I think she's great! She's intelligent, nobody's fool, forceful as a personality, and has loads of commitment to the task at hand, and yet, for all that personal forcefulness, she was able to be gentle and lyrical and vulnerable in that waltz. Seems to me -- from the training clips -- Laura's big thing was to trust the process and to give herself at an imaginative level to the dancing. She did that last one wonderfully on at least two occasions (waltz and tango). The tango seemed to me the most complete creative leap we have seen yet this year on Strictly.

Trusting the process though is much harder for reasons we can all agree on -- those snoopy insiders and the redtops

I thought they seemed to get along fine too. The interview on ITT on the Friday before their Samba was lovely and they both were in good spirits. Even on the ITT interview after their exit I thought Laura was quite tactile with Gio.

If their relationship was toxic then they both put on an award winning acting performance in their interviews.

BIB - True, if it was toxic, then they gave us an Oscar winning performance.

Many people have gushed about their partner on Strictly in their farewell speech which often does not sound genuine but clearly Laura is not one of those. In fact she was criticised for not thanking Gio properly. She became increasingly tactile with him. I don't believe she would have done this had she hated him. Gio got his farewell speech just right. What he said did not fire up the tabloids but it was warm sincere. I don't remember liking a speech more. I don't believer they were pretending to like each other.

The Waltz and Tango are my two favourite dances precisely because of the reason you gave. I love the way you described Laura as giving herself at an imaginative level to the dancing, that's perfect

I still believe that Lura had the potential to be the best female, this year. Unfortunately producers had other ideas. It was really sad when she cried in the final interview saying " I had more to give". How could anybody doubt her motives. Strictly is really biased now. I read in the MF that Louise is doing the tour, not surprised. I am still pissed off with Laura for not signing on. If she wanted to do the play, should have done Strictly next year, would have been much better. This year you have so many popular contestants and then judges favourites. Hard to be a nobody and have a journey.

For me it's somewhere in the middle. They seemed to be getting along best between Waltz week and Quickstep week after overcoming some initial problems and before the frustration of Laura's injury.

Their best ITT interviews were the three Friday ones with the live audience which they both fed off.

I think they both came to the partnership with different expectations and it fell apart at the end.

I do respect your view of course and it is always interesting to hear how others think. . You are not alone in thinking their relationship was not good at the end after recent tabloid stories. Because of all the discussion I have rewatched their routines/interviews but I just cannot see what you are seeing. If anything I saw them become closer after Laura's injury. However variety is the spice of life. Life would be boring if we all thought the same.

I felt sad at her saying that on ITT too Sarah, so much potential.

Laura could have won in a different year as Caroline did. Caroline to me though rather wasted the boost to her profile and the wider new opportunities available to her by going straight back to X Factor and Love Island.

I like that Laura is diversifying by doing this play. Think many would like to see her back on IAC though

Here they are dancing the Tango. They look fine to me then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dNI2sNE4pk

That's one example of why they were the best thing about Strictly this year, and why I support them.

It would indeed issfan, imagine DS with us all agreeing

They seemed close on Tango weekend to me, the change in Samba week surprised me a little after that.

Evil doesn't always win, may be November 2016 has gone that way, I am sure good things will happen and we can celebrate soon.

I hope there's soon lots to celebrate for Laura

I will be surprised if she doesn't discuss recent events further in public though, it's her way to be honest and have things out in the open as she did through her Glamour blog and the Daily Mail and Women's Health articles.

ETA The October DM article, not yesterday's.

I do agree samba week was difficult for them. From the minute Laura made the mistake and got her remarks from the judges she was emotional and was struggling to keep her emotions in check. She showed no interest in her marks. She did shut out Gio while she struggled to deal with her disappointment. Gio didn't know how to deal with her. If she had cried he would have hugged her but I think he wasn't quite sure what to do. She took a while to return to Claudia's area. He returned before her She was the same when they were voted off. I kept hoping she would hug Gio. He was feeling miserable too. However his farewell speech was so sincere I thought. My favourite speech ever and their final dance was joyous. I was so relieved. Again I was disappointed Laura did not tweet Gio to thank him or respond to his tweet. I hope she thanked him at least in private. Then there was the unfollow/follow re Gio on twitter. That was very strange so I can understand your views. I hope she thanked him in private. I apprehensive before the final interview but when I saw them together on ITT I was relieved to see that all was well.

Good morning

Trying to stay positive, so going with the same old:

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life ....... and I'm feeling good

Let's stay positive, I love Fridays,

Absolutely!

(So far so good with the story dying too. Shhhhhh!!!)

Laura looked as though she was having fun last night, out with friends at the charity preview evening of Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.

The story hasn't died, the same allegations have been reprinted in the Mail Online today along with the pictures of Laura at Winter Wonderland. Laura's denial included, nothing from Gio and the BBC. The way she's being treated is disgusting and the Mail will keep rehashing those allegations from their source under photos of every public appearance Laura makes over the next few weeks.

My idea of support for Laura is to discuss and challenge the allegations, not try and hush it up. The story isn't being discussed on the MF simply because not many viewers care now she's out of Strictly and she never did win a lot of support which is sad.

I am sure she will do an interview though it may take a few weeks to come out if it's in one of the mags.

The only way that story will die quickly is to kill it and the only way to kill it is for Laura and Giovanni to be at the same function say with Aljaz, Jeanette and perhaps Daisy.

OK, looked at the article. A rehash. And an uninteresting one even to Mail readers. 39 comments in 15 hours. The only people keeping it going below the line (apart from some Russian bloke who *likes* her) are a couple of people defending her. It's daft. The Mail will lose interest all the sooner without the clicks.

If the story is shite, it's shite.
Flush! Don't stare at it!

This is not hanging Laura out to dry; it's denying the story oxygen. If Laura makes a comment on the matter or goes back to add to her Glamour blog, good for her. That'd be worth reading.

I agree issfan, sadly I can't see that happening and no statement is forthcoming either.

It would have been lovely to see Laura in the Blackpool audience with Daisy this weekend cheering everyone on and going out with Ore and Greg for their birthdays, two of her friends on the show. She said at the very beginning how much she'd love to dance in the Tower Ballroom and ok she was 2 weeks off making it but wish she could still be there, obviously it's not going to happen and I feel really sad at the way she's been unfairly isolated.

The story is currently dead unless new information is added. But its left behind reputation problems for Laura and Gio as it will be part of their respective narratives for the next 6 months - a bit like the persistent presence of Sean Ward (Georgia's ex) in any press article about Giovanni.

Issfan has said exactly what a PR would say. And that would be the right group of people. Possibly with Kevin in there as well. And Ore and Jo Clifton. You need a picture (happy and smiling) together at dinner

I thought that Daisy and Laura would try to be pictured together yesterday at the Winter Wonderland launch, but that didn't seem to happen.

I respect your view Dervla but completely disagree.

Laura needs to be photographed regularly and keep her public profile up, it's important to her career. I enjoy following her career outside of Strictly as well as in it and will always look up and click on articles and photographs of her. The Winter Wonderland photos are lovely, she posted one of her goddaughter there on her social media too.

But as long as the allegations keep being rehashed as part of those articles, and that will keep happening at least until the end of this Strictly series, I'll keep defending her. Nothing daft about challenging serious unfounded allegations that have been printed.

Yes - from the Mail's point of view, not much traction or interest. Daisy Lowe's equivalent story at Winter Wonderland had only 29 comments so very similar.

The original sensational Mail article had around 700 - as it was a Strictly story.

None of this is fair to Laura or Gio.

What do you think happened behind the scenes?