I agree with this completely.

Yes, Ricky is too obvious. He has a great physique, sure, but he and Natalie are too desperate too win. It's all about the journey (so we hear), so the ones who started off doubting themselves (such as Ali, Chris, Zoe) will probably stand a better chance of taking the crown.

Ricky is young, male and good - always risky qualities on DS Forums on this sort of show (cf Matt Di Angelo, Chris Fountain, Ray Quinn), unless you have the grannie 'Ah, bless' factor like Gethin. However, he has seemed to have inspired an extra degree of venom that I find inexplicable - perhaps the relatively overt sexuality (virtually unavoidable for a Hollyoaks actor) is an extra incitement to hostility. Personally I love both him and Ali - I can relax in confidence and enjoy a really good performance.

When considering Natalie, we need to remember that she's Australian, and in Australia, being overtly obsessed with winning is considered a good thing. I can see why her attitude might be annoying over here, as a more modest approach is considered the "right thing".

Ricky just seems a bit lacking in the personality department. He seems pleasant enough and modest in interviews, but a bit dull. I'm warming to Chris Hollins, the other Ricky and Jade because they are very engaging and interesting characters.

I don't get "overtly obsessed with winning" from Natalie. I missed a lot of early ITTs but she comes across to me as far more relaxed and less brittle and competitive than either of the other two new female pros, or indeed a LOT of the current pros (who I like) when they've had very good celebs (Erin with Colin, Darren with Emma, Brendan or James with...anyone).

I do think the show has put the dampers on Ricky a little too hard to try to prevent him running away with the vote, like a lot of hunky men who are very good dancers do. They're constantly making reference to how people who are very good early on never win (lie), and asking him questions it's impossible to answer without looking arrogant (how does it feel to be knocked off "your" top spot? do you think you've peaked too soon? etc etc). And whilst I appreciate that they have to acknowledge his lack of training this week, there's a way to do that without showing him goofing off on the Hollyoaks set and showing him lazing around reading his lines whilst Natalie trains on his own.

I think the title of this thread is misleading, it isnt that Ricky is particularly unpopular, simply that he isnt as popular as some viewers believe he deserves to be. A more appropriate title should perhaps be "Ricky W is the best dancer, why isnt he everyone's favorite?"

As a non-dancer (ie someone who puts the kettle on when the pro-dance is introduced), I will try and explain why he isnt my favorite.

For the early weeks I find him just a little too smooth on the dancefloor (tea anyone?). Someone suggested earlier that Natalie's choreography isnt pushing him enough, it's too safe and that may well be why it appears to be coming just a little too easy for him. If this is the case, I really hope she ups it a gear or 10 in the coming weeks.

However, my main problem with Ricky is, despite having a ton of natural ability, I'm not seeing any joie de vivre on the dancefloor, he's too controlled. Ramps and Alesha, while clearly amateurs, managed to translate the joy of dance so well to their audience that I always felt a thrill watching them. When contestants like these say "Ive had the best time of my life" you really do believe it.

And although I mention Ramps and Alesha, two of the best dancers on the show, you dont have to be that great to give the audience at home this same thrill. Phil and Ricky have it in spades this year and Jade is running them pretty close (and I believe her technique isnt half bad too?). I find these 3 are the ones I anticipate watching the most at the moment.

Indeed; I don't think Aliona did Rav many favours in this respect and Kat could still do for "The Cat".

It's all personal feelings / prejudice as to how we perceive the participants, so we are all right in this respect.

If they could get away with it, I'm sure all the female pros would stick their stilletos in anyone if they thought it would help. Likewise, the male pros would happily poison the rivals with fake tan and hair gel. Some are just better than others at hiding it!

I think that Ricky is this years Emma Bunton: very good from the outset, ultra competitive but rather dull. When Len starts dishing out the 10's, which won't be long - everyone will moan about how overmarked he is and his popularity will fade even more. Personally I like him but he's not my favourite (yet) but that could all change.

[quote=Smokeychan1;36039576]I think the title of this thread is misleading, it isnt that Ricky is particularly unpopular, simply that he isnt as popular as some viewers believe he deserves to be. A more appropriate title should perhaps be "Ricky W is the best dancer, why isnt he everyone's favorite?"

I titled it as is, because Ricky isn't the best dancer in everyone's opinion, and he is certainly seeming to be far from popular on the polls.

Does that make sense ?

