Really? You don't like the Northern accents then? Charming. I am a Yorkshire girl and proud of it and I can tell you,Tess doesn't sound like any chip shop person I have met. Not that I eat fish and chips, actually.

I think she's dreadful, talks over the judges, is patronising, all that 'look they're standing up for you' stuff makes me want to throw up, talk about stating the obvious! Wonder who she learnt all that from??? I was looking forward to it without Brucie, he's ruined it for years for me and now she's ruining it too!
Time they got some proper professional presenters in.

I'm Northern, Yorkshire born and bred but I think she puts a lot of her accent on.

She was like an autocue robot Barbie the first time I saw her many years ago and very little has changed since.

In some ways that's a good thing...and she has got better...she mostly seemed to make it to her mark ahead of the camera last night.

She hasn't got an accent, it's Claudia who has the accent as far as I am concerned!

I've resorted to recording the whole show then fast forwarding all the presenting bits and judges' comments. I just watch the dances and the scores - it's amazing how little of my time it takes up

All the chip shop owners where I live have Chinese accents. Don't think Tess has. Do you think she'd like your accent?

Tess's accent, Trent's accent, Len's accent, Kristina's accent - in fact everybody's accent (we ALL have one) is part of who they are, and therefore are all totally acceptable.

I agree with you Janet. I too northern girl and proud. We all have one, what ever part of the country we come from. I do not mind Tess or Claudia, they do not take over the show, they just do their job. Everybody gets chance to talk which is good.x

Maybe she should take classes to neutralize her accent. Maybe everyone on tv/radio should?

So you want everyone to abandon their heritage and make themselves into something they're not. Let's abandon all our traditions and all conform to one set of standards in all things and all turn into robots.

I was being sarcastic. There is nothing wrong with regional accents providing they're decipherable, which hers is.

Glad to hear it. Accent is part of a person's character.

She's not quick-witted enough to be a compere of this kind of show. It's all really clunky, laboured and fatally unfunny. She was ok as a side-kick (tbh I always thought she was a rubbish side-kick), but not as a main presenter. That she is paid so much more than the pros has always been disgraceful.

I'm all for women on TV but I really think Strictly needs a male and female presenter for balance, & so as not to frighten male viewers off. A male friend of mine called it 'Girl's World' recently which annoyed me, because he's right.

The show needs a real star to take it through. It has lost a lot with these two. Bad, bad choice BBC.

At least Tess looks quite elegant tonight.

I like Tess. She subtly keeps the show moving along and I think she coped well with the shoe and popcorn incidents. I do agree however that comedy isn't her forte, but why should it be? The producers shouldn't try and make her a Bruce alike reading out jokes from the auto cue - just let her be herself. We have Claudia for the fun element which she is naturally so good at. I also don't think there's anything wrong in having 2 female presenters by the way. It makes a refreshing change, and as they are not expected to perform a dance together - what does it matter?

I thoroughly like Tess and Claudia. I think they make a great double act with Tess as the "straight man" to Claudia's comedy. I don't think she's any worse than Brucie and delivers her lines a damn sight better. She supports the contestants as well as Brucie used to do.
As far as I'm concerned, these two girls together have made this show much more appealing.

As to "Popcorn-gate", I thought that was the funniest thing I'd seen on the show for an age. Tess's straight face and Claud mouthing "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," as she slunk off-stage.

You're obviously easily pleased.

I agree but these two are probably cheap so why would the beeb want to pay for someone decent. We are only viewers when all said and done

And if she knew anything about dancing.. any-dance.. she would know where the errors are.. and then would be in a better position to make remarks.. instead of not being as you say quick witted enough..

The problem of Tess comes across better when she is on somebody else's program. She does not appear a true extrovert and has to force herself to be assertive in front of the camera to make up for what she does not have naturally. So she comes across as wooden, fake or unsympathetic because this conscious forcing is taking too much of her. She's never going to be able to coo at people like Lorraine Kelly or quip like Claudia. Her unwavering dedication to the autocue schedule was helpful to Bruce while he was going off piste.

Tess is great, love having here and Claudia

She was ideal as Bruce's carer.

But now he has gone she has outlived her usefulness, and her deficiencies can easily be seen.

Would have made a good in vision announcer for Tyne Tees in the 70's, but that's about it. ( I would have said Yorkie tv, but they didn't show the announcers in vision).

Love claudia though appreciate she may not be everyones cup of tea. Mad as a march hare off camera as well as on and seems to have a good rapport with the couples who seem more relaxed than with tess. Tess is doing ok. Very professional and keeping it all running smoothly. Think we have heard from all the judges each time which is something we didn't with the old duffer presenting.

Having a male presenter won't attract men who don't like this kind of show; all the men I know I hate X Factor and that has a male presenter. And having 2 women fronting a show hardly scared away the men I know from GBBO.

I think she's done a very good job so far. I think Claudia is a bag of nerves though, especially when she's standing next to Tess, why though? She seems ok when talking to the dancers up stairs but she seems very nervous with Tess.