The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Family, News and Events 1: September-December 2020

[HereditaryPrincess]

Originally Posted by Denville

Sorry? Harry's appearing on Come Dancing?

JJ is a close friend of Prince Harry from their time in Afghanistan.

[rominet09]

Anything to show that he is still connected to UK.... Anything to remain in the news.

[Curryong]

Harry is 'still attached' to the UK. He's still British, doesn't have to prove it.
And JJ obviously appreciated the gesture. They were teasing and joking with each other. They've been close friends for years. JJ has paid tribute to Harry and to Invictus many times over the years, stating that if it wasn't for them he wouldn't be here.

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by AC21091968

Harry appeared on Strictly Come Dancing today in JJ Chalmers's VT along with his professional partner Amy Dowden. JJ Chalmers is an Invictus Game medallist. He perviously served as a Royal Marines reservist in Helmand, Afghanistan.

The SCD program is still going on at the moment that I'm typing this post.

Here is a clip from a Sussex fan account
https://twitter.com/PHarry_Meghan/st...01679639244801

The Sunday Times has released an article before SCD was broadcast
Prince Harry steps into Strictly Come Dancing to give friend JJ Chalmers a lift
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/p...rces-75zj5hl0c

Well done JJ!

[Osipi]

I find it heartwarming that Harry was there to support a friend on that TV show. There was nothing "between the lines" other than Harry there to support a friend he's known for a long time that he's had a history with. A remarkable story too of a man that has suffered because of service to his country and has made an amazing comeback to grab life by the horns and do something with it.

[ACO]

Originally Posted by Curryong

Harry is 'still attached' to the UK. He's still British, doesn't have to prove it.
And JJ obviously appreciated the gesture. They were teasing and joking with each other. They've been close friends for years. JJ has paid tribute to Harry and to Invictus many times over the years, stating that if it wasn't for them he wouldn't be here.

Exactly. Glad he supported his friend. People will complain to complain. Harry keep doing you.

[AC21091968]

This week's (Week 4) Strictly is quite unexpected or even hectic to say the least

• On Thursday 12th November, Katya Jones (professional dancer) had tested positive for COVID-19 which meant that Nicola Adams (her celebrity partner) and herself need to withdrew from the competition.
• On the same day, Motsi Mabuse (one of the three judges for this series) had revealed that she had travelled to Germany for emergency. This meant that she have to self-isolate for two weeks and not appear on the judging panel. Unlike The Voice UK, where Meghan Trainor could judge virtually, she was replaced by Anton Du Beke for two weeks (Strictly professional from the first series and even have a celebrity partner this year, before eliminated in the first dance off). Normally, there are four judges, Bruno Tonioli (judge of both dancing with the stars and strictly) revealed that he will not take part in the judging panel due to travel restriction.
• Most surprising of all is Harry appearing in JJ & Amy's VT!

To those critics who mentioned that Harry may be stealing the attention away from other contestants, around 60% of tweets (#strictly, #scd or #strictlycomedancing) were on Anton's judging role. At this point, the official BBC twitter account did not release a tweet with video/photo of Harry, unlike America's got talent with Meghan. Instead all they have posted short clips of each contestants' dancing. The BBC might not want show favouritism by showing an extra clip on JJ's VT with Harry. One of the most reacted post was actually on Anton. The other contestants that got public attention were Max George, Bill Bailey, Clara Amfo and HRVY.

Unfortunately, JJ is on the bottom of the leaderboard for this week, but hopefully the public gets behind and vote for him to keep him out of the dance off.

[QueenMathilde]

Originally Posted by Lee-Z

In 1988 they made Endangered Earth "Planet of the year" and there was no person of the year...i wouldn't be surprised if for 2020 the phenomenon of the year wiil be:
Covid-19

There was also a year where they put up a mirror on the cover and said we were all the person of the year. I'd be surprised if Harry and Meghan won compared to others who made the news more.

[Osipi]

Personally, I see absolutely nothing of merit that Harry and Meghan have accomplished during 2020 that would earn them even a nomination for Time's "Person of the Year".

If I had to put in a nomination off the top of my head of who I would consider the best candidate for Person of the Year, it would be Dr. Anthony Fauci. This man has faced more in the past year than Harry and Meghan could ever imagine happening to them.

[REAL COUNTESS]

If I had to nominate someone it would the the Frontline workers, not just one person . These people have given so much and still are. OMO of course.

[rominet09]

Originally Posted by REAL COUNTESS

If I had to nominate someone it would the the Frontline workers, not just one person . These people have given so much and still are. OMO of course.

I completely agree with you !

[carlota]

Originally Posted by Curryong

And JJ obviously appreciated the gesture. They were teasing and joking with each other. They've been close friends for years. JJ has paid tribute to Harry and to Invictus many times over the years, stating that if it wasn't for them he wouldn't be here.

let's not be fooled. this is not about JJ and harry's relationship. this is about harry trying to remain relevant. if all harry wanted was to say hi / congratulate his friend, he could easily do so via a private call or message, but he chose to do it publicly because of the reasons we all know.

