The Big Finish Catch-up: September 2015

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;

Spaceport Fear featuring the 6th Doctor and Mel is a fantastic little story involving an isolated setting, a good set up and a cracking plot involving a few twists that I didn't see coming. Strongly recommended 7/10.

Second up this month is a dip into the 'companion chronicle' range. Starring Jean Marsh in a story featuring the 1st Doctor, Sara and Steven. I actually recommend getting this over Halloween, viewing this as a taster to see if I'm going to buy anything from this range again its a roaring success. Its a very good story and one that I'm sure would have caught a few people off guard - I really don't want to say much in case I accidentally give anything away. It reminds me very much of the main ranges experimental stage from around 2003/4. I can't give more of a tribute to this than say - I'm in, I'm going to be listening to more of this range and you'll see more reviews coming up in this blog.

Third up this month and its another range as we go into the 4th Doctor range. This is a rare case of the 'not knowing anything' factor screwing things up. This was paired with the previous story in this review and I expected a single disc story unfortunately I got half a story as this is a double disc story as in Dalek story at the start of the 8th Doctor range. Reviewing what I did hear however, its very good to hear Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and John Leeson plus the production really sounds like 70's Who. However the story is terrible, disappointing given the cast and quality of the quest cast. Quite frankly as opposed to hearing a story I listened to characters being moved around a chess board and some awful characterisation. A halftime score of 5/10 and its that high due to so many of my fan buttons being pressed by this lineup of regulars.

My Least Favourite Waste of Time (part two)

Fast forward four months and things were still not going well on the job search front. On 10/06/15 I received an unexpected email from Admirals recruitment team. They were looking to run a course called "Getting into Admiral" on 01/07/15 - 03/07/15 it was aimed at people who were "unsuccessful" in their interview. It would be three days of interview tips, sales training and an insight into Admiral. There would be an interview at the end and if passed would result in a job starting on the 13/07/15. The job was actually an inbound sales job which was appealing. I had a few interviews and few applications on the go at the time so phoned Admiral and asked if I could confirm I would attend a week beforehand due to it being three weeks away, which they said was fine.

If any ones reading this thinking "why apply for them again" I'm not in a position to turn anything down, I want to work, this was in a different site to the previous job application (actually with Admiral and not one of their brands) and hopefully it would be with different recruitment staff. I rang them a week beforehand and confirmed I was going to attend. At the time I had three interviews with three different companies over a three week period; week 1 would be HSBC, week 2 would be Admiral and week 3 would be Virgin Atlantic. All in Swansea and all call centre jobs, given my extensive experience and skill I set myself a target of passing at least two of the three interviews and getting myself a choice of jobs. Admiral in fact for various long drawn out reasons was my pick of the three jobs.

The course was situated in Admirals Telelink 2 Building in Swansea Vale, located a short hop from Llansamlet train station which is how I would be getting there. I rolled up to the building at 08:45 Thursday morning, due to confidence issues and the previous application I was dressed gender neutral. I was signed in by security then escorted into the canteen where we were to wait for the trainers. There were a few people already in before me and over the next ten minutes the rest of the applicants arrived. The applicants were as follows;

1. Me, a veteran of call centres, knows their way around the industry, can talk to people of all ilks and coming off a six month period of unemployment after working in the TSB call centre just down the road.

2. Swindon, a woman from Swindon currently living in Swansea. I didn't learn anything of her professional background.

3. Teacher, a middle aged former teacher, rather authoritarian and I found her rather old fashioned.

4. Navy, a former navy chef, currently unemployed and also had recent call centre sales experience.

5. Mac, a young girl who was a trainer in McDonald's.

6. Hardy, an ex squaddie who was currently working in sales in the call centre next door to Admiral.

7. Blonde, a woman a little younger than myself whose professional background I never found out about.

8. Q, a rather quiet guy who kept himself to himself.

9. Tess. a young girl who worked in a super market.

10. Max, a young boy who I never really found out much about.

11. Stylist, a young girl who worked in a hair salon.

12. Brunette, a middle aged woman who I never found out much about.

13. Don, a quiet guy who didn't say much with a beard to differentiate himself from Q.

14. Brad, an Australian who like me had spent most of the last few years working for an Internet retailer.

15. Ben, a rather laid back young man.


I found the trainers and recruiter who ran the course very professional the course included a welcome, facilities talk, Admirals core competencies, interview skills, listening in to agents, sales training some talks by management and sales training. All in all very professional and we got a free lunch which went down well. At the end of day two we drew lots for our interview times on the final day - the final day would  be the interview and we'd get the results the following Monday which would mean a potential start a week later.

