SCD '20 #6: Have no fear, Judge Anton's here!

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

I'm a bit worried we'll run out the other thread tonight, and it'll be too fast-paced for me to get a new one going during the show, so I'm getting prepared early!

Feel free to place mark or watch this thread, but head back to the previous thread for the moment, and we can move across later.

@Spinachpatty my comment wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular, I just noticed several posters referring to “soldiers” and “army” and just think it’s best to get the facts right.

With an ex-RAF DH and an ex-Marine BIL I know only too well the inter-service rivalries, as well as shortcomings of the MOD.

Fair enough Cavemum and same here with family members and inter-service rivalries!

Hasnt Maisie already won a Christmas special? I agree that people would rather root for someone who has a “journey” for want of a better word, someone who improves.

He is like Andy Murray but even more hmm and zzzzzz
Don't diss Andy
Signed
A Fan

Ha! Me too derxa. I luffs him

Eh? What Christmas Special has Maisie won?? Confused

@Silverstripe

I agree about JJ - something off.

I’ve known him since we were teens. Absolutely one of the nicest, most straightforward and genuine people you could ever hope to meet. He doesn’t have a side, he’s just decent all the way through.

Oh that's interesting. I stand corrected.

Maisie would be fine if it was a dancing competition for talented amateur young dancers, but she's not a celebrity as far as I'm concerned and she doesn't look like she needs the dance tuition as she can already do it easily. She's in the wrong competition. I want to see non dancers improve, not very good dancers get slightly better.

Hasnt Maisie already won a Christmas special

It was a special for Children in Need last year, rather than a Christmas special, wasn't it?

@Silverstripe

I agree about JJ - something off.

I’ve known him since we were teens. Absolutely one of the nicest, most straightforward and genuine people you could ever hope to meet. He doesn’t have a side, he’s just decent all the way through.

Thats good to know, I like him very much, he seems a lovely guy and I'm glad he is.

Maisie won children in need with Kev not Xmas.
Nicola will get Xmas special 2021 and win it as a consolation prize probably.

@2Rebecca

Maisie would be fine if it was a dancing competition for talented amateur young dancers, but she's not a celebrity as far as I'm concerned and she doesn't look like she needs the dance tuition as she can already do it easily. She's in the wrong competition. I want to see non dancers improve, not very good dancers get slightly better.

But this is the ever lasting debate

If you have a show entirely of non-dancers then at best you might see 1-2 good dancers in the duration of the show. You have to sit through A LOT of terrible dancers like John Sargent and a lot of really average dancers (which is worse IMO) and you never get to see any actual decent dance.

You also have the issue of a lot of famous people having been to stage school so have some sort of dance background. People like Caroline flack had dance experience but god she was absolutely brilliant, she really made the show that year. Someone like Ashley roberts who has been a judge herself on a dance show was a step too far, IMO.

I don’t buy the argument that Maisie isn’t a celebrity. She’s on a her popular show and just because you don’t personally know her doesn’t disqualify her from the celebrity status for the purposes of this show.

I do feel it is a bit early to be performing an Argentine Tango next week.

I preferred when the AT was seen as a ‘special’ dance, almost a reward for getting to the final stages of the competition.
Plus it is SO popular it almost gives JV and his partner an advantage next week. 😀

I agree with 2Rebecca about Maisie. It’s tiresome to see the ringers in the early weeks, but I enjoy when the others catch them up as the competition goes on. Plus that robot dance was stupid and so dated!

I’m content that Max has gone. I think he, JJ and Caroline are in a little cluster who could have gone in any order.

It’s a shame Shirley is called Head Judge when she is so incredibly subjective in her judging. Craig is far more impartial and professional, in my view.

I don’t buy the argument that Maisie isn’t a celebrity. She’s on a her popular show and just because you don’t personally know her doesn’t disqualify her from the celebrity status for the purposes of this show.

She's on one of the big 3 uk soaps, watched by millions. Of course she's a celebrity.

I don't particularly care if someone has dance experience - it's all about the personality and entertainment for me. And you can be entertaining whether you are good or bad. If you are a good dancer but your performance is dull then I don't want to see it.

