now this I believe!

Perhaps Daniel could dance the Samba to Cheerleader then as I have been saying for a while that the song will appear on this years show at some stage as it was one of the most popular songs this Summer and they do a sort of version of the Samba in the video.

Forgot to mention that I have suggested Cheerleader as a song in the songs thread previously.

At 20 years younger he would still be 103. I can't imagine anyone would ever call him a ringah!

Very good.

Seriously though after many years of watching the series I will reserve judgement until the first few dances. There have been many celebs who I thought would be good but, turned out to be right clodhoppers and others who I said they won't be much cop and ended up as finalists. And in the case of Darren Gough ended up bliddy winning it.

*Goes into a darkened room muttering "Colin wuz robbed"*

That's 2 hours and 43 minutes and 43 seconds of my life I'll never get back.

Does he 'follow choreography' on stage? Even many pop singers don't do much more than move from side to side roughly in time with the music. I somehow can't imagine him dancing around the stage as he sings.

You must be a glutton for punishment - I managed 1 minute 13 seconds!

I had a quick look at some of the Youtube clips and he has backing dancers, and he dances with them. OK, it's not your Madonna type stuff but, it doesn't look spontaneous either. it's also very careful because unlike a lot of today's performers he doesn't appear to "lip sync" whilst dancing.

As I said previously, I wouldn't be surprised if he surprises this forum and does very well. If Kristina can get JS to learn the basics then she might just be able to get someone with DOD's experience to do some half decent routines. I might be very wrong but, I honestly don't like to pre-judge any of the contestants. I like being pleasantly surprised or completely shocked.

Kristina will have her work cut out with this one

To be fair to the Strictly team they made the right choice with this pairing. It's hard to imagine anyone other than Kristina doing well with DOD.

What are you like????

I think the point about Kristina being the best match for Daniel is probably right. we've seen before that she has the patience of a saint and I hope she will bring the dancer out in Daniel. In years gone by Lilia or Karen H were other pros who would have been good with Daniel.

I would just loved to be blown away by him really going for it and shocking us all.

Jus doin' a bit of rubbernecking.

I'm hoping the Launch show is not what we are going to see and I hope too that they will form a good team and Daniel will go for it.
Kristina is one of the most capable pros and I think Daniel could succeed if he can play the comedy angle just right.

I can spend hours on YT, but I draw the line at spending that much time watch Daniel!

I don't want him to be a comedy celeb, I want him to turn out to be Patrick Swayze's long lost cousin in disguise!

Thank you Sarah, I hadn't spotted that.

That's fine Terry.

I just spotted this video of Daniel on youtube Laura.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_KmYHaf58Q

did he use to be Data in star trek ?

This is the clip that caught my eye and as you say, it's all very careful because he's singing live, but if he can inject more energy (much more!) into his performance because he won't be singing we could be pleasantly surprised!

Daniel and Rock and Roll

Never heard of him until the launch show, on which he seemed very dull. He's gonna need his fanbase, I think.
But if anybody can get him past week 3, Kristina can!

[I managed to get to 2mins. 15 on the video!]

Managed about 30 seconds, then started cringing so hard I was in danger of turning myself inside out so though it best to stop before doing myself some permanent damage

His fanbase is huge, and smack bang in the Strictly demographic, he'll be around quite a few weeks, his rhumba with Kristina will happen

Fantastic Father Ted spoof of someone not unlike DOD in terms of the demographic he appeals to. I know DOD has a large fan base amongst the Irish diaspora in the UK but is he popular amongst the natives?

Maybe this is his big breakthrough opportunity?

I wonder if they will give Daniel any traditional Irish music so he can in directly support Ireland in the Rugby World Cup with the song. They gave Judy traditional Scottish type music last year and there was not an on going tournament for anything.

BiB - oh crikey! I already have a weird image of that! Unfair really, since I have barely set eyes on the guy, but it's hard at this point to imagine it turning out well.

Please do not reveal any more of the weird image Mr Cellaphane as I have a feelling it will be too much information.

When I was watching clips I kept waiting for him to really go for it and dance at the same pace as the backing dancers, but the backing dancers slowed down to march his pace! It's fascinating to watch...