I arrived for my interview fifteen minutes early - arriving early is good but arriving to early results in sitting around getting nervous. First people I saw were Anita and Ruth who were running the course and interviewing, we were told they didn't have a say who was interviewing who - it was randomly assigned. I found Q sitting in the canteen after a quick chat Anita and Ruth called him in for his interview. I was sat on my own composing myself until Mac arrived. We had a chat and then I was called in for my interview.

This interview is now mentally my benchmark interview, the one I will now think of as the best an interview can go. I was on top form, answers were flowing, no awkward silences, eye contact was maintained and all in all very good and I came away thinking I'd got the job. I'd done everything, I'd brought paperwork that showed when I left Amazon due to productivity I was hitting my targets but when the work dried up I missed them for two weeks - hitting 150% of target the week before I was released. I'd prepared my own role play where I mock sold the interviewers my mobile phone. Feedback from the previous weeks interview with HSBC informed me recruiters when asking for examples want recent examples so when asked about motivation/targets I talked about targets and bonus for hitting them for Amazon because the previous call centre sales targets experience was from 2010. I left feeling confident, walked into Swansea to spend some money to celebrate my start a week Monday and generally felt on top of the world.

The situation for the job was there were 20 jobs on offer, 15 on the course and 20 applicants applied to the advert. I felt I was a top contender and well capable of finishing in the top 20 out of 35. I couldn't judge the applicants who I hadn't met but here's my opinion of the contenders from the course;

Certs to be offered a position;

1. Me, I was awesome during the interview, contributed to the team and tasks throughout the course. Used a few things in the interview others wouldn't have thought of and had extensive experience.

2. Mac, very professional, carried herself very well throughout the course and came across very well when discussing her current job at McDonald's. I genuinely think she's got team leader potential despite her lack of experience.

3. Brad, a brilliant talker and wonderfully laid back, if I called Admiral to discuss my insurance I'd want to talk to him.

4. Blonde, came really well in the tasks, mixed well with everyone and can only say good things about her.

Candidates I'd Hire;

I'm grouping Tess and Brunette together in this section as I felt they were both intimidated yet showed their strengths during the tasks and group talks. If anything both of these two are prime examples of why the course was set up, didn't shine as bright as others on their initial application but a chance to get them in again, give them some pointers and give them another shot.

The Maybes;

Teacher, personally I'm not sure she's a fit for a call centre environment, she was authoritarian, had trouble getting her point over and isn't going to be able to make sales with her personality. However she put a strong effort into the group tasks and her people skills could improve during the training course.

Ben, I like him, he contributed to every task well and got to know him as I walked him to the bus stop and gave him directions. Can't remember if he has call centre experience but think he can do well on the phones. The only reason I have him down as a maybe is because he's so laid back he may have trouble convincing the interviewers (if he's interviewed by someone who wasn't involved in the course) that he cares about getting the job.

Navy, he has experience but throughout the course he had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth, for an example during an example of bad customer service he told a story about how he embarrassed a call centre worker in front of his boss. In short I think he can thrive at this job but could shoot himself in the foot during the interview.

Max, in theory he should be a dead cert but his behaviour let him down, he was often laughing and giggling at other people when they were talking during presentations and discussions. Blanked virtually everyone on the course at one point of other and did the call centre no no of swearing on the call centre floor. Despite that I was impressed with him when he made an effort, he's young enough to grow out of that attitude and if he does as well in the interview as he did in the course deserves a second chance.

People Who I Don't Think Will Get Through;

Stylist, she didn't turn up after the first day and wasn't interviewed. I assume at best she'll be given a spot on the course if they hold another one. She came across as professional and the reason for not attending  may have been out of her hands or she have been accepted for another job - who knows.

