Ali Bastian – Brian Fortuna
Lynda Bellingham – Darren Bennett
Natalie Cassidy – Vincent Simone
Martina Hingis - Matthew Cutler
Jade Johnson – Ian Waite
Zoe Lucker – James Jordan
Laila Rouass - Anton Du Beke
Jo Wood – Brendan Cole
Joe Calzaghe – Kristina Rihanoff
Richard Dunwoody – Lilia Kopylova
Ricky Groves - Erin Boag
Chris Hollins – Ola Jordan
Craig Kelly – Flavia Cacace
Phil Tufnell - Katya Virshilas
Ricky Whittle – Natalie Low
Rav Wilding – Aliona Vilani
And now it appears that the gorgeous Karen Hardy is being dropped and will have a 'new role'. It seems that the dancers will be pretty much all in their twenties/early thirties (she is 39(?)).
She was always my favourite - and had a great back story.
If it's about age - then.........Brooooce - your time is up.
Strictly are dropping the Sunday night results show
See here
Remuneration for the series :
Brucie does sh**e all during the week while the dancers toil away - seems fair !!
- dancers - around £30K
- Brucie - around £500K
Yay! Strictly time again...
And this year we have...
Ali Bastian – actress and star of police drama The Bill, who will be dancing with Brian Fortuna
Lynda Bellingham – actress and TV presenter, who will be dancing with Darren Bennett
Natalie Cassidy – actress and former EastEnders star, who will be dancing with Vincent Simone
Martina Hingis – former professional tennis player and women's world No. 1, who will be dancing with Matthew Cutler
Jade Johnson – long jumper and Olympic athlete, who will be dancing with Ian Waite
Zoe Lucker – actress and former star of Footballers' Wives, who will be dancing with James Jordan
Laila Rouass – actress and former star of Footballers' Wives, who will be dancing with Anton Du Beke
Jo Wood – model and businesswoman, who will be dancing with Brendan Cole
Joe Calzaghe – Britain's only undefeated boxing world champion, who will be dancing with Kristina Rihanoff
Richard Dunwoody – horse-racing legend who will be dancing with Lilia Kopylova
Ricky Groves – actor and EastEnders star, who will be dancing with Erin Boag
Chris Hollins – BBC Breakfast TV's sports presenter, who will be dancing with Ola Jordan
Craig Kelly – actor and Coronation Street star, who will be dancing with Flavia Cacace
Phil Tufnell – former cricketer and TV presenter, who will be dancing with Katya Virshilas
Ricky Whittle – actor and Hollyoaks star, who will be dancing with Natalie Lowe
Rav Wilding – TV presenter, who will be dancing with Aliona Vilani
So we have new pros, and a new format. There's no split into Boys & Girls. Instead they've been split into 2 groups. There's also 2 shows a week to start off with - a Friday & Saturday - and one of the groups will be dancing both nights - Friday Ballroom, Saturday Latin. I guess we get to see 2 dances from those that unfortunately get voted off first - but it must be tough to start off having to prepare 2 dances, (and a group dance for the week that their group isn't competing).
As we know, there's no daft results show "on Sunday". But the judging has changed, so that the judges get to score both dances. Then their scores are combined - and then we mere mortals are allowed to vote. Does this mean the judges have more power? I'm not sure yet!
And, of course, no Arlene.
Back on topic, who do you think is in with a chance this year? I'll be backing our Welsh entry, but what does everyone else think?
Martina Hingis seems to have a good chance - you'd think for a tennis player she'd be light on her feet and have the competitive attiitude for hard work. And a great teacher as well.
But, I'm going to hold off any more predictions until having actually seen them dance
Is it only me though that didn't recognise the majority of names on the list?
Well, as per my previous post on this thread, I think this series will be the start of the long slow demise of Strictly - similar in a way to the demise of Big Brother - which is now to be axed
Why is this?
1. Messing around with the format - making it too complex, overlong, too many contestants, new scoring procedures.....etc
2. Alesha Dixon as a judge. I have my misgivings (as previously posted). Interesting that Darcey Bussell (sp?) will be a guest judge. How will this work? Maybe they realise that Alesha is not cut out for this - or will Darcey step in for one of the blokes?
3. As others have mentioned, the celebs are who? Dunno most of them - they may as well be members of the general public (how about that for a change?) Maybe I don't watch enough soaps. I do know Linda Bellingham of course, Oxo Mum and sometime Loose Woman panellist.
4. The inevitable hype of "this is the strongest set of contestants, best ever....blah blah" - whoooop it up mentality - so expect even more audience cheering right through the dances - just because a dancer stays on their feet.
5. Brucies script writers are past it. Just let him improvise and ad lib......
6. The general sense of "seen it, heard it all before" - eg. when we get to the Argentine Tango, how many more times will we have to hear Len explain about the gauchos coming in from a hard days work - and meeting the ladies of the night in the bars - and......
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Still - I will watch it to see how it is.............
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