Do you buy the image put out that Strictly is all one big happy family?

I bet there's some serious gossiping during the training sessions and up on the balcony when the couples are performing.

Like this forum

And just like a real family.

Why say this? Every contestant says thry have their time of thier life on the series, and many try to come back either st Chridtmas or ITT which shows they really enjoyed it.

Is gossip/ discussion? Where does gossip stop and discussing starts?

I do not think it's an image put out, it's what the stars all say and show.

SCD is a family show, say compare it to the dying X Factor, there I think there is nasty backbiting.

I think the contestants are genuinely close this year. The pro's are cliquey though .. little looks .. little asides. Warm receptions and then chilly and forced ones. Only natural I guess.

That certainly isnt true lol

It is true just watch ITT ,

Can you show me your evidence / reference point please?

I could buy it from the contestants (the group chat, the Friday night Eggheads quizzes). The pros? Nah.

But it doesn't matter really, they pull off a shiny happy show every Saturday so everything's good

Am I the only one who opened this thread expecting it to be about the Cliftons again?

I think this group of pros generally get along well. Are they all best friends, no, but co workers who all want to put on a good show and respect each other. And this season the celebs seem to get on really well.

I think it will be like most workplaces - there will be people who are really close, and people who don't really like each other but who suck it up and stay cordial.

I think this seems to be a pretty tight group of pro dancers this year, especially the female pro's. The celebs all seem to get along as well - although I think a lot of that is down to them picking the right personalities and also their own 'team building' nights playing Eggheads on a Friday early in the year.

That seems about right to me. Some Pros are best friends whilst others are good work colleagues by the look of it.

The Celebrities do seem to be a friendly lot this year.

Jason G, the choreographer, said on ITT that he left them practising for a group dance for half an hour and when he came back they'd finished and were having a group hug. He'd never known that before.

Person who was at the show the week Helen went out said Jay went round and hugged the others just before the elimination. Jeremy Vine in his blog, Jay on ITT and Katie in her news article all said Peter was supportive. Daniel O'D still sings to them.

Carol Vorderman would be a case in point.

Fern Britten was none too complimentary about her time with Artem.

Bloody Lulu was pretty scathing about it all too.

Then there was Karen and Ola's infamous 'incident'.

It would be a statistical impossibility for all of the the hundreds of people who have been involved in the show and who have to spend hundreds of hours working together because their contract requires it to all get along wonderfully. Personality clashes are inevitable.

I want to believe it's a happy family and that contestants have a good time but ... it seems unlikely to be the case every year. As others have commented, this year genuine bonds amongst the celebs seem to have been formed and the pro dancers seem more settled as a group too.

Bar the last one Karen and Ola there all very old, not this year, and also boosted by newspapers to something they were not.

I wasn't aware that a statute of limitations applied. You asked for evidence that some people had not had the best time of their life on Strictly. That's what I responded with.

I think that on the whole everyone does get on, especially the celebs, but there's always the occasional blip. We can't all always get on with everyone, especially under stressful circumstances such as Strictly.

Poor Lulu did have good cause of course.

In the interests of not having an argument that has been had a thousand times before I will agree to disagree on that one but the evidence is against you and NO I'm not a Brendan fan.

Thought this was another thread about the Clifton's, their spouses and their Godparents

I don't believe they're one big happy family, but I'm happy to buy it. I watch to be lightly entertained for which they all need to put on a happy face.

As in any workplace and probably especially in this kind of entertainment where there are so few good jobs and so much depends on popularity/looks/connections/luck in addition to talent, I imagine there's a huge amount of behind-the-scenes tension and ill feeling.

Vorderman was long time ago and I don't remember anything about her on the show other than that dreadful Rumba.

Fern Britton is a liar.

Bloody Lulu was a humongous, almighty bitch. I'm not a fan of Brenda but that year I actually felt sorry for him.

Karen and Ola I'll put down to workplace frictions which are bound to happen every once in a while; while the celebs come and go, most pros are there every year, so it's a case colleagues disagreeing.

But I agree with you that clashes are sometimes inevitable, it would be impossible for everyone to get along all the time. On the whole though, I think it's pretty much a nice environment most (not all) of the time.

Have never believed it.

How the celebrities get on will very much depend on what they bring to the party. This year seems to be a convivial bunch without any divas. Other years, divas have definitely put a dampener on things.

Oh, I absolutely do not disagree that some (if not all) of those I named are deluded divas of the highest order. But the poster I was responding too was adamant that no single person who had ever been on the show had had anything less than (and I quote) 'the time of thier [sic] life on the series', and that there was no evidence to refute this claim. Which is, of course, nonsense.

(Though I have heard from a reliable source that Jimmy Tarbuck still insists to this day that the 25 minutes he spent on the show were the greatest damned 25 minutes of his entire life )

I think for the most part the celebs all really get on. Although, most seem to absolutely love the experience it must also be bloody stressful so they all have an understanding and it helps to just pick each other and have a laugh rather than bother with bitching or bickering.

The pros are work colleagues and some might be the best of friends others might just be more acquaintances. I think they also try to avoid infighting as much as possible. Even the Ola/Karen thing I think was blown out of proportion it was probably just some silly comments said to each other before making up.