Swindon, no offence to her but I thought she came across as rather awkward and I just can't see her on the phones or enjoying the job. I think her strengths lay in other areas however if she did get the job call centre turn over is high and I could see her leaving before three months. Good luck, I hope she finds something but I don't think she fits the call centre environment.

Hardy, I felt being the only one of us currently working and working in a call centre doing sales he should have alpha maled the group. However I can't remember him doing or saying anything and sat on the sidelines not taking advantage of this course.

Q, nice guy but again sat on the sidelines and didn't contribute or take advantage of the situation.

Don, god bless him really nice guy but sat on the sidelines and again sadly didn't make an impact.

So cut to the following Monday where I was preparing for the next job interview, I got no phone call. The next day I got an email similar to the previous one and rang it asking for feedback. They said I didn't disclose being released on a previous job - as mentioned I did and even brought the paperwork to the interview to show I was hitting target despite being released for productivity. Said I didn't show passion - believe me I did and was complimented for showing how passionate I was the previous week when applying with HSBC. Finally they said talking about breaking up your day, hitting hourly targets to get bonus and being motivated by spending the bonus money wasn't an appropriate answer to being asked how I motivate myself.

After the first application it just sounds like utter utter bullshit.

I don't know what I want from this blog entry, there are no winners to be found here only losers. Admiral have missed out on a top quality worker twice and I've been trapped on the dole for seven months more than I should. Maybe I should have kicked off a second time but given the results from the first time my heart wasn't in it.

I bid the second interviewers no ill will just hope they are retrained before interviewing anyone else. I would hope that the first set of interviewers have been found out by now (I doubt this is the first time they've done this) and sacked. I'd like to thank everyone at Admiral who contributed to the course and I hope everyone who took part from it got something out of it.

As for me, tomorrow I'll be getting a call from a recruitment consultant about a new job I hope to be starting on Monday. 

Here's to new starts...

Wales Qualify for Euro 2016!

Ladies and gentle readers last night for the first time in my lifetime the Wales football team has qualified for a tournament. Over the years we've come close a few times and other times never been in the chase. Only in the last qualifying campaign we finished second bottom of our qualifying group only ahead of Macedonia. In fact over the last decade its been campaign after campaign of building and we now have a team made up of Wayne Hennessey, Chris Gunter, Ashley Williams, Ben Davies, Jazz Richards, Joe Allen, Joe Ledley, Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bales AND WE FINALLY DID IT!

Last time we even came close was a decade ago when the likes of Captain Fantastic Gary Speed, John Hartson, Simon Davies, Craig Bellamy, Simon Davies and Robbie Savage came second to Italy and we lost a playoff to Russia by a goal. A crazy campaign where we beat Italy with Simon Davies and Hartson coming third and fourth in the goal scoring table to Inzaghi and Del Piero. Sadly we faded after the first four games and it didn't happen.

Before that it was another decade before we came close with the legendary Terry Yoraths team of Ian Rush, Mark Hughes, Dean Saunders, Neville Southhall and Ryan Giggs fell at the final hurdle against Romania. Sadly no matter how many times I rewatched Paul Bodins penalty over the years it refuses to go in.

Recently there have been glimpses of what could be and reasons to keep the faith, be it Wales 2-1 win over Montenergro or a hard fought 1-0 loss to Germany. Finally we've put a string of results together and reached the promise land of Euro 2016 in France. Meaning for the first time this blogger wont be pulling names out of a hat to decide who to support.

The Big Finish Catch-up: August 2015

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;

Its a bit of an odd one this month as we begin with Colin Bakers 6th Doctor in the main range story 'The Acheron Pules.' From the get go we find we're in the same general area albeit a little further ahead in time from 'The Burning Prince.' Its quite welcome to get a play linked to the last one but sadly its a large down turn in quality. In many ways it never gets going, the moment we realise where we my memory went back to the bonus scene of the previous story and the antagonists are explained. The story itself never gets going and when it tries to many aspects come across weak. There's a moment during this story when The Doctor does something and the listening immediately thinks 'that will come back to haunt him' but bar that its largely sub par. In the later half of the story some of the guest cast become hard to tell apart. Disappointing 4/10

