He was asked his 3 favourite dances through out the series...

Jill Halfpenny and Darren Bennett's Jive
Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe's Quickstep
Jay McGuiness & Aliona Vilani's Jive


He asked who should replace him next year...
He said to keep the balance of the panel it should be someone from the world of Ballroom.
Craig: From Musical Theatre
Darcey: Ballet
Bruno: Pop & Contemporary dancing
He said he had no one special in mind as it is up to the Producers to decide.

He was asked who do you want to win...
Len wouldn't commit and said any of the remaining 4 could win.

It's Anton du Beke's time.
Turned 50, became a father, the judge's panel beckons 😎

I liked his three dance choices especially Ricky Whittle who is often overlooked.
I wonder if his DVD is worth a look?

But can he judge latin when most of the time on the show he couldn't do a good job of choreographing it and when he did the red button commentary in series five he botched commenting on the best two latin dances of the night and possibly of the series?

Anton is 50? Wow

Oh don't be silly! He's about as charismatic and an old facecloth abandoned on a sink.

He is NOT a presenter, he is not overly bright and he simply does not have the gravitas to do it.

His forays into TV presenting have been a utter disaster. Just because he's there does not mean he deserves the slot.

Fresh blood please - and please not some po-faced ballroom 'expert' from an obscure off the map town. They are never interesting. And brains would be nice. And some wit? I know, I know - too much to hope for

All of this too. He'd be useless!

Anton is not a qualified judge - being able to dance does not qualify one to judge the only one of the Strictly people with the experience to do it (and I personally don't want her to) is Karen Hardy - who is a world ranking judge already.

There are plenty of judges out there with the right mix of expertise and tv skills for it not to be necessary to go for someone 'in house' will be interesting to see who they do go for in the end

They appointed Alesha as a judge. The bar has been set extremely low and any of the people discussed on this and similar threads would get over it comfortably. I'm guessing the new judge wouldn't necessarily be Head Judge. Craig has covered as Head Judge in the past, so perhaps he'll be promoted?

I don't remember Ricky's QS. (I do remember him doing a very good VW.) I will have to take a look.

I would love Len's replacement to have real star quality and to be an influential Ballroom or Latin American dancer. However I'm not expecting that to be the case. I'm expecting someone with a respectable career record and a family friendly image.

Craig doesn't want to be head judge nor should he be given that he still hasn't got an expert knowledge of the 10 dances.

I agree with this. If they go for someone who's already associated with Strictly, it should be Karen, both because of the fact that she's a qualified judge in the real world and also because she herself hasn't competed on Strictly recently -- I think it's good that there should be a gap before moving from being a competing pro to a judge.

Personally, though, I'd prefer someone coming in new. I've said before that I'd love it to be either Shirley Ballas or Helen Richey, though I've no idea if either of them is being considered. (I know it's been reported that Helen Richey is in consideration, but I don't know how accurate that report is.) Anyway, it should certainly be someone who's a ten-dance expert, and not someone who's an expert solely in ballroom or latin.

As for Anton, his television skills are terrible, even after all this time. He talks over other people, he doesn't speak clearly -- he mumbles and swallows his words -- and he treats everything as a joke, even when it's not remotely funny. And then, of course, there's his latin -- it's not just that he's not good at it, he's got no respect for it either. No, I don't want him to be judge. Even Brendan would be better.

I bought it and enjoyed it - nice mix going right back to series 1 and up to series 13. No ATs at all, but pretty much everything else is there somewhere.

Oohh- what/when was this? I only ever listened to one red button commentary and never bothered again.

I have ordered it and realised it will solve a present for a friend who is a SCD nut and uses her DVD player a lot.

It's interesting to see that the other judges will probably be staying. I had the feeling that one of the others might leave as well.

What an absolutely patronising and ridiculous post. You have no idea whether he is 'overly bright' or not, you don't know him. I wouldn't particularly want to see him as a judge but I'm not so self absorbed as to think the whole show should be geered around me and what I think is witty.

Don't know if they're still there or not but I can't find them on You Tube anymore. They used to have the eliminated pro helping out with the red button commentary the week after they were eliminated back in 2007.

That does beggar the question - if Anton is not qualified to judge, then what the hell is Ms Bussell doing on the panel?

You may as well include Craig and Bruno in that - they 're no more qualified than Darcey (you could argue less...). The only qualified judge, love him or hate him, is Len. To replace him with someone less qualified would leave the panel without any credibility at all. If we must have someone like Anton on the panel [*shudder*], then he should be there instead of one of the other three.

After missing the lack of heel leads in Danny's tango, and the admission that she wasn't looking at the footwork, I have to ask the same question myself.

Why not just go the whole hog and sack the lot of them before wheeling Geoffrey, Bungle, Zippy and George out of retirement to replace them?

Personally Rod, Jane and Freddie would be less argumentative

So many names in or out of the running. At this rate I'll be doing it!

Cackling at him choosing Jay's Jive after all that palaver earlier in the series.

I'd like to see Ian Waite take over from Len on the judging panel.

[quote=sofakat;84807945]Oh don't be silly! He's about as charismatic and an old facecloth abandoned on a sink.

He is NOT a presenter, he is not overly bright and he simply does not have the gravitas to do it.

His forays into TV presenting have been a utter disaster. Just because he's there does not mean he deserves the slot.

Fresh blood please - and please not some po-faced ballroom 'expert' from an obscure off the map town. They are never interesting. And brains would be nice. And some wit? I know, I know - too much to hope for [/QUOTE]

Gary Edwards would tick all those boxes!