I kinda liked him at the beginning, was almost tempted to put a bet on before the live shows started as I thought his odds were rather high considering he was a trained stage school dancer, as well as being extremely good looking and a stranger to shirt buttons - it all boded well for getting the votes needed to take him a long way into the competition

I'm really not too bothered that he's the ringiest of ringahs, and his extensive stage school training seems to have flown under the radar so far, but .... his lamenting each week during the training VTs "Oh wow, this is so hard, I'm really struggling - I'm going to be in trouble here!" and then coming out and absolutely smashing it, is starting to grate on my nerves big time. You're not fooling anyone Danny, you're great and you know it, so ffs please stop with the fake humble modesty and nervousness!

That's sort of how I feel. At least Oti owns it and knows they are bloody brilliant.

Just admit you're fantastic and you intend to break every boy dancing record on your way to the trophy and we'll have far more respect for you Danny! Plenty of celebs get to the final with the work horse ethic when they're clearly good.

It's akin to DVO and the chair.

Perhaps Danny does really find learning the routines difficult. Despite his past dance training, he isn't a professional dancer so he might struggle a bit.

Just because he makes it look easy doesn't necessarily mean he finds it easy.

Exactly.

It's irritating me too. They all find it difficult! He's obviously really good at dancing so would come across much better if he focused on something else.

This ^^^^^^^

Very true! However Oti seems to be having none of it!

Whatever he says, it unfortunately will grate with some people if it looks effortless for him after a vt about how hard it is. Especially when you have complete dance novices like Ed on the show.

How you play your hand on Strictly is almost as important as the actual dancing.

I don't think he can win either way. If he doesn't say how difficult he finds it people will say he's smug. If he says he is finding it difficult people will say he's not being transparent.

My guess is that he did find it difficult. Whilst good, it was a far from perfect performance. Not entirely smooth movement, head in wrong position, left arm a bit low.

he dances very well for someone who sounds like a posh raincoat

People may get bored if somebody improving week by week will appear. It's dangerous if you are constantly very good.

Virtually all actors and actresses have studied dance as part of their course at drama school. They don't all have a natural ability, though. That's something that can't be learned.

I think Oti is a tough teacher and does complicated routines - for this stage of the competition. She sees a natural talent and is pushing him as far as she can - who knows if he would be that good otherwise. I don't think we would be seeing this level of talent if he had been partnered with Janette - for instance. So personally I think he is finding the training difficult but is just as determined to give his best performance. They are a good match!

Yeah this is a good point. Oti is def pushing him to give his best.

They certainly work well as a couple across the board. I really feel drawn in by their routines.

My Nana had one. In a pale blue. They used to be very fashionable.

20 stage schools won't help you if you don't have a talent to begin with. They can give you a few more rounds on SCD, but they won't make that from you if you have two left feet. Anyway, if it starts to look like ringahs having their own competition up there, knocking out those trying to improve I may take an issue. Till then, keeep dancing!

They can't really just do a VT of him and Oti sitting drinking tea and discussing how easy he finds it all. If they don't talk about some kind of 'struggle' (real or not) that only really leaves VTs where he brings in a series of random relatives or celeb friends to watch him train, or Oti takes him to an American diner / bungee jumping / laser tag etc.. to get him 'in the mood' for whatever dance they're doing that week. I'm not sure which is preferable.

Or they could go really rad and show some training footage.

that's crazy talk

yes ! Let's have the training footage we all want for a change..... I don't like it when they go off on trips - bowling ????? - and waste valuable time. How can they say they only have 4 days to train when they're mucking about with this stuff ? Put the hours in, stop complaining and get on with the work. Danny is well matched with Oti - she's not putting up with anything less than perfection. It doesn't bother me that some of them have had stage school training. It really isn't the same as learning to dance with a partner, at all. They're just more comfortable on stage, because that's where they want to be. Doesn't mean the dancing comes easily, even when they are good from the start, which I agree makes it very difficult to whip up some drama in terms of a "struggle" for the sake of the cameras. But who needs it ?!

On the BBC website he says that when he left ArtsEd he put his shoes and dance belt away and hasn't used them since!

Gosh, that must be such a long time ago, given his advanced age!

I know that attending stage school doesn't automatically mean you are a natural born dancer, although I'm sure that after a few years you must become pretty adept. I remember watching Danny and a few other Hollyoaks people doing a routine on Children In Need (or maybe Comic Relief) a couple of years ago and thinking "Blimey, he's a good mover!"

It isn't the fact that he is very much a ringer that I take issue with - I supported Jay last year, who also got flak for being a ringer. But you couldn't accuse him of being fake when he was shown struggling with the routine, or with nerves as, on the night, you never knew if we were going to get a quickstep or a jive - part of the fun of watching!

Danny tries to present himself as someone with two left feet, and facing the same level of difficulty as the likes of Ed Balls or Greg Rutherford, and then comes out and slams it. I don't want him to start bragging "I'm the greatest dancer ever!" but just be a little less fake, that's all. Or live up to his protests, and give us a rubbish routine next week!

I hate the pre-dance VTs anyway. They're always pretty inane and encourage falseness. I would rather they just cut them out and had longer dances or else more contestants.

Danny could so easily be interesting about the dance experience without falling down the "this is so difficult" rabbit hole. He could pretty easily talk about how he is learning the style of that week's dance, or about bits of Oti's choreography that he likes or is enjoying learning, or how he is responding to the judge's comments, or about how the dance will fit with the music, etc.