Just wondering whether Fern and her pro partner will have a week less training time than the others due to her previous appearance on a Christmas special. Didn't Harry and Aliona have to sit out the first week of training last year?

yes they did, and I think Kara and Artem did too - will be interesting to see if Fern has to as well

I havent heard that she will be but who knows

I have seen it announced somewhere that she will have less training time. Maybe on the BBC Strictly Facebook site?

Mind you, in that case Denise Van Outen should only get a week's training time going on the amount of dancing she's done in the past.

Wow. I had no idea that had even done that in the past...

She's not that good. I think she needs all the training time she can get.

Denise should lose time. She is already a trained dancer. Not even sure how she got on the show

Obviously she will add talent and ability in bucketloads, but she has done West End and managed Bob Fosse choreography - which is no mean feat!

According to Denise she's not. This is a quote from Denise on the thread 'Denise-Already a dancer'

Quote:
I’ve got the basic dancing skills thanks to theatre school. But this is all really new to me, and I haven’t danced properly for about 15 years. When I say properly, I mean in a stage show when I’ve had to dance. I’d give myself maybe a four out of 10.

I’m most nervous about the fact that people will think I can dance already because of my stage career, but I’ve actually never had a true dancing role. Even in Chicago, Roxy is not the dancing role. She is sitting on a chair most of the time, and not in any of the group numbers.

That’s what I worry about the most, people thinking I’m a dancer when I’m not. I’m hoping that after this I might be able to be cast in more dancing roles on the stage, that’s my hope.

Rubbish Denise you have to have timing and musicality to do musicals and those 'basic dancing skills' at theatre school is dance training.

But I'm sure I've seen older footage of Fern bouncing around tap dancing too. But strictly stopped being an actual dance competition long ago.

She did say on The One Show that she only had one previous job that involved dancing, and Chris Evans did say that she was innocent.

Me and My Baby, Roxie, Hot Honey Rag

No, not the dancing part at all. LOL

It will be interesting to see what she can do

Fern did say at the filming of the premier show to be shown today, that her training will be reduced by the amount of training that she had for the Christmas show, so that all the celebs start on an equal footing
Not sure how that works with Denise, because I think starring in a dance based musical like Chicago must give you some basic knowledge and musicality

Thanks for the info. Wonder how many days Fern will sit out?

It's not going to help her chances of getting through the first couple of weeks for sure.

Funny thing about Fern. I always used to adore her. Ready Steady Cook and then This Morning I thought she was absolutely great. Then she did the gastric band thing and everything changed. Okay, I thought the deception was a bit naughty but could understand her not wanting to go public in case it didn't work, but as soon as she lost the weight, Fern the personality disappeared as well. She just doesn't seem herself and I think she looks far less attractive which is weird because 99 out of 100 people look better slimmer. And now I don't like her much at all.

I never understood why people moan about Denise and people like her being on the show, I'd rather have an amazing dancer from start to finish giving amazing performances than a mediocre dancer who has a "journey"

I'm with you on that. I think she will add a lot to the programme.

Surely the show is all about celebrities learning to dance and improving week by week?

I'm happy for there to be a mix of ability and experience on the programme.

I agree. Plus she hasn't got any ballroom or latin dancing experience and is not the first competitor with dance or westend experience to appear on the show.

But Denise will still improve but she will start off great and then get to excellent but for some reason people will never call that a journey, it's the same as x factor I'd rather vote for a bland personality with an amazing world class voice than a cheeky chappy who has a great personality with a mediocre voice

Blimey! On the trailer I've seen Fern needs MORE time training. Not less!

Denise is currently sunning it up in Thailand, don't know when she's due back. Maybe she will have less time than some others (who, conceivably, could have started training Thursday)?

She got back from Thailand over a week ago. They were staged paparazzi pictures and were released this week now it's been announced she is on the show. Denise working the PR

Probably why I can't stand her! That and the fact you never see Lee in these pics. The Invisible Husband. I'm sure he'll be dragged out for SCD!

It wasnt a case of not wanting to go public Fern was advertising herself as having done it through exercise and was working for Ryvita. She deliberately misled people..

Yes, and then she did that truly cringey public "speech"on This Morning when poor old Philp Scofield stood there looking like he hoped the ground would swallow him up.

She said she hadn't realised she should tell the viewers everything about her private life and "some things a girl likes to keep secret". That was after she'd spent years on the sofa poking and prying, nudging & winking into other celebs lives and desperately trying to get them to reveal something juicy.

She looked pretty hefty tonight I have to say.

Totally agree with everything you've typed. That's how I feel about her.

Same here. I used to love her on Ready Steady Cook, she was the first presenter before Ainsley Herriot. Actually looking at her tonight she doesn't seem to have lost that much weight.