It really does... I don't think people always appreciate it, and unless you've been there yourself maybe it's not an easy thing to understand. But from personal experience, it's so easy for people to mistake someone being shy for them being rude or unfriendly. I have had it happen to me when the last thing I would ever want to do is offend someone.

I wouldn't want to fall into the trap of assuming I know what Lilia is like just because I've seen her on the telly ... but at the same time if it was that, it wouldn't really surprise me.

There's not just shyness to be considered, there's tiredness, physical discomfort, the need to get some rest before dashing off to the next show or another commitment, worry about this, worry about that...All of these things can and do make anyone a bit grumpy, and even be rude to their friends, let alone complete strangers! Ok, they're in the entertainment business, but that doesn't make them robots either!

In fact the only people I can think of who haven't thrown a strop at the public is the Queen and Jesus Neither are ever likely to appear on the show though...

I've met Anton when my mum had her dancing lesson with him - she had him to herself for a whole hour! I've spoken to Erin on the phone but unfortunately ha ven't met her in person.

At Strictly, I met Diarmuid Gavin, Esther Rantzen and Aled Jones, they were all really sweet and chatty.

Winnie im so jealous you got to meet Chris and Justyna Hawkins, they are great! I did prefer him dancing with Hazel Newberry though, that quickstep was amazing!

I've met Darren & Lilia and Ian and Camilla. Walked by Karen Hardy, Matt & Nicole and Len at Blackpool last year, if that counts!

Met Brendan, Matt C and Alesha earlier in the year. All really, really nice people.

Through work I've also met Rachel Stevens, Emma Bunton, Patsy Palmer, Aled Jones, Jodie Kidd, Lisa Snowdon, Gethin Jones, Gabby Logan, Jill Halfpenny, Colin Jackson, Matt Dawson, James Martin and Gloria Hunniford over the years, all of whom were very nice as well..

You met Matt and Alesha!!! You are sooo lucky! When?

At a party. One of the guys I manage is friends with Alesha (though he neglected to mention that to me til after SCD as he didn't know I was an SCD fan!) I had one or two 'sherberts' with them and danced with them (and several others) feeling like an utterly uncordinated plank! Brendan did spin me round at one point though and Matt tried to get us to do some hilarious 'street' move he'd made up so I can tenuously claim to have danced with Brendan Cole and Matt Cutler!!

You are so amazingly lucky! I would love to have been spun around by Brendan and danced wit Matt! Its so cool that one of the people you manage is friends with her.

Chris Hawkins is a lovely person hes got a wicked sense of humour. I have met him when he danced with Hazel Newbury as well. I much prefered Hazel to Justyna nothing against justyna though she was very nice.

winnie

I agree, Chris is a very funny guy, always making jokes and stuff, he's a great personality and exceptionally intelligent. He does three hour lectures in Japanese! And apparently he's a rather good singer too, or so I have been told! He will now dance with Jo Bolton for anyone who hadn't already heard.

Jodie is long-legged and beautiful, no doubt a dream partner for Ian. From your vantage point up close and personal, would she be as appealing as Penny was? Would she have problems with women voters like Kelly? It is women voters who count, casting as they do 90%+ of votes.

How do you see Jodie as a contender?
And Lisa?
After the exceptional Alesha who bucked the trend, are women voters going to vote for a woman again?

Pros - Anton and Erin, Ian and Camilla, James and Ola, Vincent and Flavia, Matt and Nicole, Chris Marques and Jaqui Spencer, Karen, Andrew Cuerden and Hanna, Darren and Lilia, Izabella Hannah.

Celebs - Lesley Garrett, Darren Gough, Willie Thorne, Julian Clary

Claudia Winkleman, and Tess Daly

All the pros are great and very friendly except for 1 couple. Anton and Erin are amazing, and have so much time for people they are the nicest pro couple i have met, Matt and Nicole are also fantastic having time for everyone, Ian and Camilla are also very friendly - they remembered me from a calender i asked them to sign the 1st time i met them!!! James and Ola and Vincent are also very friendly, Flavia is quiet but nice.

The first time i met Claudia was at ITT and i found her to be a bit off, but having met her again at strictly she was very funny, and took the mickey out of who we were supporting!!!

Got Andy Peters to take my book onto the blue peter set for Gethin to sign last year - he trained at our trampoline club with skis on!!!

I've met Brendan, Antonm Erin, Karen and Nicole who were all lovely when I met them specially Brendan.

Celebs well I meet Dennis Taylor, Bill, Willie Thorne and James Martin but I think thats it.

Ohh and Claudia when I went to ITT.

My friend likes to laugh at me because he's met Maks from DWTS and I really want to meet him my friend doesn't even like dancing in any form yet he's met him and Alec though he was sweet enough to get Maks autograph for me so I can forgive him a little .

i have met Karen her son used to maybe still does goes to the nursery i used to work at

No idea, sorry!

