Even though, as Darcey says, we are due a male winner, we instead appear to be staring down the barrel of the most lop-sided cast in Strictly history. Last I checked (yesterday) , of the top 9 in the betting, 7 are women, with Jolly Auntie Carol the only woman not expected to make the second half of the series by bookmakers, which would make this an even more lop-sided series in gender terms than Series 3, where all bar two of the women were taken out in quick succession over the first month.

Whilst, based on the launch show, Peter Andre (good-looking, arguably likeable, a strong dancer with a pre-existing reality show savvy fanbase) is understandably the firm favourite, who else is there on the male half of the draw to counteract this tidal wave of oestrogen? Nervous Jay and The One Armed Boxer? The female cast are young or youthful, have legs for day, and many of them have a reasonable amount of past experience and are on shows popular with the show's watching demographic. Are the bookmakers right? Is this series going to make Series 11 look like a testosterone fest or are some of these "good on paper" women going to turn out to be Tina O'Briens, Penny Lancaster-Bombers, and Michelle Williamseseses? Has any other series started with such an array of potential Goddesses Of Dance?

I say yes; even Anita, who some people had as an early boot, looked like she could manage 9s eventually (in Latin at least).

I think series 7 had a few - probably not as many as this - but taking out Lynda Bellingham and Jo Wood the line up seemed fairly strong. I don't think anyone expected that Martina Hingis wouldn't get to half way, let alone be the first out. Zoe, Laila, Jade and Ali seem pretty interchangeable with some of the ones we have this year potential wise.

Difficult question to answer until they've done some dancing. Sometimes the ones looking as if they have the most potential turn out to have anything but.

It also depends on who they are partnered with. Peter A, for example, could be good, but partnered with someone who can't dance ballroom properly () is going to be something of a disadvantage.

TBH I was impressed with the whole cast. All under 60 and nobody morbidly obese, has to be the most level playing field in years!

If all (or most) of the girls are good dancers they might split a certain vote and let Peter thru for the win. I'm thinking of Kim, DVO & Danni. All pipped to the post by Lewis.

Its normal for women to have more dance experience that men, so it is normal for them to be the stronger line-up.
Its early yet and Jamelia looked like a total beginner learning the Waltz. Kellie is the best so far, but she may turn out to be the best of all on the start line.

It does look like its going to be harder than usual to predict who's going after the first couple of weeks.

I think it's going to be an exciting series.

Monkseal and Peter Andre sitting in a tree...

Definitely - for the following reasons:

1) No clearly obvious duffer (Carol is, of course, the nearest but I think she will be far more able than some we've had to endure in the past)

2) 6 ladies between 30-45 ALL with potential. This is the most important point.

3) That leaves us with the baby of the group who is expected to do well

Its going to be a fab series. Great casting BBC - Well Done!

Well, if I had to suffer Jordan talking about his little acorn I guess it's the logical conclusion...

As it stands I think the female cast lacks variety and it's possible that some decent girls could find themselves in the dance off fairly early on - that middle ground is going to be an even more dangerous place to be from the very start. For the first half of the series there are always one or two who 'overstay' and I can see the same thing happening this year.

Iwan has said that he has just had his last day of training before the live show - that's three days training he has had in total! I think James Jordan may have been actually stating a FACT when he said they were struggling for male contestants this year.

Please don't label people with nasty nicknames . It isn't very nice and adds nothing to the threads .

The Wicked Witch of the Proms ! That is well good. Did she refuse to sign you an autograph ?

I'm guessing that she stole a boyfriend from her

(also because she first claimed to not know her; which would make this extremely odd otherwise)


Anyway, I do think that this is on paper the strongest female line-up. Some might struggle with the vote, but there have been recent series with mainly (or only) women in the final (so, that might happen again).

As for the lack of diversity, I would disagree as you have presenters, actors and a singer (and also colour in the mix as well). Also in terms of characters, as I can't see many of the women bonding with each other.

Think that if Carol shows up in the first (or second) dance-off then she is highly likely to be the first female to leave.

I think this year has a strong line-up all round. I'm interested in quite a few of the competitors. I suspect that personality and partnership with their pro dancer may make a significant difference in who stays and who goes.

I think Peter is the most cert to reach the final ever in the show, given he can clearly dance and he has huge experience of reality TV, and he will get most of the press coverage. It's also hard to guess how strong Daniel's support will be, particularly if he turns out to be sweet doing the slow ballroom, which he might do. The women are going to dance well, yes, but are they going to be vote winners? I think some of them might cancel each other out and split the vote. I certainly think we're going to get some Gabby v Penny type dance-offs and some grumpy judges telling us off. It doesn't look as strong a line up of women as Alesha's year to me, but I'm not a dancer.

I'm quite worried that they're all going to be too good this year, not in a 'ringah' way, but in that way of celebs who do their best dance week one or two and then get progressively a bit less exciting week after week. I understand having some who can dance well from the beginning but I'm not sure if they've got the mix right this time. So I really hope someone's going to surprise me.

Probably but I have high hopes for Jay and Anthony . However, with Anthony's injury, I'm not too sure of what to expect

Good synopsis . I agree with all that .
We'll wait to see how the girls bond , but nothing obvious from them so far , while three of the lads (Iwan, Peter and Daniel) seem to be close .

Pertinent thread, I've been thinking the same thing. Carol doesn't rate her dancing much but apart from that, based admittedly on very little evidence, all of the other females are potential finalists. As one other poster has said there could be some Gabby v Penny dance-offs, which will be disappointing for the viewers and women who've worked hard to reach higher levels of skill that some of those the public vote has put through to the next week.

The men. Peter A. obviously is a prospect, not seen enough of the other men to form an opinion. Anyway, IMHO, this is the strongest and most interesting cast for years and I just want to see some great dancing, with joke dancers not overstaying their welcome too long.

It reminds me of 2012, where Louis was basically a free ticket to the final and it was just the question which of the women would follow him there.

As for Alesha's year, you only had her and Kelly as actual potential finalists. Gabby was basically a gymnast (and woman, so no Louis comparison) and then you had Penny, Leticia, Kate and Stephanie. Based only on the group dance, I would only rate Carol on par or lower then the last four.

The female casting does remind of that year though (Alesha = Jamelia, Gabby = Kirsty, Kate = Katie, Leticia = Kellie).

I don't think Peter will be a shoe in for the win. I get shades of Jason Donovan, and Mark Wright, bored everyone to death with there endless ever so humble platitudes, followed by reaching a ceiling beyond which they were unable to go. Despite which both reached the final with a hugely underwhelming level of dancing. Don't give me that AT I still have nightmares about hair sniffing Morris dancing mass murderers.

I think the mystery of what Katie did is the most interesting thing in this hiatus between partnering up and the start of the show. It appears Katie also annoyed the PTB getting Anton, when really Carole and he are the natural pairing.

So good guess on the boyfriend stealing, but I will see you and raise you....,

UNFREINDING ON FACEBOOK.

Either Katie annoyed someone very deeply, or Anton bought someone a very expensive gift hamper.

Loving all the furore around Katie though, she's generating more online opinion than half the rest of the cast put together - as someone who, on paper, looks like a non-entity signing just to fill the cast out, she must be a very pleasant surprise to TPTB.

Um, I would say she's comfortably more famous than at least half of the rest of the cast.

I agree.
I guess people who only watch soaps and pop music shows won't have heard of her...