Completely my thoughts. Last year started really excited (mostly down to Nat and Artem) and it ended up excited as I really liked Abbey and Alijaz to my utter amazement (she is exactly what I HATE!)


Me too! Artem...
At the minute Caroline and Pasha seem to me the ones I kind of like. The rest as you say...


This may sound bad, but, I dont get Frankie as a pop star. I think she is a charisma vacuum. She seems nice enough but as you say beige, but the most dull kind of beige. If she had been paired up say with Artem I may have liked her more.


Me too. And one off after the final.

I worship the ground Claude walks on -- I wish she had Tess's job and Anton had hers, at least I think that's what I'd prefer. Tess is kind of dense, imo, and doesn't seem to come up with too many witticisms on her own, unlike the other two, but I guess she'll do as a Brucie replacement. The continuity probably matters to viewers but she sure doesn't add much. I'd really love to see a Graham Norton or an Alan Carr but I guess that's expecting too much. Anyhow, can't wait for the debut! And especially can't wait to complain about it

Words cannot express how much I agree with this.
Parents who lumber their children with idiotic names would be at the forefront of my list for room 101.

Personally, I don't think people should be allowed to have children unless they prove that they can name them responsibly.

As a primary school teacher, I have seen more than my fair share of "Oh you poor little b@st@rd" names. Actually, it's now so commonplace that you're more likely to get the startled looks and giggles if your name is something like Andrea or Brian than if it's Tartrazine or Platypus. Not that this is any excuse for self-indulgence.

I, too, am getting bad vibes from Pixie. She's one of those ones forced to do the show by her agent because her career has badly stalled and she clearly thinks it's beneath her. I know all the celebs are doing it for their careers but I do like the ones like Steve, who are doing it because they're excited about learning to dance, or the ones like Judy, who are true fans of the show.

I've realised my two hopes for this year are -

a) We get a good non-performance background celeb (like Colin, Mark R, or Austin) who comes through and wins the final
b) Somebody, somebody, does a Jan Ravens. Please, pretty please!

It has to be Gregg for the Jan Ravens spot, if he could make reference to a undercooked chop that Craig had presented when he did master chef it could be truly amazing

I think Jake could be a contender as well.
On the surface all blank eyed boredom, underneath a swirling mass of competitiveness.

Or Kristina when Simon gets voted off in a shock boot against Caroline - and Judy is still there

This has to happen. I want 3G to deliver a bitter tirade and flounce off in the diaphanous mauve blouson he had to wear for the 'interpretive' routine Aliona convinced him to dance to Kate Bush's 'Wow'.

Unappreciating that Trent's sun-snogged boggle-eyed twinkiness put my gaydar on the fritz and me now realising we are facing our first series without a gay pro since Series 1 (unless Joanne is a great big lezzer idk).

I started another thread about him looking the spitting image of Steve Buscemi, but then Pet Monkey helpfully provided a photo of Chuchi the Dog who looks like Steve Buscemi and that is now how I think of Trent. Anyway Chuchi and Pixie Bott are definitely Team Hitler Youth to me.

Kristina strikes again

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...al-issues.html


She's like the Pat Butcher of SCD

It says , there is no third party involved in the split but mentions that , also in attendance at a fasion show was Kristina.

Innuendo and 2 and 2 making 124

Sad that his marriage is not doing well but so far we can't blame Christina for it . I didn't see anything last year , Ben mostly looked embarrassed

It is interesting Christina receives universal condemnation, and yet it seems to be Rachel in the Pasha situation who is getting the flack.

Perhaps Strictly is a show people do when there is something missing in there marriage and life, so far Sunetra and Simon have announced splits from their partners before the show even starts properly. I am not sure Brendan and Christina are to blame for this also. Busy Christina if so .

Even Rachel
And Pasha implied her marriage was over before she started a relationship with Pasha,

As I say unnuendo and a lot of misogyny as well

The Pasha and Rachel thing doesn't even cross my mind but this is Kristina's second time if true given Joe was seeing someone too.

Also there were the pictures of them on the tube, his arm around her, hardly no evidence at all.