Lisa I know quite well and she's an absolute sweetheart - smart, funny and a lovely girl. However I know she gets negative vibes from a lot of women she meets because a)they think she must be dumb because she models and/or b)they're jealous she went out with Clooney!

Only met Jodie a couple of times so can't say I really know her but she seemed very sweet and down to earth.

Who knows how the minds of some female voters work though? Doubt they'll get much love from the 'I vote for so-and-so cos he's cute/fit/has a nice bum' brigade but there are plenty of far more sensible voters around and if they dance well and come over well on the TV then I'd imagine they'll go quite far.

I also think that it depends what people are going through at the time. I know one person who reported a negative experience with Lilia (and I think Darren too) it was around the time her father died and that's never going to make someone all sweetness and light. It's been a rough year for her but luckily Don seems like a gentleman like a sense of humour so even if he's not the most talented at least teaching him should be fun.

Celebs - Matt Di Angelo, Tom Chambers, Claire king & Georgina Bouzova

Not met any pro's but at nta's i saw Brendan, Anton (My mum loves him so she was trying to get him over but i wouldn't call him. i'll try to get him over for her at this years) also for celebs i saw kelly brook, kate (GMTV) Louise lytton, phil daniels. There might be more but i don't know who all has been in SCD.

Matt & tom have been my favourites.

Re: the whole Lilia debate. I met her once, ages ago at SCD3, she didn't utter a word to my friend or myself. I'm not a fan of her at all, not just based on those reasons but she just doesn't do anything for me so when I've seen her at Strictly on other occasions I've not bothered to go up to her.

I've met all the pro's (SCD ones, that is) at some stage I think. Apart from James & Ola. Oh, and Vincent. Pretty much everyone was fine, I have my favourites of course.

Met a handful of the celebs, the only one that meant a huge deal to me was Natasha, obviously. But other than her I have spoken to Zoe, James, Patsy, Darren (not so much spoken to as much as been frowned at and given a quick autograph from) Fiona Phillips, Mark Ramprakash, Tess Daly, Carol Smilie (what an absolute doll!)

I have met all the pros on the current show, except the new ones this year, both at competitions and at SCD and at their cabaret shows. Darren and Lilia were by far the most friendly and accessible on every occasion I met them tbh. Vincent was lovely, but Flavia seemed to want to rush people through. I also found Camilla quite cold. All the others were very pleasant I found. Matthew and Nicole are also a lovely partnership.

Of the celebs, I met Emma Bunton (lovely), Darren Gough (not keen) Letitia Dean (lovely again) all the others again quite approachable and pleasant.

So interesting to hear everyones comments.

I've only had the pleasure of meeting Matt and Nicole and I can't speak highly enough of them..Matt even suggested we had another photo taken because he thought he blinked the first time round Obviously, I happily went along with that!!

I would give soooo much to meet Darren and Lilia, I adore her...hopefully it was just an off day for her when some people didn't have a good experience with her.

VOTE LILIA AND DON

I wonder how many times fans have been rude and unpleasent to the professionals ?
I remenber reading in an interview with Darren and Lilia (and from some of the other pro's as well ) that fans sometimes come up to them and criticize their choice of song or choreography. I don't know about you, but if someone came up to me (be it in the street or at a dance event ) and told me how to do my job I would be royally hacked off as well (especially if the person envolved didn't know the slightest thing about dancing, like alot of the fans don't.)
I think us fans need to remember that these are people too and have off days like all of us do.
Okay I'll get off my soapbox now.

Hang on josar22! I was just about to climb up there with you! I agree entirely

I met a few at the SCD tour-

Darren Gough: I only got to see him after my Mum screamed her loudest to get him to come and sign autographs lol. But he was really nice and spent ages signing autographs.

James: He stuck out to have a cigeratte and I turned round and was like 'Oh Hello' He comes across lovely in real life.

Ola- Was so sweet. She asked me how to spell my name and James was like "Excuse my wife shes polish" lol.

Camilla- Was really good to stay out and sign autographs as her family had come to watch her from Denmark.

Flavia- She is soooo pretty and is a lovely person.

Vincent- First met him at the door and he took me inside to have our picture taken and said to the security gurad 'Its alright,shes with me' lol. And then later when we were waiting at the gate he came and gave me a hug :0.

However I also asked Darren and Lilia for autograph very nicely (and I was the first to ask) and she just looked at me up and then just walked off . I was not very happy. But shes still my favourite pro even though I had that experience !

How can you continue to love someone so much when they behaved like that to you in real life??? I just don't get it! I'd have been distraught! Especially since you say everyone else you met at the tour was lovely! Thank God my hero was as nice as I knew she'd be! If she'd behaved like Lilia did to you just couldn't have continued to love her in the way I had previously. It would seem so fake ...

*ends rant*

I can't beleive some of the experiences some of you have had with Lilia. Thankfully many of you have had so many good experiences with her too

One of the reasons she is my absolute favourite is because of the type of person she appears to be...so lovely and funny and chatty etc etc