Let's face it, no matter how even-handed the producers claim they're being, it seems some people just end up with rubbish partners year on year, while others *cough*Camilla*cough* manage to bag reasonable partners every series.

I realise there are a certain amount of things that need to be taken into consideration - height-matching, 'storylining' etc - and that you can't guarantee a celeb's ability or otherwise, but who do you think deserves to be partnered with a 'contender' next year?

My personal vote would go to Darren - in the last four series, he's had Gloria and Jessie (no ability), Letitia (a trier but not much of a dancer really) and Emma (the Lisa Snowdon of her day). Of the girls, Kristina should get a break next year if she's still about

Assuming they all came back:

Female: Kristina, Lilia, Karen, Flavia

Male: Brian, Darren

Slightly subjective as Anton and Ola are sort of up there in terms of getting raw deals, but in my opinion they just aren't strong enough to do justice to a good partner anyway.

Who's in line for a dud: Camilla, Matt, Brendan.

Quite a lot of the women are owed decent partners, because the casting people have a habit of casting only two men with the remotest chance of winning or any talent at all in any given year, if that. Of the men I think Darren, and maybe Ian have a decent case. They actually had a chance to give Anton a decent partner who would match his personality this year, but they blew it and gave her to James instead, so there doesn't seem much point in asking for him.

I think the three new professional dancers; Brian, Kristina and Hayley, should be given 'contenders', if you like.

Darren and Lilia, after Jessie and Dominic/Don, deserve a good deal.

I agree with Katie. Camilla, Matthew and Brendan will be preparing for an older contestant.

Kristina and Brian, definitely.
Lilia has had two duds in a row so deserves to be in with a chance, although I'd love Ian to win the show next year.

The whole "decent partner" thing is difficult to predict - a good dancer can be voted off early and a JS like character can stay for ages.

If all the 16 pros return, I'd like them to finish in these clusters, in no particular order:

1st to 4th:

Kristina
Brian
Lilia
James

5th to 8th:

Ian
Flavia
Karen
Darren

9th to 12th:

Ola
Hayley
Matthew
Vincent

13th to 16th:

Anton
Camilla
Brendan
Erin

I think the pro's need not only a decent partner to win but also a popular partner it seems like they could be partnered with the best dancer in the world but if they don't get the GBP behind them they're doomed

Anton. Gawd bless 'im, he's had some lemons.

Even with a 'contender', I doubt he could go on to win the show.

Lilia definately deserves a good partner. I know shes won and been in the final but both times its been journey folk so shes had to work extremely hard.
Id love to see her with a Colin, Austin or Tom type who is a natural dancer. She has the best choreography IMO so would be fab.

Also I think Ola deserves a good partner too, i know she had spoony but andrew and kenny were clearly not going to be great dancers.

Matt, Camilla, brendan and Possibly vincent are all due duds unfortunately.

Well, you've sort of made my point for me there - longevity in the competition is very different from actually having a decent partner. It must surely be more fun for the pros to dance with someone who understands what they're doing than a three-left-footed blunderbuss with no sense of performance. So I'd want my partner to be good more than I'd want them to be popular.

i guess your not going to know how the public will react to someone untill they get on the dance floor.
Who would have thought Emma bunton who was the most popular spice girl and always came across well in interviews would end up being quite unpopular when she entered strictly. Also i doubt anyone would have predicted how well John Sargeant would do..

I feel sorry for him but at the same time I think someone like Rachel, Alesha or Jill would be utterly wasted on him. I do think it's time for him to move on to presenting.
Lilia is my favourite pro, so I'm not even going to pretend to be objective here, but I so agree with this! 'Natural' male dancers are pretty rare on this show, but I'd love to see Lilia with one because her choreography is so great and she's a fabulous performer with it.

Actually, I would too, thinking about it.

He's done well - Denise, Zoe, Penny and of course, Jodie, but he is always going to be hampered with the tall girl. Who isn't going to be able to jive.

The sign of a real 'pro' is the way they cope with a celebrity who is not so proficient; the producers probably thought Kristina - the newcomer - had drawn the short straw, but her choreography and personality rose to the challenge. She and John Sargeant should have won on these criteria alone, but their entertainment value shot them out into the stratosphere, way beyond the reach of the other dancers ...

So far I've only got Karen on my list. She's been too unlucky, 2 years running. And I still can't work out how Gary Rhodes managed to just keep putting his leg forward like that.

Yes actually- Ian has had a lot of near misses. If they got someone a bit smaller- like he dances with Camilla and she's under 6ft- maybe he'd have a better shot. Alesha can't be that short and she managed latin fine.

True. But why not give him a chance. Constantly giving him duds rights him off from the get go.

.

How could I forget Karen? However, I am doubting that she will return next year.

Well, you can never know who the 'duds' or 'contenders' are until they have danced. For all Anton knew, Kate Garraway could be mistaken for Ginger Rogers!

Flavia (especially), Lilia and Karen.

Of the boys....Ian.

I didn't expect Gillian Taylforth to be a dud to be honest.

He had Patsy, I know it was years ago and he generally gets duds, but his routines with her just show up that his latin isn't good enough to sell the performance as a whole. I think the same is true of Erin- and I'm not saying this because I don't like her, in fact I think she's the best ballroom teacher in the show by a very long way- but when I watched her Jive with Austin I thought a latin pro would have given that routine the sparkle it needed performing exactly the same steps.

I think it might be because it's more obvious to non-dancers like me when someone dances latin badly, but for whatever reason the latin pros seem to do a better job across both disciplines than the ballroom ones do.

Neither did I. I had a feeling her and Cherie would both surprise us.

Ant 'n' Giiinnngggeee