On the other hand we have 'The Shadow Heart' featuring Sylvester McCoys 7th Doctor. Absolutely brilliant story which fully absorbed me from start to finish. This one is up there with the top stories I've heard this year. I assume its the final story in a trilogy (although another story with perhaps the 8th Doctor would be welcome) as theres an air of finality about it. I could easily have played this again the following evening, theres more flair in this story than the previous one, we're thrown into situations throughout the story, given clues here and there while still giving us quite a lot of curve balls. I must say Sylvester sounds like he's having bags of fun - in fact the Doctor alternates between knowing whats going on and not having a clue quite a few times adding to the fun. The space snail is a lovely concept and there is so much happening I'm pretty sure the story takes us to about four or five different worlds. I was thinking to myself near the end that it may be possible to play disc 2 before disc 1 which made me think the writer was Jonathan Morris - it was, he's become my favourite writer on these audio's (along with the book ranges) and I fully expect him to break into TV and the mainstream in future. I give this release 9/10 and look forward to what comes next with a spring in my step.

Hitchbot

Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers,for those of you unaware Hitchbot was invented at Ryerson University as an experiment. Hitchbot started its journey on 27/07/14, a robot that you could follow on line via its website and web cam the experiment was to see if Hitchbot could travel from one side of Canada to the the other

Over 21 days it travelled Halifax to Victoria on the other side of Canada. From then on there were travels through Germany and Holland before his creators chose to tackle America. Placing it in Massachusetts Hitchbot began its journey however when it got to Philadelphia the city of brotherly love this happened;

Yes readers sadly Hitchbot is dead, this blogger had been following it through Kevin Smiths Smodcast and various on line platforms over this past year so this comes as very sad news. So what have we learnt from this? I say if your going to send a robot out into the world hitchhiking give it some weapons to defend itself, possibly a chainsaw or a laser rifle. This is Innocuous Bystander the voice of common sense and the voice of sending armed robots onto the motorways of the world.

My Least Favourite Waste of Time

Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers, I hope I find you fettle. As I write this entry its a barmy August evening and I hope your getting the summer weather where you are. Anyway on with the blog, most of my blogs are written as a bit of fun however sometimes I have to rant and get something out of my system, this is one of those times. For the first time in a while (and because some of you requested) I'm doing a job search entry. This particular blog is going to cover two separate application processes with two parts of the same overall company.

In late December I left my place of work on a temp contract and was looking for work, which is a struggle at that time of year due to the first three months of the year being quiet in most industries. Someone shared on facebook that Admiral Insurance were taking people on so I logged onto Admirals recruitment site and had a little investigation. For those of you who don't know the Admiral Group is a large insurance company located throughout South Wales (Newport, Cardiff and Swansea). Apparently Admiral is expanding and was going to be doing some things I would like to do as well as things that I'm experienced in. So I filled in the on line application form for a CSR (Customer Service Representative) under the Gladiator brand. After completing the form I received an email saying I'd got through to the next stage which was a phone interview and asked to log back into Admirals recruitment site to select an interview slot. I chose 14:30 the following Thursday the 29th of January.

This was a few days away and it gave me a chance to have a more detailed look at the company. Go over my weak spots in interviews and come up with some answers for competency questions which I was a little out of practise with. Thursday 14:30 soon arrived and I received a phone call from a polite cheery voiced woman who proceeded to interview me. After forty-five minutes of stringent interviewing we reached the end and I was informed that I had passed and was invited to a 'meet and greet' the following Thursday at 09:30. All in all not a bad result and I had a week to prepare myself for what I was informed would be a three - maybe four hour chance for me to find out a bit more about the company plus be interviewed.

A week later and off I popped to Swansea, I'd been asked to get there for 09:00 which meant an early rise to leave the house 07:30, a twenty minute walk, half hour train journey and a slow amble to SA1 as I composed myself. Wearing my hair & makeup as professional as I could get it and dressed in professional top, trousers plus bag I looked the typical interviewee. I do have a confession to make at this stage, Admiral have three buildings in Swansea, one out in the vale and two in the SA1 development near town, along with 95% of my fellow applicants I went to the wrong building - I went to the main building 'Admiral Group House' when the Gladiator brand is located in the Ellipse building. After being informed we were at the wrong building I got directions from the security guard and led my fellow applicants three minutes down the road to the correct building.

