Amanda Abbington and Strictly.

'I think I would have fallen away rather fast if it hadn't been for Craig. He is the grit in the oyster that saves the whole thing from being so sickly sweet as to induce a diabetic coma. He is by far the most critical judge'

I agree he's mostly great, and often gives them very useful feedback. Sometimes he's just mean without anything constructive to say, but I still prefer that to Shirley and the rest fawning over some people for being so 'entertaining' (Les Dennis) and severely bollocking others (Nigel Harman) for some footwork mistakes. They're so inconsistent

Have a look at the BBC Strictly clip of her on insta. The TRAs are out in force, including one saying they hope she breaks her neck 😡 Fortunately there are more supportive posts, to which I’ve added one. Just hoping she reads it and realises that there’s loads of support for her.

Random... 🤔

Basically @IwantToRetire you have about 20-30 mins to vote after the live show on Saturday. No voting on the Sunday show which is said to be live but which is actually about an hour after the show on Saturday

Rather a mixed metaphor there! Ah well, it's early.

As a very late convert to Strictly, I think I would have fallen away rather fast if it hadn't been for Craig. He is the grit in the oyster that saves the whole thing from being so sickly sweet as to induce a diabetic coma. He is by far the most critical judge, which makes the rare occasions where he gives praise far more noteworthy. (I know nothing about dancing, but really enjoy watching it!)

I thought Amanda did really well both weeks. I gave her all three of my votes.

Don’t you believe in free speech OP?

Oh, and just to add they NEVER divulge the public vote results, neither during nor after the show’s finished. If Layton at the top of the leaderboard had been in the dance-off it’d be safe to assume he got the least public votes, but beyond that there are a lot of variables. I suppose they keep the public vote a secret to a) spare the celebs’ hurty feelings, b) keep the bookies guessing, and c) make it appear as level a playing field as possible.

The viewers can keep people in despite the judges - which is why in past series we had awful contestants like Ann Widdecombe and John Sergeant for so many weeks; people wanted to keep them in because they were “so funny”, but personally I want to see great dancing, not joke dancing. Thankfully that didn’t seem to be the case with Les, he was awful and wasn’t even funny to watch.

High judges’ scores can keep people safe from the dance-off for the first few weeks, but after that the capricious public tends to have picked their favourites, and they’re often not the most accomplished dancers. It is a personality contest as much as a dance competition.

the public votes are also awarded points, so the most-voted for couple gets 15 points, the least-voted for gets 1 point

Thanks! I got really confused because it looked like the public vote really hadn't changed anything, but with numbers as low as this, it is understandable.

Was it just me or did Craig whatever his name is, seem really rather spiteful towards AA the first week?

The contestants get points according to where the judges place them on the leaderboard, so for instance with 15 contestants this week, Layton at the top of the leaderboard got 15 points, Les at the bottom got 4 points (because of other contestants tying on judges scores). Then the public votes are also awarded points, so the most-voted for couple gets 15 points, the least-voted for gets 1 point (the public vote scores are highly unlikely to ever tie, the chances of the exact same number of public votes going to two or more couples must be tiny). The points are then added so the two couples with the fewest combined points are in the dance-off. In the event of more than 2 couples with the same points total, the public votes/points take precedence over the judges’ scores/points.

Yup, judges give a score to rank the dancers then the public vote for those they want to keep in - online voting restricted to 3 votes per BBC account but you can phone as much as you like. Voting lines are only open for about half an hour on a Saturday evening. Scores are then combined and the two couples with the lowest votes have to dance again before the judges decide who to send home.

Amanda is a decent dancer so should be safe for the first 4 or 5 weeks as long as she keeps her standard up.

Judges give a score on Saturday. Then there's voting. I think they combine these somehow? Then two couples with lowest score have to dance again and then judges send one home.

Okay - I swotted up on all the info about voting and once I realised I could do it on line, was able to do this in time allowed.

But now I am really confused.

I cant find any mention of public vote, and even went to far as to tune in to sunday evenings programme.

But that seem to be about the Judges' votes, not the publics.

So what part do the public votes play?

LWS Dublin is on YouTube too, I'm watching it now.

No rigging needed. Just for your favourite. A lot.

Also, voting is for your favourite not who you want booted out. Surely it’s going to be difficult to rig who goes out?

So you have: launch show (no votes); week one (no votes); week two (votes and someone gets booted out).

Thanks! Will bookmark for future reference.

I was impressed by how high she lifted her leg. Flexibility plays a big role especially for female dancers so very promising.

I liked her in the VT but had forgotten the GC stuff. She can definitely go to the top of my favourites now.

She had a slight /wobble balance issue briefly but her leg extension looked great.

Voting is the week they do their second dance.

So you have: launch show (no votes); week one (no votes); week two (votes and someone gets booted out).

Thanks to Amanda (ish), we've realised that there are quite a few Sherlocks that we missed first time around.

I just hope that the contestants all have fun.

I thought the same.

I mean as a dancer.

Amanda looked great.