[Somebody]

For my understanding (as I never watched strictly come dancing); what kind of people would normally come out in support of candidates? Would that be random (not-widely known) friends or would that be 'famous people'?

[Denville]

Do people normally come out in support of candidates? Do they video call during the show or soemthing?

[Heavs]

It's not uncommon to see a celebrity friend in a VT (training video) like if they were on EastEnders you'd probably get a quick "practice on the Albert Square set" and some cast members to pop up as wish them luck and make fun of them or if they're in a band or have an even more famous partner or parent the same thing. Emma Weymouth's showed off Longleat a bit.

There are always rumours of the Strictly brass trying to get famous people to cameo in stuff because it gives the show extra clickbait.

So it's not as simple as saying "Harry was just there to support a friend and comrade" because he's known to be friends or at least very friendly with plenty of Strictly contestants before who have joined in some of his previous charity work like Ben Cohen for example or others who have served and he's not popped up to wish them luck. That goes for the rest of the BRF as well.

That said it's probably three fold: He does indeed sincerely want to wish his friend JJ luck on a great challenge.

2) The BBC are very keen to get famous people either in the audience or on the VTs all the time.

3) Harry needs to keep his face in the media and remind us that he did a lot of popular stuff like Invictus Games. Everyone wins.

[AC21091968]

JJ Chalmers is safe from the dance-off and through to next week!

The public vote had save him.

Originally Posted by Heavs

It's not uncommon to see a celebrity friend in a VT (training video) like if they were on EastEnders you'd probably get a quick "practice on the Albert Square set" and some cast members to pop up as wish them luck and make fun of them or if they're in a band or have an even more famous partner or parent the same thing. Emma Weymouth's showed off Longleat a bit.

There are always rumours of the Strictly brass trying to get famous people to cameo in stuff because it gives the show extra clickbait.

So it's not as simple as saying "Harry was just there to support a friend and comrade" because he's known to be friends or at least very friendly with plenty of Strictly contestants before who have joined in some of his previous charity work like Ben Cohen for example or others who have served and he's not popped up to wish them luck. That goes for the rest of the BRF as well.

That said it's probably three fold: He does indeed sincerely want to wish his friend JJ luck on a great challenge.

2) The BBC are very keen to get famous people either in the audience or on the VTs all the time.

3) Harry needs to keep his face in the media and remind us that he did a lot of popular stuff like Invictus Games. Everyone wins.

Someone from a Strictly Come Dancing forum mentioned that had Harry featured in contestant's VT from earlier series (even last year), it would have been an unfair advantage in terms of public vote. Yes, this is a dance competition, but then it's combining both the contestant's leaderboard position (through judges score) and ranking of public votes. Like I said earlier, had JJ not have relatively high number of public votes, he would have been in the dance-off and possibly eliminated. I know that the BBC have tried not to include clips of Harry on social media account, but having a high profile celebrity or in this case a member of the royal family to feature in a contestant's VT may inevitably drive up more public votes.

I am aware that in my earlier post that I mentioned that "Harry did not necessary still attention away from other contestants", but at that time I was talking about social media responses before the commencement of public voting. Sometimes the number of views and responses do not transfer into votes. For example, in this week, Caroline Quentin and Ranvir Singh had relatively low viewing figures on twitter and are close to the bottom of the leader board, yet they avoided the dance-off.

Currently, the SCD fans are now focusing on what happen in the dance-off/elimination and future judging roles for Anton Du Beke.

[HereditaryPrincess]

Originally Posted by Denville

Do people normally come out in support of candidates? Do they video call during the show or soemthing?

Often their relatives come and video call in support - normally any children or grandparents/parents. I do remember RuPaul calling in support for Michelle Visage when she was on last year's show.

[QueenMathilde]

Originally Posted by HereditaryPrincess

Often their relatives come and video call in support - normally any children or grandparents/parents. I do remember RuPaul calling in support for Michelle Visage when she was on last year's show.

I know I'm not supposed to go off the topic but I'd just like to say I love RuPaul.

[LauraS3514]

Originally Posted by Kataryn

Why should they go by Mountbatten-Windsor and not Sussex when all the other examples used the short form of their title as surname as well? Or Diana's brother Earl Spencer eg signs Charles Spencer.

In the case of The Earl Spencer, his actual surname IS "Spencer."

[Kataryn]

Originally Posted by Heavs

That said it's probably three fold: He does indeed sincerely want to wish his friend JJ luck on a great challenge.

2) The BBC are very keen to get famous people either in the audience or on the VTs all the time.

3) Harry needs to keep his face in the media and remind us that he did a lot of popular stuff like Invictus Games. Everyone wins.

The BBC - at the moment there could not be a more intense wish than to get one of Diana's sons onto their programme in a positive way!