We were greeted at the door by one of the recruitment girls (the recruitment team in Group House had phoned ahead to tell them what happened) and led through the call centre into one of the meeting rooms. The three recruitment people then took us through a presentation about Admiral (having done my research I knew most of it although I made sure to look interested). We were then given the traditional task of quizzing the person sat next to us fortunately me and the girl talked 10 to the dozen so we were able to get all the requested information out of each other. We were then given another presentation this time centring on the job itself and Gladiator itself.

At this point things got a little bit strange, we were then divided up into two groups of seven. The first group were to listen in to some agents on the floor (buddying) and be interviewed one by one while the second group (included) me stood waiting in a corridor for an hour. Every so often one of the first group would be pulled off the floor to be interviewed then we would 'buddy up' when they were all done. They did say we could wait in the chill out lounge but we didn't have a pass to get back in out of the corridor.

So an hour later the other team had been interviewed and left, meaning we got to 'buddy up' to an agent. I should say at this point that any name I give will be made up... just because. I sat down next to a young chap called Tim who gave the worst performance I'd ever seen in a call centre. After a few minutes I was having to point out where the information he needed was on the screen. During one call he put the client on hold and left the desk, I have no idea how long he was gone for but in that time the client had got bored, hung up, called back and had his query dealt with by another agent. Ideally I was hoping to pick something up to ask about during the interview but it didn't happen. Essentially for forty-five minutes I was sat at a blank screen whilst my agent was doing a tour of the room occasionally coming back to his desk (just to be clear he was not on a break) for a few minutes now and again. If this guy could get a job I was a dead cert to get a job if this was the level of worker Admiral had.

So after enduring this one of the recruitment staff collected me for the actual interview. It was her and another recruiter who I hadn't met yet sat side by side at a table with myself at the other end. The first question I was asked was 'had I enjoyed listening in?' I didn't want to start off on a bad foot or get a new colleague into trouble on the first day so I tried to sidestep by saying I didn't get to hear or see much due to the calls being long and awkward. After a 'how do you,' handshake and positioning myself on the chair in a positive open manner the interview began. The recruiter who I'd met I'll call Julie and the one who I'd not seen before the interview I'll call Bindy, they were both a bit 'sensible shoes' and it was quite hard getting them to open up - especially when they were the ones who should be getting me to open up. The interview didn't actually last long, I was asked a bit about my background and personal life which I answered in detail. I was asked a question about building rapport and asked to give some previous examples. I'd been expecting this and had practised an answer, I spoke about my previous call centre work and gave the examples of when I worked in a loan brokers talking about what the loan was for, when I worked for Vodafone I'd often chat about their model of phone and if they'd seen any models we had coming out they had their eye on for a future upgrade. Just giving examples that I could chat with a client and not leaving them hanging in an awkward pause - that kind of thing. They then asked about the gap I had in the last five years when I left the industry, rather than lie I said I'd left due to transphobia in the workplace and had looked to get out of the industry due to it having a negative affect on my career.

What I'm going to explain now is what every person in the transgender community has gone through. Their jaws hit the table and the penny dropped, given the clothes I was wearing, the makeup and the hair I'd have expected them to notice when I walked through the door. All of a sudden there was a panic in both their eyes, Bindy must have had some kind of auto reflex as she then gave a speech about Admiral being an equal opportunities employer. All very good to hear and at that point inside I gave a sigh of relief and was perked up for the rest of the interview, when (bearing in mind we're about six minutes in) Bindy ended the interview and and asked me to leave. I kept myself composed as its not the best idea to create a confrontation, a sentence famously said by Terrance Dicks or possibly Malcolm Hulke. I have put up with a lot of transphobic crap but I've never had the interview stopped and been removed from the building before. Everyone else got at least a twenty-five to forty minutes interview I was turfed out when the penny dropped that I was trans. Utterly disgusting.

