Strictly Come Dancing 2014

[FrankelandFilly]

Two celebs confirmed so far for the 2014 series:

Frankie from The Saturdays
Judy Murray (Andy's mum)

Not sure if they are deliberately only releasing one name at a time, but it can't be long before the big reveal.

So polish off your Cuban heels and slip into something tight and sparkly, it's almost here!

Can I join in please? Big sigh of relief in our Deadly 60 obsessed house as Steve did quite well, in fact considering he has no experience at all, he did v well. I thought Simon was a bit underrated, and think he will definitely get better. I thought Caroline was good, but would expect her to be as I remember watching her in that programme about wheelchair dancing and she even represented the UK in the world championships. The contestants were all trained by Brian and Kristina so she does have a bit of a head start! I couldn't help but feel sorry for Greg Wallace, he must have been very nasty to Craig at some point on Masterchef and Aliona was certainly giving off very unpleasant vibes towards him.

Is it me or is the cha cha considered an easy dance? Is that why it was chosen for the majority of the new contestants ?

Hated all of the music except 'Mull of Kintyre', though that isn't exactly an known waltz ,why can't there be a few trad. choices?

Loved Simon's jive and Simon! maybe a bit early to peak though!

Who was the woman in a strange Tina Turner look alike shorty gold blind type dress! It did nothing for T.T. or that woman!!

Tess is more relaxed but please mrs. Scriptwriter give her some better jokes or no jokes FGS she's not a female BF .

Claud looked much better with some eye make up on Sat.

Relief here, too, at Steve B doing a good job - though it was weird to see him with Serious Moody Face, as he's a naturally smiley, enthusiastic bloke.

If the universe really loved me, it would provide me with a gif of him cartwheeling over that fake motorbike.

I think chacha is one of the easier ones; my Ds1 does ballroom and Latin and in the competitions the younger and /or easier categories do chacha and waltz first then quickstep and rumba when they are a bit older, then also jive.

It was good that Steve was able to act it and did get all self concious, he is beautifully enthusiastic about everything. Fingers crossed for the chacha next week.

Yes Cha Cha is the "easiest" of the Latin dances. Personally when I started dancing I learnt Cha Cha first, then Rumba (the figures are more or less the same it's just different timing), then Samba, Jive and finally Paso.

Aah I thought so thanks.

I started on the uni circuit so did cha cha and jive first, but in my 'home' classes he tends to do cha cha and samba first, then rumba before jive (admittedly the people in his adult beginners classes do tend to be older, so maybe that has an impact).

ITT starting. Yippee.

Nice news about Karen

I didn't watch it.
is she pregnant?

Yes Her son is almost 10, and she is 44 so perhaps a surprise?

Did anyone notice the precipitous heels that Zoe was wearing? They weren't pretty (great to see her back though ) And Karen up duffed in heels WTF?

Guess what's changed my mind about Mdm. tennis coach? Yes she was the only woman who had the guts to not wear ridiculous heels !!!!

Also the botox was greatly in evidence, esp. Kristina her forehead didn't move at all.

Karen is 44?

Yup, she retired from competitive dancing 15 years ago

Wow! So glad that Zoe's back on ITT!

Really happy for Karen and glad that they've kept her choreography corner!

Oh that Karen!

Sorry for confusion, yes Karen Hardy. Also, two "Mark and Karen"s might get confusing if this year's do well!

Saturday's Monkseal, enjoy!

she was the only woman who had the guts to not wear ridiculous heels !!!!

I thought Alison was only wearing low heels.

Scott mills on BBC Breakfast BBC1 now....

Zoe always wears outrageous heels. I imagine they'll have to hold Karen Hardy down and prise her out of her heels when the time comes.

For some reason I remembered while watching it how sad it made me feel last series when Zoe fluffed a line or was a bit vague for a moment and then said 'Sorry, I'm on a ridiculous diet.' She's a great presenter and looks beautiful; does she 'choose' to go on diets or is there overt pressure?

I can't wait for Ian and his Wednesday Warm-Up. If they've ditched it the Beeb will be getting a VERY stern email from me.

OnlyLovers But the ones she wore yesterday were those hideous torture chamber ones! She's also too intelligent to fall for 'pressure' and go on a crap diet (there are good ones ).

I'm pleased that they've kept the same format, though it's every day now is it? It was good to learn more about how the dances SHOULD be danced from Karen.

I'm sure she's worn hideous buckly S&M ones before.

I don't buy that about the diet. They're all crap –at least, they are if you're already a perfectly normal healthy weight but go on them because telly dictates you should look a certain way, which is what I'm convinced was the case there.
ITT is always on every weekday. It's practically a full-time job keeping up with it. It takes dedication.

I'd forgotten it's EVERY DAY fgs . But at least it's not rushed and fake feeling like Extra Slice GBBO. Although we 've recently got one of those HD flat screen tellies and Strictly et al is made for it

I remember Zo on R2 mentioning that she'd got a cupboard full of shoes she never wears!

The problem is that everyone looks half a stone heavier on telly maybe she doesn't want to look that way (I suppose the prevalence of botox could be down to the huge tellies as well)

I knew a female TV presenter who was told she had two weeks to lose 10 pounds otherwise she was off the telly. We all said "but they can't do that", she said "you know that, I know that, they know that, fact is though, if I don't do it, I'm out of a job". Happens all the time apparently.