Brucie got so much criticism in the first series of Strictly Come Dancing for getting tongue-tied and out of step with the autocue but few people seem to be admitting what is clearly true now that he's so much more on top of the job.

After all, even the young and lovely Tess Daly makes the occasional slip!

Well done, Bruce, may you entertain us for many more years to come!

Bruce makes me laugh. He's got a great rapport with the dancers and judges

Sorry, but it's like watching your aged grandfather or elderly male relative, being humoured, it's excrutiatingly embarrassing.

The man was incredible at what he did in his day, it's over now, it's now like flogging a dead horse.

I get him and people of my age remember him, with admiration and affection, but it's not easy watching him as a fan, right now.

What pees me off about Brucie is the way he always wants to be in charge - we don't want to see or listen to him and his lousy links and aged cliches - we want to see the dancing being done by the rREAL stars of the show....

Pension him off - PLEASE?????

He turns every interview into a bitter rant about being badly treated by tv companies. That avenue of the stars programme on ITV was excrutiating when he refused to leave the stage. He was saying "I bet they put me right before the news so they could cut away from me early." It turned out that they had Les Dawson's widow waiting out in the cold somewhere for an interview with Kate Thornton.

Did anyone see that two part dancing documentary he presented a few weeks back? It was hilarious watching Bruce trying to dance with break dancers. His wife is a great Latin mover though

I think that when SCD was a fledgling show with the general public not knowing the judges or dancers and with sorta minor-ish celebrities, Bruce was the right Saturday night man with a reputation to give it the right credentials for a primetime show.

Of course now we're in the 3rd series and the show has a core following and new fans too. It's more established and bigger with many more in different fan-bases so it can be easy to say that we'd rather get rid of Bruce now.

I know he isn't as sharp as he was but I really feel that it's sort of comforting to have him there. Call me sentimental (at 23!) - and I have to ask:

if not Bruce... then who?

I have never liked Bruce - he is excrutiatingly awful! He takes time up which could be used by the judges, and his jokes are just embarrassing!

How about Paul Killick instead? He could present - I'm sure he'd make an excellent job!

Personally I don't like his bits...I tend to flick over to X-Factor when that comes on. I think Vernon Kay would be good but that's just my opinion. Plus the novelty factor of him and Tess working together would be amusing.

Can't stand him on this, it's the reason we tape it and watch it later, so we can FF through Bruce's bits, although I 'grew up' with him and liked him it lots of programmes, for me he just doesn't work in SCD.

Yeah that's such an awesome idea!! Vernon would be great! We should start a HIRE Vernon Kay campaign

I like Bruce as he knows what he is talking about being a dancer himself. I know his jokes make me cringe sometimes, but it wouldn't be SCD without Bruce imo.

That's exactly what I do too!
I saw last week when he was whizzing past that he was attempting some sort of soft shoe shuffle - it was bad enough on FF heaven only knows what it was like real time!
According to my mum (who is/was a big Brucie fan) he dosen't even seem to be able to read the autocue without stumbling and fumbling over the words.

I agree with whoever said Vernon Kay too - is it right that he's been given the gig for a new Family Fortunes?

I thought Brucie's material was a bit more together last week - but I was high on crack at the time.

..... okay, I wasn't really, but it would explain a lot .....

Brilliant post!

I'll try crack tomorrow to see if that makes him more bearable, meanwhile, I still think Paul Killick or even Anton could be a better presenter!

I'm not a fan of his at all, give me Graham Norton instead, he did a great job on the other show, was witty, had repertoire and didn't need to rely on old jokes being read from an autocue, he could actually interact without being patronising to the dancers, heaven forbid that dear Brucie could do that!?

I don't dislike Bruce (I enjoyed his hosting of HIGNFY), but his presence on SCD has bugged me from day one; he wastes far too much (valuable) time for a start.

Absolutely - he adds nothing!

Ok well I agree we should start a hire Vernon Kay campaign. Especially as he's said that when Bruce leaves he would like to take over the job.

This guy is actually funny and I really would like to see him and Tess do the dancy bit at the begining. They could be the new Richard and Judy - without the rubbish show.

I agree Graham would be great better than bruce

Brucie needs better writers. He also needs to take a chill pill - the way he reacted when the sound went last week was unprofessional - he would have exploded if someone else had done that.

How about James Redmond - he's hilarious - wasn't he GREAT on ITT tonight? He had me and everyone else in stitches; the wit was just the right side of caustic

I'm afraid I have to mute Bruce. He's so irritating! I don't mind the odd silly comment, but when he hurries the judges along because "we don't have time" and then has time to do yet another gyrating hips to some poor woman in the balcony, or yet another embarassing shuffle step... well, I despair.

I think Graham Norton would be good, or even the lovely Claudia.

He seems a lot less wooden than he was presenting CDUK/SMTV.

I think a Saturday night audience suits him better than Saturday morning

So now my shortlist for replacements includes:
1) Vernon Kay
2) James Redmond

And I wouldn't have Claudia because it would be like one of us presenting -we'd be so invested that we'd be giggly and hyper and incoherent cos she comes across as a fan more