Ashley Roberts on Strictly Come Dancing

[Smellbellina]

She’s ruining my enjoyment! She’s a professional dancer and it’s very obvious. It’s like a professional ice skater competing on Dancing on Ice, why??

AJ is lovely, too boyish for me but I have decided he’s totally in love with Lauren. The way he looks at her you can see hearts in the air above them! I SO want them to be a couple.

For myself I’ll have Giovanni, mmm maybe pasha too :)

But if I was actually ON strictly I’d want Kevin as he’s nice and kind. If I was partnered with Giovanni I’d die of embarrassment/lust.

I don’t know how anyone can not like Stacey! Love her, Charles and Graeme (Oti is my fave female pro)

There was a "reality" show some years ago where they were trying to find a new member for The Pussycat Dolls. I have no idea who won but remember protests when a really good singer went through one round because her dancing wasn't up to scratch. Ability to dance was considered to be a really important part.

With regard to Faye I don't know all her history but with Steps one of their selling points was that the dances were easy enough so everyone could copy them. So in that case i don't think her being there makes her a ringer. She may have other experience I don't know about of course.

(Oti is my fave female pro)

Me too. I don't care about the celebrities, I want Oti to win!

I don't care about the contestants' backgrounds either. I just want to be entertained, and I find Ashley entertaining.

I want AJ and Lauren to fall in love too - thought it was just me!!!

AJ & lauren are adorable

TT look like they're about to do a bank job

Ha, pogmella
I said almost the same thing.
To me to give it up guys.

Unless, of course, it is indeed the case that DJJ genuinely believed that wing-walking was the best possible jive preparation and he put together his own VT for that

LOVE this Greece

I did think it interesting they recorded a pizza-making vt with Katya and Seann then bumped it last minute for the training footage with added chorerographer. Cos kneading dough and eating it ina booth was too racy....

One of the things about SCD that makes it enjoyable is there are usually some celebs with less stagey jobs (athletes, news readers, journalists, doctor etc).
These contestants somehow add an air of authenticity and make it feel a bit less lovey.

I fear though that fewer of these sort of contestants will want to take part in the future as they know they'll always come off worse against the ringers. And SCD will sadly fade.

Also SCD sells itself as a show where the public get a say but its virtually impossible for those at the top of the leader board to be voted off. The results bear no relation to what the public want (Charles may well have had thousands more votes than Ashley for weeks).
Its all a bit of a mess and needs a re-think before SCD dies altogether.

I fear though that fewer of these sort of contestants will want to take part in the future as they know they'll always come off worse against the ringers. And SCD will sadly fade

Not really. The plodders do it for the fee and the career boost, not because they genuinely think they've got a shot at winning (deluded twonks such as Craig Kelly aside, of course )

And as for the ones who spout 'it's been my lifelong dream to learn to dance' - well, every town in the land has at least one dance school, funny that you never got round to taking lessons until the beeb waved a massive cheque in your face and offered you weekly prime-time exposure, eh?

There have been ringers from the very start. It'll never change.

Nah, I don't agree it will put anyone off either. I would much rather be a slightly crap non-dancer who gives it a go and improves, than a ringer. They're regarded with suspicion and yet the same time they are expected to be good, so they look really bad if they mess up.

Even people who can barely keep time and have several left feet have done well out of strictly, if they seem nice, funny and up for a laugh.

I don’t agree that the judges have too much power in general - I think it’s quite nicely judged. No you can’t vote out the Ringers in the early stages, but that’s because you can’t vote people out at all. For the first eight weeks or so the public can keep their (one or two) favourites safe, even if they have two left feet, and the judges can keep their (one or two) favourites safe even if they’re notorious puppy-kicking bastards. Up until Blackpool it’s statistically well-nigh impossible for either the best dancer or the people’s favourite to go home. Whether it’s fair for the judges to get another bite of the cherry via the dance-off is another question, but the leaderboard system itself is pretty fair I think (and the rules revamp after the Tom Chambers debacle swung the scales more in the public’s favour).

the rules revamp after the Tom Chambers debacle swung the scales more in the public’s favour

How did they change the rules? I think that's the series where I started to watch Strictly with my dd and I don't remember any debacle.

They changed the rules on how they treated scoreboard draws.
Previously if there were 5 people in the semifinals, 4 people scored 40 and one duffer scored 20, then the 4 at the top would get 5 points and the duffer would get 1. Nowadays the top 4 would get 5 points and the duffer would get 4.

I think that's the series where I started to watch Strictly with my dd and I don't remember any debacle

It should have been a 4-person semi-final but they were down to 3 because of John Sargeant withdrawing. The leader board had a tie between Lisa and Rachel which meant that even if Tom got 100% of the public vote he couldn't go through. So they had to put all 3 through - and Brendan was not happy at all! 😂

Maybe it was knowing he was going to be up against Tom Chambers’ superior voting draw that made Brendan decide that he really had to pull out all the stops and go for a truly amazing, showstopping, flawless but ambitious showdance with Lisa

Maybe it was knowing he was going to be up against Tom Chambers’ superior voting draw that made Brendan decide that he really had to pull out all the stops and go for a truly amazing, showstopping, flawless but ambitious showdance with Lisa

I won't hear a word against the Bacofoil showdance. Unadulterated genius from start to finish 😂😂😂

HOWLING!!! It's more awesome than I remember.

It was described on DS (I think) as the story of a chap who hit a deer with his car, but didn't quite kill it. The dance re-enacts him attempting to wrestle it into the boot of his car so he can take it home & pop it in the freezer 😂😂😂

m.youtube.com/watch?v=3DAOLqqJLDM

(There used to be an amazing version on YouTube with subtitles, but it's gone now 😢😢😢)

Thanks for the info. That all sounds really complicated.

I've forgotten all the showdances. I remember Tom because dd loved Camilla so always voted for Tom. I can't even remember who LIsa and Rachel were.

Time to look through some old dances on youtube I think.

I can't even remember who LIsa and Rachel were

Lisa Snowdon (danced [though I hesitate to call that showdance a 'dance'] with Brendan), and Rachel Stevens (danced with Vincent, lovely tango, AT & rumba)

greece is this the one?

Here’s Rachel Stevens’s legendary Argentine Tango with Vincent. To a song which has the distinction of having been danced to three times on Strictly and always been an absolute cracker.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=lVx1CskHlcc

greece is this the one?

Yes, that's it, but when I try to play it I get a message saying it contains music from Demon Music and isn't available in my country (UK)

That bacofoil deer-wrestling dance is horrific. No wonder I'd wiped it from my memory.