I trudged home fully knowing I hadn't got the job, despite the experience of this 'meet and greet' when I'd looked into Admiral I thought it looked fantastic and thought (as I do now) it was an ideal workplace for me. The following Monday I received a generic email saying "we received a high calibre of candidate and some of the other candidates demonstrated a closer match to what we are recruiting for at this present time" in short absolute bull shit. My call centre experience was extensive - I'd done customer service, sales retentions, worked for brokers (which is what Gladiator is), managed departments, actually set up departments and worked in industries as extensive as banking to broadband suppliers.

However what this email also had which was rare on this day and age was a phone number to ring for individual feedback. I was still in this! Perhaps I could resit the interview with a non transphobe while management investigated Julie and Bindy!  I proceeded to ring the number and spoke to a recruitment girl, I asked for feedback first before I made any complaints and the feedback was 'I hadn't given any examples of building rapport' if I wasn't already livid I was even more livid now. Not only had they been discriminatory during the interview they'd put a load of rubbish in the recording of it to cover their backs.
 I told them that was incorrect and retold the exact examples I had given in my interview, I also said my treatment of having my interview stopped was nothing short of trans phobic. She escalated the call and eventually I spoke to two separate people who repeated the phrase: I'm sure that's not the case. Over the course of those two calls I stated my case that I'd had my interview stopped and been discriminated against by a transphobe but all I got in reply was 'I'm sure that's not the case' repeated back at me after every sentence. Eventually I was offered a call back from the head of recruitment which I accepted as I was getting nowhere with these two but I never received a further call.

There ends my first attempt to get a job with Admiral, ending in transphobia and a cover up by recruitment staff who didn't care. Despite my experience I still held hopes of working with them in the future, the fact is they are doing things I would like to do. Nevertheless as is the norm these days after getting rejected I would be unable to apply with them for six months. I'd like to say that I think this isn't an isolated incident and that Admiral is an equal opportunities employer but I'm sure that's not the case.

Strictly Come Dancing lineup 2015

Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers, for those of you who don't know last night marked the comeback of BBC 1's annual dance show Strictly Come Dancing. Now in its 13th series the show has become something of an autumn schedule tradition and to mark the start of this years series here's my opinion of this years lineup;

Ainsley Harriot, nice to see him back on TV after a bit of a break. Should add a bit of flair and campness to the show and expect him to last to the mid point.

Anita Rani, never heard of her.

Anthony Ogogo, never heard of him.

Carol Kirkwood, nice smiley Carol the weather presenter off of BBC Breakfast. Nice enough but don't expect much skill or flair to last beyond a few weeks.

Daniel O'Donnell, as far as I know he's a cabaret chicken in a basket type singer. Not very familiar with him myself and forget about dancing he could barely string a sentence together on the opening show. Very probably will be first out.

Georgia May Foote, never heard of her.

Helen George, never heard of her.

Iwan Thomas, 400 meter runner from the mid 90's to early 00's. Good bit of charisma to him and think he's good value to get 3/4's of the way through.

Jamelia, a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth and size of the brain. Will be tuning over whenever she's on as I can't stand her.

Jay McGuiness, never heard of him.

Jeremy Vine, midday host on radio 2 and a regular on BBC's election and political coverage. Looks like he's enjoying it and I hope he gets the furthest out of the ones I don't think will do well.

Katie Dernham, vaguely aware of her, came across well and hope she enjoys her time on the show.

Kellie Bright, blimey she's been around for ages, mostly known for Eastenders and The Upper Hand the first time I saw her was on kids TV when I was a kid as the protagonist in Teabag. She also appeared as Del Boys mum in the Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock and Chips and in one of the best detective shows in recent time Jericho which only lasted a season because I was the only one who watched it. Hope she does well and hope she gets near the final.

Kirsty Gallacher, Sky Sports News presenter. Hope she gets half way as she's very personable and I have a slight crush on her.

Peter Andre, of mid 90's pop star fame. There's not really much to him, he has no personality whatsoever and the earlier he's out the better.

So there you have it my opinion of this years lineup, not the best judging from the initial show but hopefully they'll grow on me. In the meantime KEEP DANCING...