I will be watching it but missed Saturdays.

Me too, I had missed a few episodes but will be searching them online, if any.

On 27th September 2017 at 04:44am, Jacko4Eva said:
Me too, I had missed a few episodes but will be searching them online, if any"

It only started on Saturday so no worries. Voting doesn't open until next Saturday 😉

Last night's show was amazing! Some of them are just too good, too early on. And what about Debbie McGee?? She was fab!

There's some whinging going on about Debbie being a trained ballet dancer. I did think that kick she did last week as amazing for a lady of her age.

(I missed the end of last night's as switched over at 8 for X Factor but have it taped so will watch later)

I'm one of the whingers, Glynis, she is not just a trained ballet dancer but has danced professionally as a ballet dancer and ran her own ballet company with herself as a principal dancer! It means that the odds are stacked from the beginning against those who have no dance experience at all. The producers seem to have changed the criteria for selecting participants - Vince Cable appeared on one of the Christmas specials but wasn't invited to do the main show because he'd had ballroom training as an amateur in his youth and hence was barred from doing it. And yet here they are with a professional dancer and stage performer on it.

As each series comes around, there do seem to be more and more people appearing on Strictly who even if not primarily professional dancers have stage dance experience eg people from pop groups or musical theatre etc who have past experience of having to learn choreography etc. It's taking the edge off it for me because there is little room left for those without training but who turn out to have a previously unknown talent and show great improvement week by week - they are the people I enjoy watching the most.

Of course the public can always vote for their favourite as they've always been allowed to to decide who wins
Dance training , experience too of performing dance onstage didn't seem to affect the chances of Ore winning last year or the amazing Jay McGuiness the year before who arguably danced the most memorable tango of all time , or Abby Clancy ( a model ) and Louis Smith ( gymnast ) or going further back winners like Chris Hollins .
There has been a good spread of winners from sporting backgrounds , or presenter backgrounds against the more likely expected winners from acting / musical / singer backgrounds .
The only weakness this year is the lack of sports people .only Jonnie Peacock ( Para Olympian

List at if all contestants , finish places / winners ., all strictly series

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Strictly_Come_Dancing_contestants

I hope the non dancers are not all voted out right away. I enjoy watching how they change.

The singers and actors look the most likely to be in the final stages but despite the fact of Debbie McGee's past experience in ballet it would be great if someone from her age group won as most winners are around 30 to 35 mark on average and she is 58 . Of course we have the ballet expert ( Darcey ) on the judging panel but there's no ballet to judge , it would be good to see how well Darcey does a paso or tango to qualify the ballet experience .

Erm, you mean Jay McGuinness who went to stage school to study drama and dance and was in a boy band? Abby Clancy who was in a girl band? Lara Tointon, star of musical theatre? Caroline Flack who'd already won one reality TV dance competition before winning Strictly? Harry Judd another ex-boy band member? Tom Chambers who had also done 3 years of training for musical theatre? 6 of the last 9 winners have had a background of stage school, musical theatre or being in pop groups and the like. The odds are getting progressively shorter on the winner being some one with a musical theatre/ pop group background the longer the format continues.

Well first of all it's just an entertainment show and the difference in recent years is obviously the budget that is put into the programme , I'm not sure if people / viewers / licence payers would be overly impressed with some rough amateurs on a flagship show , yes more entertainment type contestants are on who have relevant stage school education for the career they have followed , along with the odd amateur novelty contestants like MPs etc . I don't think any of them have made a living professionally with any dance skills they have and I guess Jay was far more accomplished at writing songs , and doing lead vocals rather than taking his chances by doing dancing as his main career . They might have basic dance skills and stage confidence at the beginning but by the final stages you would find it difficult if you didn't know to tell the difference between the pro and the celeb .

I still don't see why being in a boy band or pop group gives you an advantage over a rugby player when doing a waltz , neither are in their comfort zone .

