Howling with laughter - how on earth am I supposed to imagine myself in a situation where I'm a very minor jobbing actor recently dropped from a soap, desperately trying to improve a less than lustrous career - and - simultaneously try to imagine that I also have no personal insight and a wholly misguided belief that I'm a wonderful dancer despite garnering low marks and sustained criticism for the previous weeks I've participated in the competition?

Oh yes, and before I forget, I'd also have to manage to subsume any guilt which resulted from the shameful way I'd bigged up my birthday and begged the voting public to 'get me to Blackpool' as well as blithely ignoring the facial expressions and body language of my professional who quite clearly couldn't wait to see the back of me!

Perhaps Kelly's a better actor than I thought he was!

I wouldn`t mind being spoken to like that in public for whatever fee they`re getting paid

I am well aware that there have been many heated threads about the judges in the past.

However, I would challenge you to locate any that persistently attack anyone as personally and as vitriolically as the threads attacking Alesha have. 'Once a bitch, always a bitch' ...?

I don't think Alesha is perfect by any means but why exactly should only she should be singled out in this way when others have behaved much worse?

Hurrah!

Some sanity at last!

*applauds*

Presumably, though, nor would you mind having to sit through a 90 second dance for whatever fee Alesha's getting paid?

JS was entertaining was he? I thought he was crap IMO Craig's a much better dancer than JS!

My point was that (forgetting for a moment who was popular and who wasn't) Arlene was completely frustrated by JS last year and slagged him off at every opportunity (which I'm convinced cost her her job this year), yet Alesha in interviews used to say she liked him! Now THIS year Alesha was obviously frustrated by Craig, but some people out there must have thought he was entertaining for him to stay in this long. I was making a point that it's obviously different when you're a judge and the boots on the other foot. Now Alesha can understand how frustrating it is for the judges when good dancers go out and poor dancers stay in. HOWEVER, did Arlene (or the other judges come to that) ever say to someone: 'I can't believe ***** has gone out and I have had to endure that!'? To the best of my knowledge she didn't (but I'm sure someone will put me right if I'm wrong). Quite simply it's called BEING PROFESSIONAL. Yes she said plenty of vitriolic comments but I can't remember her actually naming anyone to another contestant and then remarking about having to 'endure' the remaining competitors dance. It also makes me wonder: if JS was a competitor THIS year what Alesha would have said to him if she did that to Craig

But IMHO if Arlene DID say something similar she'd maybe earned her spurs to say so. Yes she could get nasty but she also has a vast dance background and huge knowledge of the subject with to back up her comments. And I think THAT is most objectors problem with Alesha. She hasn't got any vast knowledge with which to back up her not so nice comments and

(a) therefore she isn't being taken so seriously as the other judges especially as she's supposed to be there because she's been through the process and knows that it's like and therefore should be more sympathetic and
(b) the reason why when she says something nasty there's this huge fuss

The general consensus is that the other judges can be just as nasty but they've been on the show a lot longer, have earned their position on the panel and therefore are forgiven a lot more easily. We know what they're like, Alesha is still being judged by US.

And I'll continue to say 'completely OTT' because IMO it was. Not only what she said but the downright nasty attitude it was said with.

And I genuinely wish she hadn't said it and shown this side of her character

I suggest there is a structural contradiction, for which the Beeb ought to bear responsibility.

The other four have always been judges not contestants. The Beeb carefully draw a line, with judges on one side, celebs and pro dancers on the other. Their dressing rooms are far apart, and fraternising between the two sides is I believe discouraged.

If a recent celeb is promoted to the judges bench, openly admitted as unqualified to be judge but sitting there purportedly as the celebs' chum, exactly whose side is she on?

As the celebs' chum she cannot endure Craig Kelly.
Can she endure the drunken ragdoll?
Who else can she not endure?

If a footballer plays for one side in the first half, then in the second half is promoted as referee "to lay down the law and simultaneously put the players' point of view", what are the spectators to think?

Well said! Good post IMO!

I was shocked and saddened by Alesha's comments to Craig. She is supposed to understand what it is like to be a celebrity contestant and this was the justification for her being appointed. Unfortunately this showed she has no idea what it feels like to be subjected to personal and vindictive remarks and no empathy for those who struggle more than she did. I strongly suspect, from the look on Craig's face, that her remarks were the most hurtful and I do hope she feels some measure of shame.

