I would have much preferred Charles in the final instead of Ashley.
And I would have much preferred Charles in the final instead of Joe BECAUSE CHARLES IS A MUCH BETTER DANCER.
It doesn't matter what we 'prefer'. It doesn't matter who comes from a dance background and who doesn't. It comes down to the producers of the show who deliberately choose this diverse mix of young attractive people, older people, people with no dance experience, the token soap star, the token pop star, the token competitors of different ethnic background, the token blonde blue eyed beauty ... and then add to that, people with no dance experience, some dance experience, people with a lot of dance experience and put them together in the hope of creating some kind of alchemy to create a Saturday night show that steals all the ratings and has people talking about it on social media and forums everywhere.
And they achieve it every time because the mugs out there fall for it every time. Get someone with dance experience on and he or she is going to get flack. Get some hopeless, wooden celebrity who can't dance on there, and he or she is going to get flack.
And then people start analysing their character - she puts her arm around her dance partner (and she's all over him!) she stops smiling for a moment (she's moody) and so on. It's ridiculous.
The flack Ashley has taken is absolutely disgusting! She was invited onto the show and she's a fantastic dancer. She works as hard as anyone else and she performs as well as anyone else. Technically she is probably the best celebrity dancer the show has ever seen but that isn't her fault. What do people want her to do? Go out and dance badly on purpose?
The producers of Strictly knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they invited Ashley onto the show - she's not the first great dancer who has appeared on the show, and she won't be the last. What might have surprised them is how good she is ... and make no mistake she is very, very good indeed.
The spite, vitriol and downright cruelty that has been directed at her is horrendous.
How about Faye - who clearly, from every balletic turn of her toe has had lots of dance training? Where's the vitriol and nastiness aimed at her?
And what about Joe who's survival in this competition is down to the fact that he has millions of online followers and has bugger all to do with his ability to dance. If this was a dance competition there is no way on earth he would have sailed through round after round without once being in the bottom two.
Ashley is the best dancer and she knows she won't win and I'm sure she's known that from the beginning. But that doesn't mean she shouldn't enjoy the process, it doesn't mean all her hard work shouldn't be appreciated and it doesn't mean she should have to endure the nasty, spiteful, bigoted online criticism that has been aimed at her.
That American Smooth she did on Saturday was one of the best dances I've every seen on Strictly and there is no way on God's earth anyone dancing that, to that level should have ended up in the bottom two and rightly the judges put her through against a lesser dancer as they have done for the past two weeks.
This is a dance competition and if you want everyone coming in on a level playing field with the same level of experience, training, competence and so on then you need to write to the producers. Not subject someone who has clearly put her heart and soul into the competition, someone who has made her life in the UK .. to such appalling online bullying.