I think the reason Katya and Aliona come across as tense and brittle is that they are being interviewed in English and it isn't the first language for either of them.

Kristina and Lilia have made good (long) careers in English speaking countries and that shows in their interviews. Aliona's English doesn't seem to be that brilliant from her ITT chats and she didn't seem to understand the question she was asked about her choeography.

I know Katya now lives in Canada, but again - she may live in the French rather than the English speaking part - her English is better than Aliona's but its not as good as Kristina's and Lilia's is.

Ricky's problem is that he lacks a lively personality and/ or humility to balance his obvious talent. The other talented males quoted all lost their respective competitions apart from Ray Quinn because theywere good from the word go, and denied that they had had any helping hands from their previous experience.

Ray is the exception because he never made any secret of his previous (very extensive) dance experience, or the fact that he roller bladed before DOI. The VT of him starting his training showed that he was as Bambi like as the rest on ice, but his good balance and natural confidence (never seen as cockiness) helped him to adapt quickly.

Chris Fountain was the Rachel of DOI - clearly the best (ice) dancer of his series and had personality problems on the show, but whitewashed the oppostion on the tour where the personality is less of an issue. He in turn was whitewashed by Ray on last years tour.

Chris's big problem for me was the fact that he kept saying that his extensive ice hockey experience didn't help him at all which was a load of whatsit. It gave him a massive advantage in that he was very confident on the ice, and was several weeks ahead of everyone else in that he didn't need to learn to stand up, start and stop on the ice

According to her wikipedia page she moved to Vancouver (which isn't French-speaking) at the age of 13 and lived in Israel (which is heavily English speaking) for years prior. It never occured to me that her English was anything less than perfect to be honest. I certainly disagree that she comes across as less fluent than Kristina (not that Kristina's English is bad).

I didn't mean that to be a Katya/Aliona bashing post (and I kind of think it's brilliant that Katya threw a pen at Phil), I just think that Natalie strikes me as less competitive and more relaxed than either of them.

Ricky has no humility. When presented with a great score, he blunders through an interview about how bad he was and how many mistakes he made.
His comments about ahem the tight trouser fiasco were completely unnecessary.

Just being pretty isn't enough, he has to have a personality too.

I've said this before but what a shame some people cannot appreciate the dance. We've got a fantastic pro (Natalie) and a celebrity who is very good. I don't know where people are making these assumptions about Ricky and his personality. I haven't even seen him interviewed to gain such an opinion! Surely these stories in the press are just the PR machine going into overdrive. Do you honestly think he actually said these things? Is not just in keeping with the Hollyoaks persona? That aside I really enjoy watching him dance, just as much as Brian and Ali who I believe are on par with Natalie and Ricky. Does Ali have an overwhelming personality? Like Ricky she just comes across as being very ordinary.
Judging by the comments on here I don't even thnk he will make it to the final. I just can't understand why some people are very negative towards him.
Last edited by water_carrier : 15-10-2009 at 10:59

Yes, to me Katya just sounds accented, not non-fluent.

I don't feel Aliona or Katya are more competitive than Natalie at all - I don't really know anything about Aliona's personality whatsoever other than she can occasionally be quite funny, and Katya's just a bit no-nonsense (she always has a bemused face after the "comedy" sections on either the main show or ITT which makes me love her) but when she dances she looks like she's doing it for the love of dance more than anything else. That's what I think's missing from Natalie - I don't think she brings any joy to the dancefloor. It's a pity, because she's clearly very good.

Yes Ricky and Ali are on about the same level when it comes to performance, but Ali doesn't come across as confident/ cocky as Ricky does, and seems to actually struggle more with the whole thing in the training videos. She seems to (as the judges have said more than once) genuinely not realise just how good she is or could be.

Ricky seems to float through his training sessions andwhen he does try to be humble - it just doesn't work. It also doesn't help that he seems to expect to be top of the leaderboard each week (from the VT last week), and of course being a judges favourite doesn't endear him to a lot of people either

With all of these type of shows, the winner usually ends up being the one who has had the "journey" rather than the one who started off brilliantly. Claire Sweeney was an early favourite in series 1 before Natasha surged past her, and Julian and Aled had the journeys in series 2 despite not winning which is why they did well (even if they didn't win). Goughie had the "journey", Mark had to beat off the judges pet overmarked Emma in his series, but he just lit up the dancefloor anyway, Alesha was good but had the personality factor as well, and Tom had more personality than Rachel and Lisa put together.