Maybe it would have been better to have had John Sergeant or Fiona Phillips as judges

Thing is, Aida, and leaving aside the entrenched Alesha can do no wrong/Alesha can do no right factions, you and some others seem to be okay with what Alesha said to Craig because he somehow deserved it. So, for you to attempt to imagine how it would feel to be on the receiving end of Alesha's comments, you feel it necessary to imagine yourself inside Craig's mind. The other poster was asking how you would feel - as the person you are - if you found yourself in a similar situation.

I, and I'm gathering others on here, too, don't think that anybody should be spoken to in the way that Alesha spoke to Craig, regardless of how good, bad or indifferent their dancing is and how oblivious to their own shortcomings they might be. For me, therefore, it matters not a jot about any side issues such as Arlene, Alesha's qualifications to be a judge, Karen H, Camilla D, Zoe and James, Craig's risible dancing, whether or not certain posters have/have not criticised other judges in the past, etc, etc, ad nauseam. What I object to is the fact that Alesha was needlessly rude in her comments and, in forum-speak, off topic.

How nice of you to set me a challenge that would involve me searching though hundreds of threads, particularly when the worst comments will have been removed by the mods. Thanks, but no thanks. Also, it is only fair to point out that the person who made that particular comment did retract it.

Norbitonite, I agree. She was simply needlessly rude.

Shows a lapse in taste, judgement and manners.

Totally agree Norbitonite THAT'S what it comes down to and I slap my hand for babbling on too much in my posts She was needlessly rude - end of!

Some of the comments on here have been a bit beyond the pale calling Alesha a fishwife was rude. She WAS rude but two wrongs don't make a right. I don't think she was rude through being a nasty person but ironically like her precedessor she let her disgust at some bad being kept in at the expense at someone talented lead her across a line into saying things about them she shouldn't have done but at least Arlene didn't do to their face in their hometown, in front of their friends and family. For the record I like Alesha as a contestant both as a dancer and personality but in spite of having severe misgivings about Arlene calling JS lazy her sacking was wrong and Alesha doesn't have the experience to critise what she sees - I didn't think she'd descent to rudeness but I think becasue of her inexperience she didn't know where the line was and she crossed it. I don't think the appointment of judge was good for her - because the judges were usually nice about her she forgets that udges can and do cause a lot ire in people. The beeb should have hired Karen Hardy instead.

Why is that when Alesha ( or anyone else for that matter) is criticised for her behaviour it means we hate her? I certainly don't. I've supported her when she was a contestant and when she was appointed as a judge. However, that doesn't mean I am blind to things she gets wrong, To say I and others are on a witch hunt is both wrong and a lazy way of trying to win the argument.

I'm not motivated by hatred. I just feel Craig was ill-used.

It's only half about Alesha's unkind words. Perhaps it would be more important to ensure that Craig received an apology and any hurt feelings or ruffled feathers smoothed over.

She's not terribly good at her new job and she's made a lot of people spring to Craig's defence but I don't think she's hated.

Thank you Norbitonite - that is exactly what I meant and thank you for such a good post.

Yes | would - and have. It is very uncomfortable to watch people being slagged off in the name of entertainment. Arlene's contract was not renewed this year because she went too far. Bruno is getting more and more unpleasant by the minute and I have posted on this, Craig has a very waspish tongue and needs to temper his remarks. Alesha was extremely rude and if you want to support rudeness and personal attacks that is your perogative, just as it is mine to oppose it.

And don't roll your eyes at me.

Craig is not as clever or funny as he thinks he is, and I've been as much peeved by his bitchiness as I've been annoyed by Bruno's.

To whom?

Sorry - wrong Craig.
Last edited by Ignazio : 12-11-2009 at 16:56

LOL, sorry, I should have been clearer!

Me too and his over use of " Dahling " every five minutes is really getting on my tits now .

He never used to play up his sexual orientation, he never needed to in any case, but now he's getting beyond parody.

All three, Bruno , Len and Craig are now carictures of themselves , so unfunny now .

Similar comeback was once directed in Craig R-H's face,
in the form of spit landing on target,
by Jan Ravens after the Strictly eviction shoot.
By his own admission he has been slapped in the street, and somebody poo'ed on his doorstep. From his panto villain role he has earned enough now to install surveillance cameras.

Those who live by the sword........