wednesday my crystal ball says

In my paper today (I know I have to apologise!) there are moans about the 'yahs' from Darcey. If she can rein in the yahs, she will be an asset to the SCD panel as she gives accurate advice to each competitor. We'll wait and see how she pans out

Better fly as picking up OH from station...see everyone at 6.58!

Afternoon all – while everyone is a bit in the mood of strictly come dancing and getting excited about NFYFC’s amazing prize draw ‘Dancing with El Presidente’, I put the remaining Olympics pics on hold for a while and post the Tango screenshots which I have delayed for months. Hope I don’t upset anyone for posting them.

I don’t bother to capture pics from preview clip before the title song as it showed the first part of semi-final night. When Tess said ‘double elimination’, it coincided with Len holding Mattiona banner from swingathong to leave the floor and then followed by Len holding Gav and Kat’s banner. I am not paranoid or narrow-minded. It’s a long gone, I know but it is fair to say that the VT editors are very professional in VT editing, they are no stupid yet they fixed it on purpose. It wasn’t their negligence, dare I say. Obviously they didn’t want M&A to get to the final. I’d say their dream finalists were the rest of 3 but the nation put them right. That was the most embarrassing part of SCD 2010 losing its credibility. You can criticize someone without using dirty tricks; you can have your winner without cheating, can’t you?

By the way, did anyone notice that the zip of Aliona’s swingathoung dress became opened half of it during the dance? It didn’t seem to be done properly when she had a change. Matt was unaware of it so asking her to do a handstand and flipped on to his shoulders when they were told to leave the floor.

I was worried before I saw them on that night but I felt quite relief when I saw them as they looked composed and calm, looking incredibly hot, gorgeous and sexy (heavy stubble alert!). I love Aliona's hair, makeup, dress. She looks stunning. And Red is my favourite hair colour Aliona has had cos the red colour represents patriotic, dynamic, fiery and spicy. And I can spot her very easily from group dances.

Matt and Aliona come down the stairs
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Matt and Aliona in front of SCD band area
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Bruce introduces Matt and Aliona (Bruce mentioned his impression of penguin he did on last show and said now he had another impression, a duck. I still don’t understand what he meant.)
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Matt and Aliona before Bruce links to their training VT (Matt laughed softly when Briuce said he hadn’t finished doing the duck but I felt he was trying to follow with the flow and got the nastiness of the night before out of his head.) They look very cute and gorgeous together.
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A sneaky peek view of Matt and Aliona with Tess before the judges’ score. Matt was answering to Tess that Aliona has been fabulous, kept him clam and focused on what they had to do, and they did it. His little sob at the backstage after the dance was understandably a sense of relief from huge pressure. Same sense of relief Louis has had when he was qualified to the final. As Matt has mentioned during the Olympics, ‘without a meal ticket, you won’t’ get a gravy”. I was so happy when I saw his lovely simile was back on his face. Wherever he is, the Baker charm has never changed and I absolutely adore that smile, see the pics below:
Countryfile Presenter (pre-strictly)
Secret Britain Presenter
Countryfile Presenter (post-strictly)
NFYFC President
One Man and His Dog Presenter and Commentator
The One Show Host
The One Show Special Reporter for Olympics 2012
BBC CIN Riskshaw challenger
Tales of Television Centre Participant
Olympics torchbearer
BBC 999 Awards Presenter
Olympics London 2012 Presenter
Olympics London 2012 Gymnastics commentator

Got to back to work...see you all later. Have a good day everyone!

What a lovely selection of smiles Emma! Thank you so much and for the lovely Tango pics.

I'm not sure there was so much of a conspiracy against Matt and Aliona getting to the final though...If anything, those harsh marks for his salsa only served to ensure a huge public vote of sympathy that took him straight through.

Cookie xx

Yes, if anything I think we're looking in the wrong place for the mark rigging to get to the final. Kara & Matt would have been safe I think even if they had been the bottom two couples with the judges I think they were always first and second in the public vote.

It's Pamela who they skewed the vote for as I think she wasn't as popular as Gavin so she needed to be above Matt in the scoring with Gavin last to make it through. Gavin last wasn't hard . But Pamela got marked really highly with perfect scores on the show that she got nowhere near on tour - a bit like Lisa Snowdon

But lovely pictures and that channeled aggression made for a fabulous tango

EDIT: Actually, thinking about it, Gavin could have been doing even better than that with public. Might have been 2nd in public vote - in which case being mean to Matt would have pushed a lot of votes Matt's way and potentially away from Gavin. Which again, helped Pam. Don't know why they bothered as (as with Lisa Snowdon) she was never going to be anything other than 3rd in the final...

Wonderful pics as always Emma. I'm going to save them for tomorrow when I'll be able to look at them properly, but what a clever idea for the last batch, to show the same profile, same expression of Matt's throughout his career. Works very well