Much better telly to lock them backstage and text them the results whilst showing the Potter's Wheel or other interlude-type calming things.

Quite! They chose to be on the show. Acting aloof just doesn't work at this late stage.

I never know more than two or three at the outset so I honestly don't care about background. It's how you get to know them across the series that matters. Probably I am less keen on celebs who are indistinguishable from the pros too early in the run. Adds to the skill and the aesthetic aspects but takes hugely from the experiential and emotional areas.

I do like the warm-hearted triers tho. Jeremy, Vaughany, Judymoo etc. Mark Benton... Love them. Series would be poorer without them

I want them all to be very fit, have zero previous dance and theatre experience and have very high aptitude for learning to dance. And they should all have very entertaining personalities.

Sorry to cut your post short, but I particularly agree with these bits. I don't mind some previous dance experience, but not someone who trained to be a dancer - so no Jay, Helen, Caroline, Natalie G, etc. And the BBC does need to take into account social media when choosing the celebs. I don't care how media savvy a celeb might be because that's just a sign of the times (and more power to their elbow), but Jay has over 900k twitter followers. How could any other celeb this year compete with that kind of fan base? BTW Harry Judd has over 800k twitter followers - same thing applies. Of course, not all are even eligible to vote, but a huge number of their followers are tech-savvy and well able to find ways to vote using multiple accounts. And they are fans in the true sense of the word - fanatics. So although a big name might be good for the show in one way, it ruins it in others. I don't know what the answer is though.

It does make me smile in a sad way when posters make suggestions about the various backgrounds of the celebs that could take part. It makes me realise how far away from the early series the show has moved. The likes of Anita, Carol, Daniel, Iwan and Jeremy were the norm when the show first started and somebody like Georgia would have been the big ringer - and might have won or been pipped at the post by the journey contestant. Those were the days.

If strictly are to have geordie shore people on my votes would be jay gardner, james tindale and kyle christie as they have the best reputation of all. There all former cast members too. Then again BBC would have the final decision to take them on or not.

Definitely anyone from TOWIE, Gordie Shore, Made in Chelsea or the real housewives as they are portrayed in a bad way. But I'd like to see more boy band stars as I'm obsessed with boybands and maybe some hot male models

I'm really not sure Twitter followers are that much of an indicator of anything. Peter this year has nearly 3.5 million and it didn't do him much good. The same with Mark Wright - he has over 2 million and was in the DO several times. On DWTS they've had Youtube stars with huge, very tech-savvy followings and they haven't won. I think you still need to attract the core audience of the show, rather than rely on your pre-existing fanbase.

These two combined would be perfect for me. Plus NO deliberate comedy contestants AKA Widdy & Russell Grant.

Definitely people who truly want to learn to dance, with professionals who will teach the basics and iron out glaring errors to hands arms & feet.

This, I couldn't care less what age they are, where their "celebrity" status comes from or whether they have dance experience or not. If they get on the dance floor and entertain me then I'm happy.


Not really, Claire Sweeney was a contestant in Series One. Jill Halfpenny in Series Two - both of them with stage school experience including dance and, iirc correctly, both had appeared in musicals professionally before appearing on SCD.


Also true, social media follower numbers are irrelevant in the long scheme of things, the vast majority of fans using Twitter are highly unlikely to be watching SCD - it's not cool enough.

Without the ringers the show would lose something for me,and I don't mind a few duffers either,at the end of the day it's an entertainment show not a world class dance competition.Over the years I've never had a dislike for any celeb so don't mind what area of work they are drawn from so long as they are committed to learning and putting on the best show they can.

Amen to that x 100. 'Juvenile' doesn't come anywhere near it. The posts were spiteful and childish.

Same for me. My attitude was often branded toxic by some on the forum, but I don't remember ever resorting to infantile nicknames or dedicating the majority of my posts to mocking contestants.

Zoe Ball called Peter "Pondray" to his face on It Takes Two, if it's such a horribly offensive and juvenile nickname you might want to take it up with her.

We're coming for ya', Ball

She's obviously more intelligent than I am. I don't even know the relevence of it

Well it's a rather bizarre sounding term of endearment, if that's what it is

Pond - ray, Peter Andre

Not sure the Beeb will be too unhappy with the mix of celebs they had this year - viewing figures were up on last year and they slaughtered X Factor. And I'm not sure how many people would have forecast the full final line-up after the launch show ...

I doubt Zoe meant Pandre as an insult though. Sometimes it's not the word itself but the number of times it gets repeated, how it's said or by how many that builds up to being unpleasant. A completely innocuous word can be hurtful if the intention is to hurt...

I bet Pondscum wasn't Zoe tho

I wasn't keen on what I saw

Thank you. I take it back. Zoe has the intelligence of a conch.

Me either. Let's not dwell on it though, he'll disappear into obscurity soon enough.

And DTWS also takes on those who are only famous for having a relative who is - one of Sarah Palin's spawn was on it I think - Judi Murray is at least a sports coach so does has had some hand in creating her sons' fame. Not an example I'd want to follow - other than that I think variety is the spice of life - Peter Andre not being quite the ringer people were expecting was interesting, and I like that the longer in the tooth can give it a go with varying degrees of success.

fingers crossed

I agree with you but it's impossible to know who they are going to be and I think some of the ones like Georgina Bouzova were last minute replacements for those who wanted to do it but couldn't get the time off. The one caveat I'd have is someone who has the time to do themselves justice although Kellie proved that you can do a pretty good job with a punishing schedule outside of SCD.