I'm glad they asked Katya. Pity she couldn't do it but its nice that she was too busy.

That is good to know. Both things.

Johnny tweeted about the new dancer today, a typical Johnny tweet:

'I meet Iveta today . She looks absolutely fabulous. I'd have willingly travelled the 3500 miles to help her out. Wish us luck.'

Wonder if this means they will be meeting a few miles closer to London instead of in that Antique Barn close to Johnny

Iveta has just tweeted calling Johnny a sweetheart and their first rehearsal went very well. Sorry am on my I-pad and don't know how to copy and paste the tweet with it!!!!
She also likes working with him!

.

I'm ridiculously pleased by this

Here you go...

Day 1 rehearsals at Strictly Come Dancing is over...went very well!!! Love working with Johnny Ball! He's a sweetheart!

Thanks PM

I should hopefully get my laptop back from computer hospital tomorrow!

Competitive professional dancers who are still competing have a calendar chock full of competitions and championships and exhibtions and guest appearances and other commitments for their sponsers all over the world, so they know now where they will be this time next year. And the year after.
So it's no surprise to me that none of the British dancers who are currently competing would be available at short notice. Or any nationality of professional, for that matter

Had to be a former pro. And they all teach and have commitments. For that reason, I would imagine the number of former professional dancers who would be available at such short notice and who are of the age she looks would be pretty small.

That's a thought, Johnny Ball is as old as the hills, wonder if there was any consideration given to offering the gig to an older lady, former professional dancer and champion?

That's a lot of waffle from me. Best of luck to 'em both, anyway. Roll on the weekend!

Tweet from Johnny. Not quite sure it goes here but wanted to put it somewhere on the main forum.

Will all press please stop saying "I broke Aliona's leg?" My feet were planted when she "turned her ankle." Even "doing Tango" was wrong!

^ That was the headline in the Telegraph online and in many other places

and it really is grossly unfair. Lazy, sloppy, sensationalist vindictive journalism

Tell it like it is sister!!

Effing Telegraph

You can 'hear' the frustration in that tweet me thinks!
It must be spoiling his enjoyment somewhat to see all that cr-p in the press. Shame!

Johnny Ball is not from a working background or past that involved dealing with tabloid or celebrity-type press, so he will probably find it quite hard to cope with the rubbish that will be written.
Hoping Zoe will be able to help advise him in this regard

And he's a mathematician (well, if having an O level in Maths counts), so won't be able to stand inexactitude. He was almost as annoyed about the papers reporting the wrong dance as he was about them blaming him for Aliona's injury. I'm a pedant, too, so he has all my sympathy.