Just thinking its a bit unfair that poor Sunetra could only afford 9 hours of training last week, due to her being on Casualty, Jake obviously films on and off for eastenders, and there are others who have hours and hours in the day, every day, to train.

If the insider goss is to be believed then Brendan's unwillingness to travel to Bristol for a few hours training is as much to be blamed as Sunetra's schedule. Who knows?

Following on from the literary bent of the Steve Backshall thread, I do get the impression that every summer the casts of Eastenders, Casualty, Holby City and Waterloo Road are gathered together in a reenactment of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery with the chosen one doomed for Strictly. It may even come under the publicity and promotions section of their contract.

It is part of the unfairness of Strictly; some contestants are dance-trained, some have performance skills, some are athletic, some are young and some have the time to train. You get people like Mark Wright, Abby or Fiona who don't have a lot going on and then you get people like Sunetra, Matt Baker or Tim who are still doing the day job.

Mark said he was off to the isle of Fernando's (tenerife ) for work this week

Pixie is off to Scotland.

Tough titties really isn't it?

I'm sure that the celebrities aren't force to do the show. The busy celebrities probably think that they can juggle their work commitments with the show. Simon was busy, as well, doing a tour during the beginning of the show.

Does appearing on Strictly have positive long-term knock-on effects for soap stars? I saw Kara in Lewis recently. I guess the big plus from being a soap star is the chance of a regular income that 98%+ of actors can't rely on.

I think you will find that none of them is exactly unemployed. They all have careers outside of Strictly and have to balance the two.

I do miss the days when they used to tell us regularly exactly how many training hours everyone had done. The last time I remember it happening was towards the end of Series 10, when it became apparent that Tracey Beaker was doing the bare minimum.

It is probably a lot of hassle totalling up the hours and will only lead to 'keyboard warriors' claiming they have been doing more / less depending on their particular bias.

Yeah, the days when everybody used to big up how MANY hours they did. Now it's all about how FEW hours. "We only got 5 minutes in the car park before the dress rehearsal and then our costumes got tangled up/my boobs fell out/trousers split/too late to ditch the macramé boob slings".

I had to laugh at Pixie on ITT last night. Zoe asked Trent how their week pans out and he runs through what they do each day then Pixie jumps in all defensive saying oh but I have to do some work on Thursday in Scotland...oh but Trent is coming too. Looked like she was v aware that the viewers would think she had so much training time especially when compared to Sunetra with her piddly 9 hrs last week!

I didn't see it as any sort of trying to get sympathy or advantage, just stating a fact.

Haven't in the past some of the soap actors been written out of the script for a few weeks as the final approaches?

Pop singers might seem to have more free time, though it varies from week to week, but are quite likely busier than soap actors as Christmas approaches.

I didn't think she was doing it for sympathy, quite the opposite in fact. To me, it looked like she was trying to hide the fact she has so much training time compared to some of the others.

What's funny about that? Honestly, the nit picking on here about Pixie is just embarassing sometimes...

She is just stating a fact, she had to go to Scotland.

It's just one of the numerous ways in which Strictly is not a level playing field.

I accept the inevitability of this unfairness and just focus mainly on which couples impress me on the dance floor on a Saturday night. Especially as we don't have full details of contestants' past experience, current schedules, injuries, family commitments...etc.

Exactly. Sunetra has been very unfortunate with training hours, but some other celebs have also been quite busy some weeks. That's just the way it is.

How do you know she has so much training time? Some weeks she has actually been quite busy. Mark has had loads of training time, so have some others. That's not their fault, just the way it pans out.

Honestly, reach some more

It's not unfair though is it ... because you shouldn't commit to it if you have limited time. If you do then you have to put up with the consequences. Certainly nobody should feel guilty if they have clearer schedules or more training time .. that's the right way of organising things. If unexpected work comes up then it's difficult but this doesn't seem to be the case with Sunetra.

I thought she made much of the fact they'd only had two days .. others have been in the same position and in any case .. just get on with it .. it's your choice.

I don't remember it causing a lot of friction before. No more than anything else on the show anyway. Even the small windowslit of actual information that Sunetra "has 9 hours to train" (every week? this week? on a bad week? on a good week?) has added a little illumination to the picture of the whole relationship and situation of the couple and made them seem more interesting. I just wish we knew more, in a lot of cases. I don't think we've seen much of anything of, say, Caroline in 8 weeks that hasn't been either soft-scoop interview platitudes or scripted "comedy".

It's amazing to see some of the things that people will come up with to justify their dislike of a contestant.

Where did I say I dislike Pixie or that I know how much training time she has? My post was about her reaction to Trent answering a question which made it sound like they trained all day every day. My post was in reply to Muggsy missing " the days when everybody used to big up how MANY hours they did. Now it's all about how FEW hours"

So reach some more yourself (whatever that means )

It's not unfair as I think it's the celeb's responsibility to decide if they have got time to do it or not. I think shows like Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Casualty could do more to ensure that their cast don't have massive storylines at the same time as Strictly, as they presumably approve them doing it and like their cast getting better known. But SCD can't control that.

It may sound weird but this discussion is making me miss the old days when people really were beginners and lost three stone and went grey in the face doing this show. By my scientific, not at all biased test of who 'looks tired', I should think 9 hours is quite high for half the couples.

It's strange how people see things differently! I didn't see it as Pixie trying to cover up how much training time she could do more for the fact she knew she was going to Scotland but had not passed this detail onto Trent from his response.

The way he described their training week is how all the Pro's will work given the time. It's not one celebs fault if they can put in more training time than another. It happens/has happened every year on SCD nothing is new in that.

The lack hours training seems to annoy Brendan more than it does any other pro, he really does think its all about him