I think that's the crunch for me - the more it gets packed with participants who have a musical theatre school and dance school background the less entertaining it has become. The format is getting stale because there is clearly a tick list of stereotypes that must be filled and I can imagine the sort of meetings that wouldn't be out of place in a episode of W1A as they try and find people who tick as many of those boxes as possible.

- Older woman who can actually dance and get people commenting on how good it is that she can still do it at her age. Let's hope nobody notices this year that she was a professional dancer.

- A well known athlete who is coming to the end of their competition career so they are no longer training for their sport on a daily basis - and can we give this an added twist this year?

- The sassy curvy overweight woman so that the tabloids can marvel over her weight loss as the series progresses (shame nobody shared this vital requirement with the judges this year!)

- The star of a soap or other long-running TV show - and is it a plus or minus if this year we are so desperate that we have to have 2 people from the same one?

- The camp older man who'll need to swing the viewer vote to stay in past the first week by being an endearingly incompetent dancer and will play along by playing up the campness.

- An ex-boy/girl band member that we'll hope most the audience have never seen peform live so they won't realise just how much dance experience they have.

- A couple of women who are mainly famous because of who they are married too though we will keep reminding people that they did once have a career of their own first as long as it wasn't as a dancer.

- A TV presenter, a sports one is always good, that we can surprise the audience with the fact they do have legs and can move with a bit of grace.

- Someone who became famous because they made their name on another reality show or competition-based format. Do you think we could get Paul Hollywood even though he is now batting for the opposition? No? OK what other chefs or bakers have we got on the list?

- Someone who made their name on another talent show but whose career is in the doldrums at the moment and won't ask for too big a fee in return for a prime time slot on Saturday night TV to remind viewers that theya re still around.

- Someone who look beautiful, has great legs but can't really dance but whom Brendan will defend to the hilt and get into a regular altercation with the judges about how mean they are in their marks for her.

- And don't forget the older woman for Anton who will come somewhere halfway down the leaderboard at the beginning because she's a bit stiff and never really looks at ease, so he can show what a perfect gentelman he is but who will get voted off mid-season leaving him free to go off and do his dance show tour in the run up to Christmas.

Congratulations BBC! All the boxes suitably ticked off this year with nearly every participant ticking off at least two of the boxes! Am I jaundiced? Yes, and frankly a bit bored with how predictable the show is getting the longer it runs.

I just enjoy watching the dancing. The one change I would like - the one at the bottom after the vote is out.

Fiona, from memory I think that was the system when Strictly first started but it got embarrassing over the early seasons because the public kept voting for the worst dancers to stay in! I think they introduced the 'dance off' in an attempt to make sure that if one of the really good dancers ended up in the bottom two then at least the judges had a chance to keep them in a bit longer.

I'm do still watch it for the dancing itself but very rarely 'live' as it goes out - I record it so that I can fast forward through all the 'last week in training' guff etc which these days seems to just be padding. I do the same with 'It Takes 2' - I enjoy Ian Waite's slot and the costume designer's slot on a Thursday but find myself getting bored with the endless chitchat! I've turned into a right grumpy old woman! :-)

I do think the public should decide. It may not be about the best dancer, but the most entertaining, most improved etc

The current show is purely entertainment and it's does have a stereo typical set up like other reality shows for general family entertainment and I just about remember the old show setup and format when it was on screen in its dying days on a graveyard slot on BBC 2 , I do remember seeing Donnie Burns on there, i think showing everyone else how to be really good and that with all the combined talents from the regions none would be as good as him , not only a brilliant dancer , but even today's most vain and fame obsessed celeb wouldn't even match his tan and teeth , and with more charm than Anton and more showman than Brendan to boot as well .

Saw this clip of news about his views of Strictly / Come Dancing
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Unmitigated+disaster%3B+Scots+ballroom+champ+Donnie+Burns+fears+for...-a0115815833

How the old show was !!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=flprcK-6EfM

Donnie in action .

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pqSmINdpMIE