Just been watching Anton du Beke acting as co-presenter on The One Show tonight. It confirmed just how bad he would be presenting on Strictly Come Dancing, he must be the worse co-presenter that they have had on the programme.

I don't know why they keep giving him preventing jobs as he's made a pigs ear of every single one he's ever had.

He wasn't very comfortable was he? Kept misreading his autocue.
Bless.

Glad someone else felt like this. I really don't find him very good at presenting and hope he doesn't get the job of presenting Strictly. Remember that Hole in the Wall thing on BBC? Dreadful programme!

Shows that reading an Autocue is not as easy as some people seem to think! But it was a combination of that and his general manner, he was more annoying than Gordon Ramsey and that is really saying something!

Lots of us have said how bad he would be as any presenting role on Strictly. He'd be as bad as the old codger, constantly trying to draw attention to himself.

As for reading the auto-cue, this shows that it isn't that easy.
Despite all her faults, Tess has "made a career out of reading the auto-cue."
She makes an excellent job of it. Particularly in the days of the old codger, when she often had to read it at speed, to make up the time he had wasted labouring over his silly jokes with attempts to milk the audience applause, which sometimes wasn't forthcoming, because the jokes were so unfunny.

Thought he was fine. Think the One Show works at a different pace to ITT and the Claudatorium so he needs to adjust if he does it again.

Always thought Tess does a difficult job very well - as long as she doesn't tell jokes.

Tess doesn't tell jokes - she reads out the trash that is scripted on the autocue.

The day she started to send up the ridiculous mandatory reading out of the terms and conditions (before Claudia took over the boudoir) showed us the real Tess.

Do wish DS posters would leave Tess alone to get on with her job. She's absolutely fine.

The current Strictly presenting team isn't an issue in my opinion - Claudia and Tess are fine.

It's the judges that need changing, and Anton would be perfectly fine in that role!

Think Tess is underestimated - to keep a live show going on time and to cope with unexpected minor crises takes some doing. Tess is also very supportive of Claudia - who is really good, especially in the Claudatorium.

The pair of them do a good job on Strictly and seem to get on very well.

Did say Tess does a difficult job really well. The comment about 'jokes' has a smiley after it - as the PTB seemed to try to make her like Bruce F when she took over the main role, which obviously isn't her style.

I would keep the judges - just get them to be a bit more consistent - but if Len left think Anton would be fine as it's not very serious.

Anton should never be let anywhere near a microphone, either presenting, judging or anything else.

No he wouldn't he'd be terrible. Brendan would be the better bet, as he's judged the Kiwi version of Strictly.

I find Anton embarrsing quite honestly. The BBC seem to be under this illusion that he's popular and people want to see him for some reason. And while we're on the subject, why haven't people questioned his close friendship with Len, which is obvioulsy a big conflict of interests? Kevin got so much shit on here when someone (falsely) claimed he was Len's godson, but Anton spends Christmas with Len and was the only pro invited to his wedding. But that's alright then.

Agree with all that VD. If Anton moves into judging or presenting, I'll have to stop watching the show live and start recording it just to be able to FF when he's on.

For ballroom probably but for when it comes to Latin hmmmm not so sure..??

He'd still know more about it than at least half of the current judging panel...

Even if he can't dance it well, he'll know the theory and the technique required.

Well Craig isn't a fan of Anton. In an article in today's Daily Mail magazine he says Anita can dance better than Anton, then goes on to say he is a huge fan of his ballroom but is no good at Latin, that he can't move his hips.

Oh come on, this is a reality TV show, so-called conflicts of interest don't matter in the slightest. He's allowed to be friends with whoever he wants.

Are you equally going to question Aljaz helping his fiancée with her choreography (and vice versa - Janette doing his salsa choreography)? They're technically competing against each other... I don't think many people would think anything of that, so why should Anton's friendship with another of the show's staff be scrutinised more?


Well Craig's not saying anything that isn't true there!

They all help each other with the choreography though, so that's a none argument.

The difference is that Jeanette and Aljaz aren't being judged by each other, whereas Len is judging Anton and his celeb partner, and is supposed to be unbiased.

I heartily agree.

The dancing world is far too small to get many people who don't know each other. Even if they don't know each other at the beginning they're bound to make friends - people do at work.

Way back in Series One, the PTB had the dancers but not enough judges. Erin Boag recommended Len as a judge.

Made no difference - a few years later Len voted Erin out in the dance-off in Week 12 in favour of Lisa Snowden - who was in the dance-off three times! Erin was in tears on the Monday's ITT. (Austinwozrobbed and Erinwozrobbed).

But that's how it should be, if Len thought Lisa was better then he was right to vote for her.

So you're basically saying that the pros (and celebs for that matter) shouldn't allowed to be friends with the judges? Good luck enforcing that one, and convincing anyone that you should have any right to police their lifestyles...

I'm saying it's a conflict of interests, yes.

All the pros help each other and they have done for years. Yes Janette helps Kevin with the salsa, like Karen no doubt helps Kevin with it and Joanne will help them with ballroom. Joanne also helped Giovanni with ballroom choreography, and Anton helped Gleb. Nothing to see here, move on.

I also found him embarrassing to watch. He was clearly trying not to laugh reading the links. I know The One Show is not a very serious programme, but he came across as unprofessional, it felt like he was trying to draw attention to himself all the time.

I slightly worry that this is a sign of the BBC wanting to escalate his visibility with a view to an increased role in Strictly, either as a judge or presenter, but I think he would be awful at either.

Doesn't he always do that?