I'm intrigued about what sort of signings they should be looking for?

Quite honestly I am surprised that Helen took part because she already had a decent acting career.

It may be a career help to those who reach the final, but the others mostly just go back to their day job and carry on as before. People who know they are only ever going to be bad or middling haven't really got the 'career boost' thing to outweigh all the other stuff. If the show has so many great celebs desperate to sign up, why are they having to fill the line-up at the last minute with little known boxers carrying serious injuries?

As Aggs said, cross pollination for both Strictly and CTM.

We had the Call The Midwife CIN Strictly special too.

Well I very much hope she doesn't for your sake

Unfortunately she often proves you wrong as she obviously doesn't share your aversion to personal publicity !

Yes so am I as she is in her early 30s and has already achieved some success.

Anthony Ogogo is a Olympic medal winner but yes I agree about his injury he should not have taken part because of it. Of course not everyone will get a career boost but for those who needed it (Jay and Georgia this year) it is invaluable free exposure and I doubt they cared too much about VT's or props.

Indeed, it was painful to watch

Exactly Sarah. And all that nonsense about "they had no choice, the producers made them do it", what a load of nonsense!

Producer: "I insist you ham it up for the cameras and pretend the cold you have is life threatening"

Contestant "No"

Producer "You are fired"

I don't think so.

*Round of Applause*
Well said

And she loved dancing ...

Spot on.

You are funny Lou.

Producers made them tweet, I don't know whether I will be alive until Saturday.
Couldn't handle the rejection ( being bottom 2) and cried that weekend and got a sore throat and then milked it for all it's worth.

Don't forget the producers made them say " You are like my little sister and I will miss you". Trying to fool the public.

Disclaimer: I am very cynical when it comes to some people

Oh please, who, including Georgia, said anything about it being 'life threatening'. But hey, just like the Daily Mail, why let the facts get in the way of your story?

This point has been argued out at long and tedious detail over several threads and I see no point in going over it again.

I share that cynicism!

Just pointing out some of the falsehoods and unsubstantiated statements in this post:

1st sentence: Would you be able to find the tweet which said "I don't know whether I'll be alive until Saturday" or were you perhaps slightly exaggerating this tweet.

2nd sentence: She "couldn't handle the rejection" - so we're not able to be upset about something without being accused of not being able to "handle" it. That's sad.
And I know it's something that you ladies are quite keen to brush over but it's my belief that there was a lot more going on in her life at that point to make her upset than just appearing in the dance off.
She did not have a sore throat, she had pharyngitis. Symptoms of which include nausea, severe fatigue and fever. Ask anyone who has had pharyngitis and they will confirm to you that it is not just a sore throat.

3rd sentence: They were "trying to fool the public" - can I have the evidence which shows they set out with the intention of fooling the public?

4th sentence: Finally, a statement of absolute truth!! Though I think the word "cynical" could potentially be exchanged for a few others.

To be fair to Lou, her post could apply to any couple over the last 13 series who have upgraded a slight sniffle to full blown 'Flu - it's not like we're spoiled for choice in that regard!

If that is true then all the more reason not to agree to do silly VTs IMHO. Georgia's not the only one to have done it, I remember Letitia Deane's wobbly bottom lip about her sore throat. (I did quite like Letitia but the cold which turned into 'flu - not the same thing!) was annoying.

It's one thing an inexperienced 16 year old on X Factor doing or saying anything in a Doctor VT to get attention but I would expect a more mature, experienced celeb on Strictly to refuse if they don't want to come across as unprofessional.

If you're trying to demonstrate you can hack a West End run or tough filming schedule hamming up a common viral illness is not the best way to showcase yourself to people who might want to work with you.

She does get points back for nearly vomiting over Tess, though!

We are honest in saying that we are cynical. You can't even accept that you are biased and then you bring this truth yard stick and come. How do you know what is the truth??. I am cynical and I do think she did try to manipulate so many situations and the played the victim. Only my opinion.

I only have respect for people like Jay and Kelly, keep your mouth shut and dance.

Contrary to seemingly popular opinion on here, the VT was not entirely focused on the doctor. Indeed, the times at which she seems to get most upset is not when talking about being ill but when talking about potentially leaving the competition. As proof here's two points at which she was visibly upset and what she was saying at the time -
"I've just kind of had the best time and I don't want it to end."
"It's amazing to think people have supported me this far, I never thought people would pick up the phones to vote for me".

So, given that, it's my opinion that regardless of whether she had been ill or not she would have been upset in that VT.



Again, I point out that the doctor only appeared for just over 5 seconds in a VT which lasted around 2 minutes so to call it the "doctor VT" is a little inaccurate in my opinion.

Secondly, I personally don't associate saying that you're ill with a lack of professionalism. If a requisite for a professional performer is that you have to hide your emotions about being ill then I find that quite a sad state of affairs.


Where did I claim to be bringing the truth. I was pointing out factual inaccuracies and unsubstantiated statements in your post.

I had pharyngitis once and was in bed for 3 weeks, the throat pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep. Georgia was able to have antibiotics to knock it out (luckily she had the bacterial type) and the producers were probably trying to address some of the nastiness on social media about her illness (apparently she was making it up – why for goodness' sake??) and the dance change. I guess Georgia went along with it for those reasons. I’m not especially a fan of ‘injury VTs’ but at the same time do like to know what may be impacting a contestant’s performance.

Quite! Anyone who milks something for all its worth gets to be irritating - Tom Chambers' wedding anyone?

Did he get married You'll be saying he went on honeymoon next!
Last edited by aggs : 27-05-2016 at 10:33

You are me are going to fall out Aggs .....you quoted my unedited post with the apostrophe dis-ah-ster.

It's so painful to read ... sob