If he's so besotted, why did it take him so long to marry her ....... and why not make it special by, as you suggest, waiting until the next series to compete - I'm sure that wouldn't have been a problem.

The old cynic in me thinks it was to:
a) make sure romantic old saddos would vote for him
b) keep him in the limelight after his departure from whatever it is he "acts" in

Ah Len, we finally find out your username!

Tom's wedding is just a happening that the producers will have jumped on to add a bit of colour to his VT spots, especially as he's not otherwise on telly at present. I bet the softer-hearted who love SCD are thrilled to get a bit of real romance, instead of jumped-up tripe featuring Brendan/whoever!

I don't think Tom's doing the banging on - if anything the producers are crowbarring in as much footage as they can.

Tom Chambers banging on about Clair???

Austin banging on about his 'girls'.

Lisa banging on about getting up early.

Christine banging on about being 'a shy, hopeless, non dancer'.

Jodie banging on about - um - people banging on about Jodie being tall.

Perhaps its more to do with the questions that are asked and the VT editor's scissors, than the competitors' choices of topic.

I'm sure Tom has never said 'let's not talk about fleckels and throw away oversways for goodness sake - I've just got married - let's talk about that instead!'.

How long is 'so long'? I always think the longer people are together before they marry, the more sensible they are cos they've proved they know they can make it as a couple.

And bugger the next series, if he's offered now then he should take them up on it before his value goes out the window. That's the way the business works - and I bet the new Mrs Chambers would have been more peeved if her husband couldn't afford the honeymoon!

I hazard to make a guess: Maybe he couldn't afford the time (and money) when he has to work for Holby City? Maybe Claire didn't want to marry so soon seeing they are already living together (the ITT clip of the day in the life made this clear)? I actually think they planned to marry after his exit from Holby, which could be revealed to Tom earlier in the year. He didn't see any on-coming offers, and so they arranged to marry late this year.

Then the Strictly offer came along, Tom decided to take the offer (which would pay off their wedding expenses neatly with the honeymoon expenses thrown in), so after discussing with Claire (who initially wasn't happy but for Tom's future career's sake she agreed), they decided to make a compromise and shifted their wedding day one day later? Gosh even Prince Charles and Camilla shifted their wedding day later because the pope died and they weren't even Catholics!

Granted, the above are pure conjectures...

As far as if he's doing this gushing for votes, look what it has generated in this forum? If you go on and on about something, it often backfires. And if he's doing it deliberately, then he's obviously paying a price for overdoing it. So...

Prefer to be a romantic old saddo - the wedding made me feel good.

Its a shame that it upset you. That's one drawback to being an old cynic - comes with the territory.

I think I remember reading that they met at school, went out for a while then split up, and only in recent times got together again??????

It didn't upset me ..... I've never heard of him before and wouldn't care if I never heard of him again. It just smacks of desperation to me - I'm glad my OH had a bit more consideration for me over our wedding - but then again, it was a very long time ago

I'd be pretty annoyed about Camilla Dallerup gatecrashing my honeymoon

Don't like Tom much either. He is boring. Austin much sexier and more in touch with feminine side