Bill Bailey has dance experience but no one is saying he shouldn't be in it. I think I would only draw the line if they were a professional ballroom/Latin dancer in the same league as the pros, because they would be getting 10s from week 1 and it would be silly.

I do feel it is a bit early to be performing an Argentine Tango next week.
Well, it didn't work out that well for Aljaz and Kate when they did it early.
I think Gio knows what he is doing though and has deliberately gone for a showmance tactic. Not that I care. Hell, I'm sold.
It staves off party latin for a while. They do AT next week then a waltz the week after or even a CC and she's nearly at the endgame before salsa rears its head.
Although they would do a fab salsa smooth (as shown in pp video) if only they were allowed.

Bill Bailey has dance experience but no one is saying he shouldn't be in it.
Quite. He may have been a teenager but learning the waltz, foxtrot and quickstep sounds more than 3 lessons, doesn't it?
Love Bill but he has more of an advantage than, say, Jason had. Jason, JJ and Jamie were all absolute beginners. The others, not so much.

@Sabrina124. I read that Bill Bailey had just two dance lessons as a teenager 40 years ago, though( “‘‘twas in the tabloids so could be incorrect)? That hardly counts as dance experience.... I had a few dance lessons 20 years ago and so did my DH...we’re rubbish ( esp. DH, but don’t tell him.🤣

I think Bill’s timing and music ability is giving him the real edge.

I agree Crazy Bill is not quite Ashley Roberts is he? It's definitely his timing and musicality.

JJ was actually a schoolteacher who was a reservist, but they never mention his former career as a teacher, because that doesn't suit the narrative of him being a hero.

but she's not a celebrity as far as I'm concerned

She has been in EastEnders since she was 6, so presumably a lot of people do know who she is; I didn't, but I didn't know who Davood or Chizzy were either because I don't watch EE, but realise many do.

Lots of people on here were saying they only knew who a couple of them were before the series started, mainly CQ, JS or BB. The only ones I didn't know were Maisie and JJ, and tbh I still don't really think he was famous, or that millions of people knew who he was before Strictly, so I would say the real non-celeb is JJ.

She's in the wrong competition

How can that possibly be the case? Did she sneak in through the fire exit when the BBC casting team were looking the other way?

She was offered a job by people making a tv programme and she accepted that job. She’s got as much right to be there as anyone else.

I’m always baffled by the belief that it is only acceptable for someone to accept the SCD gig if they have literally never even heard the word ‘dance’ in their lives. If that was the case, why would the BBC knowingly cast pop singers, stage school kids, gymnasts, musical theatre performers, graduates of the Royal Ballet School, etc?

They’ve never said it’s a show only for people who have never had any form of dance experience - there’d be a very limited pool of celebrities to cast from if that was the case. Yet for some reason people have decided that’s the ‘rule’ and that some people are ‘cheating’ by not adhering to a rule that doesn’t actually exist.

I agree BigBadVoodooHat.

I personally do want to see people improving and am not a huge fan of the Ashleys Roberts/Denise Van Outen type who can clearly dance to a near professional standard from week 1, so I just don’t vote for them. I still enjoy watching some of the ringers’ dances though, and they very rarely beat my favourites, so I don’t mind the BBC casting them.

I still enjoy watching some of the ringers’ dances though, and they very rarely beat my favourites, so I don’t mind the BBC casting them.

Same here - there have been some fabulous ‘ringer’ dances, and some equally fabulous non-ringer dances. There have been some technically perfect dances that left me cold, and some absolute messes that brought me great joy.

There’s got to be a range from hopeless to journeyman/improver to already competent because otherwise there’s no variety of narrative, just 12 former Home Secretaries being dragged around like a bag of shopping.

How many people are going to sit through two hours of that on a Saturday night?

SCD is the most successful reality show of all time, so I’d hazard a guess that the BBC know exactly what they’re doing when they knowingly calibrate each cast to include a variety of ages, abilities, and occupations. It’s weird that some people have decided there’s some common-knowledge ‘rule’ that no one has told the producers about. Or maybe Debbie McGee fooled them by scrubbing her lifetime of professional dance experience off her Wikipedia page when she heard they were thinking of calling her

Shirley does not like Maisie. She was a bitch to Emma Barton last year, and only reined herself in when there was a backlash on social media.