I think Kristina was involved with Vincent as well but, that aside, if you are unhappy with your marriage then going through an intense, exciting experience and spending a lot of time with someone who is teaching you a new skill, invested in improving your confidence and putting an enormous amount of effort into supporting you, all while engaging in an activity that involves a lot of intimacy and sexual tension then it's no wonder quite a few affairs go on behind the scenes.

Has it been finally confirmed Anton is straight? Or do you mean the first season with no one who's 'out'? (and there are a couple others I'm suspicious of but need to keep my piehole more under control than as of late )

But maybe I'll start tomorrow... A friend who just watched the launch mentioned to me how appalling the men's costumes were and come to think of it, they were pretty bad. Did James Jordan sneak in and take over the shirt-making? Why did the geometric shape of the front of the shirts try to give the men hour-glass figures, with tiny waists? And the 1950s style too-tight short sleeves made the muscular men's arms look fat - and the others too thin. And that's not even considering the big shiny bangles sewn on and the ordinary work-a-day leather belts... The girls looked great, the boys as if wearing burger restaurant uniforms designed by Liberace.

I so want to see this routine, I'm imagining it now and it involves OurLeona flooding the dancefloor in custard which she writhes in while 3G sways near the band...

...spoon in hand, ladling the custard into his mouth while bemoaning the lack of apple crumble

As ever, Erin persuaded me of Anton's position. That sudden flailing outburst of "HIS GIRLFRIEND'S HALF JAPANESE!" during Laylagate was too heartfelt to be a half-truth, unless Erin's wilier than I peg her as.

Strictly has well and truly scrambled my gaydar. Anton is the only male pro I have never automatically assumed was gay until proven otherwise (and I am including all the ones who are or were 'married'). Finding out Anton was gay would be like finding out Val Doonican or Pat Boone were gay.

There's a lot of side by side stuff in the Midwich Cuckoos clip (and something that looked suspiciously like an invisible bowler hat) , are we sure Robin wasn't sitting just off camera directing them

Ahhh thanks Monkseal! And then we find out Trent Whiddon is married to a Slovenian and Kevin is, what, engaged to Karen - or is it Janette? What's up with these dancers - don't they realise they have a reputation to uphold? Or is BBC cherry picking due to homophobia. I've been pouting about that since Matthew and Ian were let go (demoted/whatever) though I realise Robin came later (though I also remember him talking about girlfriends in his early SCD days - it'll be interesting to see if he's back next year). In America, Louis van Amstel said coming out on the show was the biggest mistake he's made and he advised against anyone else doing it (don't give yourself a label and make yourself a target, he said )

Unappreciating the headlines in the paper this am, Iveta I thought better of you, The show hasn't even started, Toss will be buying a hat by week 3

I disapprove muchly, but have to say, they do look very pretty together, thankfully Toss doesn't do the after dance interviews anymore, I think my cringeometer might have exploded

I don't mind the romances where the attraction between the pair is genuine & both are single from the outset. I do resent the way the show pounces on any hint of attraction between a pair & rams "Aw, they're so in wuv" down our throats week in week out (Tess, i'm mainly looking at you here), especially if one of the pair is already in an existing relationship.

It seemed quite clear on the launch show that Iveta had a pretty big crush on Thom but I didn't get any sense that he fancied her (either from the launch or the training video), so I am wary of the claims that he has a crush on her too as a cynical ploy for votes on his half. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though.

Hahahaaaaa! Wonderful! Love that image

I completely agree. My local paper, the Bournemouth Echo, runs a "beautiful kids" competition every year and people send in photos of their offspring - for about a week, the paper prints an age category of photos each day, with the kids' names included. One year, there was a child of about seven with the surname Webb and the first name was........ wait for it....... Spyder. That counts as child abuse in my book, unless of course it's a nickname and not his given name!

On a Strictly note, I'd like to unappreciate that a dream I had a couple of months ago hasn't come true - I dreamt that Alan Davies was on Strictly, paired with Krotchtina, and was doing a really really bad shoulder shimmy!