She mentioned it the once, I think.

Hello mashed !!! Here we all are ! I will confess I much prefare SCD to BB , but the forum for BB is so much busier and better !!

Thank you kindly

Yesssss! Ugh! Awful. Can't watch her anymore. Makes her look totally gormless

We're reminded all the time of how the Jive is such a hard dance and few people receive high marks cuz of all the timing and sharpness issues. Then along come Natalie with an avereage routine to turn that upside down. Do the judges actually believe half the crap they come out with when they can so severly overmark a contestant.

Indeed there is - and what follows is not discussion, it's stating opinion as fact in a particularly insulting manner.


I don't think she'll make it to the latter stages, but when it's her time to go she will be missed. She has brought an energy and enthusiasm to each dance that has made me smile with her. She gives her all; we don't hear her whining "I can't do it, this is so hard," etc. She clearly loves every minute - and if you can't differentiate between gushing and genuine enjoyment perhaps you're not a very good judge of character.

She's been torn apart over her size/weight, what some see as her clumpy dances and her alleged fake enjoyment.

Still she comes back smiling!

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but why express it in such a sneering, contemptuous way?

imo she has more character and backbone than any of her mealy mouthed critics.

Maybe their score was a little high, but I wouldn't particularly focus on that, since there are many cases where couples get a higher (or lower) mark than I expect. I certainly wouldn't make any personal criticism of Natalie who seems to have an excellent attitude to the competition.

On the whole, I think that Natalie and Vincent's jive captured the spirit of the dance, and was entertaining. However, I think her moves could have been cleaner and more refined.

Irrespective of the marks, I do agree with some posters in that I think the judges could afford her the courtesy of providing rather more specific (but constructive) criticism, since their comments are quite bland and a touch patronising and this does make me suspect they don't take her seriously and are just marking time.

Sit down Ignazio - I agree with you wholeheartedly!

I have no doubt that the judges would be first to criticise her if they didn't like it - since when have they shown sensitivity regarding contestants physical attributes??

I think some of the people posting on here have serious issues with seeing someone normal - yes, normal, on SCD - it's quite sad really.

I enjoyed the jive - perfection - no, but lively and in time - which is more than can be said for many other contestants!

It made me smile but didn't deserve 30. Why Natalie "normal" as opposed to others, don't understand sorry!

This calls for a celebration - what's yours?

Lots of things. It was energetic, it was in time with the music, she and Vincent worked brilliantly as a team, it was well choreographed, it was fun. As you yourself said:


Unless you meant you were smiling at Natalie for rather more unpleasant reasons?

Natalie is normal - she's not a vacuous twig - she has a personality. And she has talent.

It didn't deserve a 30? That's in your opinion. In my opinion it did.

Whatever you're having Ignazio Darling!

That was plain for everyone to see on Saturday, when she was cheering Ricky's dance to the rafters. For that 90 seconds she wasn't a competitor she was a fan. I like her because "she's one of us". As you quite rightly say, she's not moaning or whinging she's just getting on with it and doing the best she can. She probably knows that she's not as elegant as some of the other female celebs but, it's clear to me that she really soaking in every minute of her SCD experience and making the most of her opportunity.

When interviewed on Friday's ITT, Len commented on the difficulty of marking the contestants when they are all doing different dances. He made the point that as some dances are more difficult than others - e.g a Jive compared to a Waltz - that difficulty is something he has to take into consideration.

With that in mind, I think his scoring of Natalie and Ricky G's routines were extremely fair and proves that far from talking crap, Len is actually a very considerable and fair judge.

Yes, she's enthusiastic and she gave it her all but this dance really did not suit her. The judges have been very kind to Natalie and I felt that was what they were doing by giving her '30'. Craig and (surprisingly) Alesha got it right. Len uses far too narrow a range of scores and has been over generous to Natalie most weeks.

She has a nice personality but because she is larger than the other competer's that doe's not make her "normal" sorry but its true.

Actually it does. Sorry but it's true. She is a normal shape and size - unlike many of the role models we are presented with on TV. She's not vastly overweight - just a more realistic image.

And unlike Ali and Laila - she can get enthusiastic about both ballroom and latin. She has confidence in herself to dance on her own. She has a great partnership.

I wish people would stop harking on about her being larger than the other competitors and sniggering at her costumes. It's childish and unnecessary.

The other dancers are not underweight, they are healthy, "normal" women. Natalie is certainly getting there but being overweight is a bad role model as well, it is one of the biggest caused of premature death in this country.

Oh, this role model malarky really gets on my t*ts. It's telly for goodness' sake, not a Sunday school.

Actually I think you're right she definitely is nearer to the shape and size of a lot of women in Britain. (not all ok, not all)

Maybe that's the problem for some folks, she reminds them of what they might look like should they ever be on TV. I know I'd love to be thin and glamorous with a tiny waist, flat stomach and small boobs...never gonna happen, I'd have to stop eating completely and work out like a demon from now till doomsday! Nah! Egg whites and spinach...half a life lived if you ask me!

I just have this overriding feeling she'd probably be a lot smaller in real life than she looks.

I wasn't the one who orinially mentioned role model, only replying to a post.

You may not have been the first to mention role model, but you were certainly supporting that view, even going so far as to suggest Natalie's appearance might result in more premature deaths.

Anything sounds bad out of context, read the whole post and it makes sense.

I am no fan of Natalie Cassidy but I am sick and tired of reading about her weight. She is not overweight , she is not fat, she is a healthy young woman who is exercising daily.

I don't think her outfit on Saturday did her any favours and it was not the best jive I have ever seen - but she certainly doesn't deserve all the criticism that is being lobbed at her.

I doubt if any of the other 'normal' women on the programme would be able to perform a jive half as energetically as the 'overweight' Natalie. Laila certainly couldn't cope and was constantly moaning about how fast it was.

In the real world Natalie is normal. Jill Halfpenny was normal - but put her next to Ali and she'd look chubby.

Weight/size should not be the issue here. Dance talent is. I think a lot of the people who like to make sniggering comments about Natalie are the ones with problems.