I honestly can't see Ricky winning the series because of being too good too early, not coming across well in interviews and being the judges' pet (Rachel anyone??) - I can see him in the final, but the winner will come from the chasing pack which is still wide open at the moment.

I think the 'judges' pet' factor is the biggest thing, but the 'judges' pet' is rarely a man. Tom was doing well from the beginning but there were others the judges liked more, eg the programme made a story out of everyone but him getting a '10', so it's not the same.

Out of interest, who would people say has handled repeatedly being top of the board well? I think it's very hard to handle, especially someone who isn't experienced at live TV. Why would Ricky, with his experience, be as good as Phil or Chris at handling live questions from Tess or Claudia? He's learning. I can't think of anyone who has been top and not taken a bashing on here. I think it's the balance to the fact that you're not having the judges sneer at you and insult you on live TV. But I don't think that's necessarily representative of the real voters. I think Ricky's has got one of the most realistic chances of winning, as things stand now.

Rachel was not the judges' pet last year, Lisa took the tiara for that.

Rachel's first few weeks was underwhelming, and the judges kept saying she was not performing the dance enough and the scores reflected that. But ever since the rhumba week, her scores suddenly rocketed. She did perform her rhumba really well, I have to say. And I don't particularly liked rhumba very much to start with.

I think that's the reason for a bit of the ambivilance about him, to be honest. Unless he mucks up in a spectacular style he is virtually guaranteed a final place. Even if he found himself in the dance off realistically who is there they would eliminate him over?

People would have said the same thing about Austin at this point last year.

Whenever he's featured in the footage or interviews on the show itself, he just doesn't appear to have much personality (to me) vs The Cat, Ricky G and Jade.

This is true. Part of the reason I didn't take to Ramprakash was that he was partnered by Karen, whose on-screen personality grated at me no end (I have met her in real life and she seems nice). She seemed to be even more OTT that series, perhaps to compensate for Mark's lack of (visible) personality. If he had been partnered with Erin or Camilla, I might have taken to him more, but in the end, his lack of anything interesting to say for weeks on end would probably have sealed it for me anyway.


This is the key to the win: Jill and Alesha had it down to an art form.


In a way, I think people feel that pros like Camilla, Flavia and Vincent have "earned" their right to be desperate, after putting up with some real no hopers (Jimmy Tarbuck etc.) Natalie's crime seems to be that she's been rewarded with the goods on her first series.

Anyway, I wouldn't put too much weight on the polls at this stage. Last year, Tom was being branded smug, arrogant, boring, and ridiculed for daring to want to talk about his wedding. I still believe the main reason for this was the perceived threat he posed for forum darling Austin. Once Austin was eliminated, this changed somewhat. So all it'll take is for the likes of Ali or Zoe to push out someone like Phil in a dance off, and they will become public enemy number one, and Ricky will be redeemed.

Plus with Ricky being in wherever Hollyoaks is filmed all week he doesn't get the cosy ITT chats that the other London-based celebs do so we don't get the chance to know him or Natalie.

I love Erin to bits but I remember finding her will to win too much when she was partnered with Colin so every competitive pro is the same deep down. In fact everyone in a competition is in it to do as well as they can - I'm a competitive brass band player and I can be as determined as anyone on contest day. What I'm trying to say is that the SCD Natalie and real life Natalie could be completely different and I am warming to her far more than I did to Aliona.

*takes cover for the flak that follows*

[quote=Shappy;36042338]This is true. Part of the reason I didn't take to Ramprakash was that he was partnered by Karen, whose on-screen personality grated at me no end (I have met her in real life and she seems nice). She seemed to be even more OTT that series, perhaps to compensate for Mark's lack of (visible) personality. If he had been partnered with Erin or Camilla, I might have taken to him more, but in the end, his lack of anything interesting to say for weeks on end would probably have sealed it for me anyway.




I take your point, but I'd contend that Mark did have a very tangible personality - he was shy and inhibited.

Ricky, I'm afraid, is just a blank canvas - he projects nothing whatsoever to me. I have absolutely no idea who he is. I don't see him as arrogant or smug or any other epithet I've seen used - apart from dull. Shame.

But exactly the same can be said of all the pros and all the celebs.

It's what they're able to project that matters.

They are probably the best, but i think they are too cocky, i prefer other couples more than them.