I don't like it when celebs try to make up for a lack of interesting dance motion by ham "acting" and "performing", and we seem to have an awful lot of that this year.

I blame Eastenders and soaps generally. Has Lynda ever done any significant acting that wasn't for tv?

Wikipedia tells me:


Best known as a Loose Woman panelist. Figures.

Oh, here's something:


Stage version. Of course.

British tv and popular theatre, the homes of over-acting poorly done.

There's quite a bit of acting related to dancing: flirty & romantic with rumba (sexy not necessary!); flirty & playful in cha cha; Carnival fun in samba etc...... But this 'acting' has to be part of the dance, not 'instead of'.

Lynda says she wants to bring some "comedy" to the show; personally - and it is only a personal preference - although dancers should look as if they are enjoying themselves, I'd rather see someone taking things a bit more seriously. Jo Wood, for example, can't dance, but at least she is giving it a darn good try. Ricky G was very entertaining with his cha cha, but now needs to improve his dancing, another "gold-fish in a bowl" act will just be boring.

So I agree with what you are saying.

You could join our lobby to get Johnny Depp on SCD. How's about it?

I agree to an extent with the OP.

I like Lynda but she does seem intent on trying to over-act the dances to compensate for poor technique. And I'm not keen that she's trying to entertain us. That's not something you announce. Just do it and let us tell you you were entertaining.

Ricky G is another who might now start forcing the comedy in his dances following that Cha Cha (which was hilarious).

I disagree regarding Natalie though. Yes she went a bit over board selling the Cha Cha but I get the feeling she was trying to capture the flavour of the dance as opposed to trying to hide poor dancing with a big performance. There's a difference.

I am looking forward to Ricky's paso after watching ITT tonight . I do hope his dancing improves a lot though and he doesn't just rely on entertainment every week.

Lynda did annoy me the other week by constantly saying "I just hope the public enjoys it."

That translated to me as 'I don't give a damn about the judges as I hope to be the John Sergeant of this series and will be saved by the public for entertainment value.'

That was the feeling I had - or rather she's been getting tips off Coleen Nolan a la DOI.

Hmmmm I was really looking forward to Linda as I really like her. Even if she wasn't going to be good then I thought she'd be good in a John Seargant entertainy way, but haven't been that entertained by her so far tbh.

Sid, I feel the same as you regarding Natalie. I think she WANTS to get the technicalities of the dance right, but she also wants to act it with full enthusiasm. You may say she over-acts, but she does it with good intentions IMO.

I'm not a Lynda fan by any stretch of the imagination but it does annoy me when people pick out one random fact to prove a totally invalid point. If you read her full Wikipedia entry, you'll see that Lynda attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, one of the most highly rated drama schools in the world (you may have heard of another famous graduate, Sir Laurence Olivier). She has extensive acting experience both on TV and on stage, including a recent appearance in a play called 'Vincent River' at the Trafalgar Studios, which won critical acclaim and a Broadway transfer. The play tackles homohobia and has a brutal murder at its climax and is a two-hander, hardly light, crowd-pleasing "popular theatre".

I would imagine that Lynda has acknowledged she has no chance of winning on dance ability as she is so far behind a lot of the other contestants so is falling back on the comedy persona instead to try to keep her in the competition as long as possible. She is probably also looking at the success of fellow Loose Woman, Colleen Nolan and her inexplicable progress on Dancing on Ice - playing up the comedy element sadly works with the voting public.

Personally I can't stand it and would love Lynda to be voted out very quickly, but I do think your criticism of a contestant's acting ability based on a couple of sentences plucked from a much longer and comprehensive article, is rather unfair.

Why would she look at Coleen and decide on comedy element? For Coleen to have done a comedy element she would have to have been conscious, and I'm not sure the plank of wood Dan carried around was even alive.

I read the full Wikipedia entry and also the one on IMDB.

It was not a random example; it was one that illustrated the point. There she is in something that was a film, but she's in the stage version. Figures.

It doesn't matter what school she went to; if it doesn't show up in her acting in a good way, then by now it's irrelevant.


Exactly: tv and stage. (Generally theatre has much more ... well, theatrical acting than film, with tv somewhere in between.)

You mean this one (Wikipedia)? :

If you want to object to the word "popular", fine; I don't have any particular attachment to it, and there's plenty of poor overacting in less popular theatre as well.


No, my opinion of her acting was first formed by seeing her in SCD. I then wondered what she'd actually accomplished as an actress, and I noticed that a lot of it fit the way she'd seemed in SCD.

That is not true though. She is definitely not best known for being a Loose Women panelist. What a load of crock.

What's wrong with being on the provincial or London stage? Some of the best in the world!

You know knowt about it as is obvious to me so why you have started a thread to display your complete ignorance is a mystery.

I haven't heard of her at all outside of Loose Women, so for me she is best known for being a Loose Women panelist

I always thought she was best known for advertising OXO!

That's okay for you, but it is simply not true otherwise. She has only been on that recently and she is now about 60or more, isn't she, so it's safe to assume she must have done something else (if only to be on Loose Women ) I don't think she's been a 'Loose Woman' all her life :P

She is actually best known for being the Oxo Mum in the adverts, as kaycee posted.

I obviously go back a bit further than you.

I remember her from the '70s & early '80's - I think ! - in various TV dramas. Don't ask me what - it's a long time ago, although I do remember her in All Creatures Great & Small (very popular Sunday night TV drama). She was a well respected TV actress in my recollection.

Oh I agree she has been in other things than the Oxo ad, but many people do mainly remember her for that, just as I remember Anthony Head from the coffee ad... but that's another story. I was thinking of mentioning 'All creatures...' and so on.

As well as lots of rubbish.

I'm not sure that's any better than being known for Loose Women.

Oh think we need someone like Helen Mirren or maybe Judie Dench next year if our UK tv actors aren`t up to speed!

Or actors who will do more dancing and less acting than the ones I listed in the thread title.

There is 'not a lot' of rubbish on the British stage, Veri. That statement is a bit desperate. I am very proud of our British theatre! Television drama such as Lynda has appeared in as well for that matter

Oh, it is. It was one of the most popular ads of all time. She has been in Dr Who, At Home with the Braithwaites, serious drama as well, but perhaps that bores you, being stuff that goes on in the 'popular theatre'. Perhaps you should do your research better, and not just pick and choose to suit your petty agenda. You don't get offered parts like that if you are rubbish. However, as she says here, the ads may have done her no favours:

http://www.123people.co.uk/ext/frm?t...ink&wrt_id=216

I think that's only amongst a certain generation.

I said previously that Loose Women (which I have never watched) and the 'OXO Mum@ (which I certainly recall) are not what I remember Lynda for. She's a TV actress of a previous generation, with an ongoing stage presence. I don't think anyone's suggesting she's BAFTA quality, but no need to disparage a career of some longevity, is there?

Well said.

She does have a lovely husky voice which people pay her good money for as 'voice overs' so she's still doing all right for someone of her years.

Lynda Bellingham is a successful actress which is an achievement in itself considering 99% of the acting profession are out of work and never make it. She has a lovely personality and I say go girl - she won't win SCD but I admire her for taking part. It is physically demanding and a real challenge.