You'd be amazed how many people came across it by accident and got hooked, including men. Usually people who say they wouldn't be interested haven't watched even part of an episode so have no idea what they're talking about. Like people who don't like a particular food, but haven't tasted it.

I agree, but then I would rather watch grass grow than watch anything that included Mrs Winkle, I didn't watch one SCD show live just so I could exclude the ditzy one, imo the older she gets the dafter she acts and the more ridiculous she looks.

You just don't "get" her. Not to worry, we love her humour, her quirkiness and the fact that she's completely bonkers but doesn't care.

I'm a bloke and neither me or the wife sew, but we love the Sewing Bee.

Glad you loved it. Confirms what I said - those who say they'd rather watch grass grow are the same people who don't like a particular food even though they haven't tasted it.

I don't know how old her children are but sometimes she turns up like her kids have just dressed up E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in the closet
...though "James Earl Jones in a wig" has been tried to attempt to explain it as well

Entertaining as she is, women presenting a rather camp show and dancers does seem to freeze out the boringly traditional heterosexual

And yet she is still better dressed than Tess

ITT improved no end when Zoe started presenting.

Can we have Zoe and Tess please?

Winkleman falls into the same category as Davina. Presenters who try to hard to be spontaneous and real. Which sort of defeats the object.

They're like the presenting equivalent of the sort of 'real' people you see in adverts, talking about how great their laser eye surgery was or the effectiveness of a certain toothpaste. It's like, they should seem realistic but there's just something off about them. Something artificial.

"They're here already! You're next! You're next!"

Doghouse riley has made a very sensible post in another thread which I would suggest for people to read.

I've said before and I'll say again I cannot see how the Beeb won't go for Tess/Claudia, the cries of discrimination would be huge. Even if people do not like on or both, bringing a new guy for the main role would be outreageous. The Beeb has already has already been criticised for the Countryfile and Arlene handlings.

The Beeb needed to plan ahead and had a new guy out front for the Sunday show the moment that Bruce pulled from that if they didn't intend Tess to be out front, and especially when Bruce started taking time off. They didn't, they gave the gig to Tess and Claudia and now by rights if will have to go to them.

If ratings fell after one series they would be able to use that as a reason to get ride of both and bring in two new hosts but until then it has to be T&C

She's terrible. She asks questions and makes asides no one can understand. When comprehensible they are often off the point , ovious, or tactless. When the question is at all to the point she rarely listens to the answer. It would be like having a rambling version of Barrowman doing it. A show within the show that had no real relationship to what was going on, and just served to annoy a substantial section of the audience. Zoe is vastly better at relating to the contestants, and having been through it all knows what questions to ask, and when the judges are wrong. . The reasons why Zoe is doing the same job on ITT while Claudia has been banished to the hours when everyone is in bed on Film 2014 apply even more strongly to a saturday evening prime time show.

I don't see the argument. Tess continues. Tess gets a bit bigger role. They just need a partner for her. its patently clear why it shouldn't be Claudia, and it could be anyone of either sex who meets enough of the right criteria. There's no reason why they should appoint two females just because on a couple of shows they used those people together. That was clearly a temporary solution. Tess on her own or Ronnie Corbett would be alternatives too if just preceedent mattered. You might equally argue they would be being ageist for not employing another older comedian, or have a regional bias against the available male presenters with accents if they reject some obvious contenders. If anything, Claudia getting the job would just confirm for many the feeling that the BBC has a set of favoured people it keeps on employing regardless of their ability.

You are right that the ground should have been laid earlier. Its possible though that it was with Anton being developed in a presenting role. That may have been derailed, but he at least could tell some jokes, he had a relationship with the judges , the fans knew him, and liked him, and he knew what he was talking about.

It isn't a comedy show - we don't need someone who can tell jokes. But then neither could Fforsyth.

You obviously haven't seen Claudia on the Great British Sewing Bee - absolutely perfect as a presenter. She made the odd quirky comment, but empathised totally with the contestants, listened to what they said, admitting that she learned a lot from them, encouraged and generally kept the atmosphere as stress-free and happy as she could.

It's patently clear why she should get the job - she's done it before, is liked by very many viewers, gets on well with Tess and they make a good pairing.

Ronnie Corbett was hopeless when he stood in for Fforsyth and spent most of his time sitting down, leaving it all to Tess. It doesn't need a comedian; it needs someone who knows their place as a link between the celeb pairs and the judges and can introduce the participants. It certainly doesn't need someone who thinks they can add/disagree with what the judges say. They're not there to judge so should shut up in that respect no matter what they think.

Age doesn't come into it, neither should regional accents, but the BBC would be breaking new ground if they had the guts to have two women presenting a prime time show.

I think that applies more to the awful, wooden Tess. I thought the Tess - Claudia combination worked pretty well, but if one of them's supposed to be ruled out, it makes more sense for it to be Tess.


If we're comparing Claudia and Zoe, I agree that Zoe's better. But Zoe is better than Tess too: far better.

Ms Reid takes Fridays off from hew new job at ITV and to my knowledge has no gig on a Saturday.....

link please ?

I'd happily go for a combination of Tess, Claudia and/or Zoe. All three are good presenters: Tess for the 'sensible' bit of introducing people, Claudia or Zoe to interview the celebs and dancers in the 'Tesspit' with a bit of humour. And I would like to see a flagship show presented by two women rather than an old timer like Bruce with a woman as his second in command. It's about time.

It's about time the old idea of a male presenter with a bimbo on is arm was consigned to oblivion. I'm not saying Tess is a bimbo, far from it, but that's how it started by reflecting life as it was - man in charge, woman is there fore decoration and does as she's told.

You should work for the Showbiz section of a tabloid if you think that would ever happen before hell froze over !!!

Exactly....

I wonder if Susanna is rueing signing for ITV just as this gig comes up - although I personally am very glad she did because I am not sure I could have taken much more of interplay between her and KFG.

Claudia would be the perfect replacement