And where exactly did I support rudeness and personal attacks? Clearly you haven't been reading my posts properly ...

I loathed Craig and his ridiculous belief that no-one else could see what a great dancer he was

some people are so thick skinned you have to just give them a rocket up the a**e and that's all she did

I thought she sounded a bit rude and I've never supported her as a judge (I did when she was dancing though) but she was right on the money

Why should his belief in his own dancing come into it? Its neither here nor there. Only how he danced should be relevant to the judges, nothing else.

it comes into it because he failed to improve one iota - didn't listen to their comments, thought they were just being mean, so didn't actually change from week 1 to week whatever it is

it made him really grate on me - what can I say - but it also meant I thought 'thank god someone said it'

yeah she could have said it more constructively but she can't even get 'was' and 'were' right so why is anyone surprised she's not more articulate??

Just a small and quickly located sample of Arlene posts from the last couple of years.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...2&postcount=16

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...5&postcount=16

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...76&postcount=6

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...9&postcount=32

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...&postcount=112

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...6&postcount=11

I don't think that was the reason he failed to improve much (don't believe he didn't improve at all). I just don't think he was able to. As I've said before he was about the standard most of us would be if learning to dance in the same time period, although I'd guess a lot of people would be loathe to admit it and think they were better than they are!

What a difference a year makes.

I have been reading and taking part in this tread since it started on Saturday and have dipped in every day.

I think alot of posters are actually not grasping what most of us are saying. Alesha had no right to comment on Zoe sitting in the audience and Alesha having to endure Craig's dancing. Zoe was sitting in the audience because the public did not vote for her - pure and simple. Also Alesha's comments were rude and nasty and that is the bottom line.

I personally had nothing against Alesha. Not overly keen on her judging but had accepted her. However, I will not sit and listen to anyone being so rude and obnoxious about someone who had tried so hard. Yes Craig may have been delusional but the public voted him to Blackpool and she should have accepted that with good grace.

I personally am not looking forward to enduring her on Saturday.

Amen to that!

LOL X10

Yes , her grammer is not great but in fact she is quite articulate ,.I have seen her on a few programmes, including a documentary about the effect of celbs image on young girls .Alesha was very articulate and well able to speak .
Which makes it even worse that she could not find a less rude and hurtfull way to put it .
I too thought that Craig was very poor at dancing , a tad deluded and a right Noddy .However I would hav eput it nicer to him than " I had to endure that "
So could Alesha , she just didnt bother .

I agree he seemed like a nice man if a tad strange sometimes and Karen said on Breakfast TV on Monday he was well liked backstage. His delusions were harmless I don't think he thought he was Ricky W just better than he was and apart from Flavia (it probably made him frustrating to teach) I don't think anyone was really put out by it. Yes Zoe shouldn't have gone - he should but that's more to do with his wish to go to Blackpool and it being his birthday than any delusions about his dancing ability. All pointing it out did was embrass him in front of people and get his back up and Alesha could have triggered a sympathy vote that kept him in she was just lucky that she didn't - people reckon that's happened before with the weakest link contestant. To be honest people have gone that upset me more - Spoony was the worst close followed by Gaby (merely because Kate and Kenny subsequently proved capable of some improvement and they were both nicer people than Jan ruddy Ravens by about a million per cent). This happens every single year why does it surprise the judges and get them ranting?

I don't think she didn't bother, she just didn't think.

I also don't buy the fact that because her grammar's not the best she couldn't have found a better way to articulate her points to Craig.

I think the thing was that she was angry and frustrated with the situation and she spoke from the heart. Craig happened to be the easiest target. That's by no means an excuse but I think it stemmed from inexperience. I'm still not sure she can empathise with the less talented celebs but I'm willing to give her a chance to redeem herself if she can learn from mistakes - and I do think this was a mistake.

The bold part is an interesting point that I wonder if they weighed at all when they decided the announced rationale for Alesha as a judge - viz, her being the one who can empathise a little more with the celebs. When she danced, did she ever hear anything other than she's the best thing since sliced bread? She's used to what it's like to be maybe Ricky W or Ali, but the rest? It's a show, after all, which by its very nature is made up of more than 50% of contestants who don't dance technically great, and never will do. If none of them last a week or two past their sell-by date, it's sure gonna become a very predictable and uninteresting show for a big chunk of the audience. And if every time one of them does last a week or two past their sell-by date, one or other of the judges is gonna throw a hissy fit and tell them they effectively ought to be embarrassed that the public voted to keep them in over somebody else, it also probably isn't gonna be too happy a show.

On Alesha generally, I've got no great beef about her being a judge. Her words to Craig were pretty ill-advised, not least cos they could have backfired and have had exactly the opposite effect to what she wanted. But no doubt she'll learn. Hope someone drops a quiet word in her ear to drop the 'my love' comments as well. She did it to Joe Wood too. They grate. Maybe, it's just me, but talking to someone thirty years older than me like they're a five-year-old, even if they did speak a little like one, is a bit of a no-no.

Oh I don't know. Because I was thinking what Alesha was and was thoroughly sick of Craig, yes I was a bit shocked by her comments but agreed with them. I'm just wondering that when Craig or Bruno make nasty comments why is there not a thread that generates 38 pages of comments? It seems to me that Alesha is being judged much more harsly than any of the other judges, just because she is new.

I think she is being judged more harshly than the other judges but it's not simply because she is new. It's because of her apparent lack of dancing credentials and because of one of the major reasons (so rumour has it) that she became a judge. If she's there to empathise, she didn't do a good job with Craig on Saturday and if she's there to judge like the others, what are her credentials to do that? I do realise she's in a difficult situation but she accepted the job and is, presumably, getting handsome remuneration for it.

All this is totally unfair. There were many posts supporting Arlene last year. Many more than the nasty comments you have collated. When you show selected posts with which you agree, but are not typical , they mean nothing.

It seems to a lot of people to be a matter of, who does she think she is ? A proper judge ?! How dare she have the temerity to come out with comments like that !

Well yes, until she's bedded down that is exactly what people are going to think. Particularly when they couple this with the fact that many people (including me) regard a good part of the reason she was hired as a judge was to be able to provide a slightly more sympathetic and empathetic response to the celebs.

She is a "proper judge" though, of course she is. She's on the panel and she carries equal weight with Craig and Bruno. However, she was unwise to come out with the comments she did so early into her tenure. I have no problem with her making comments about technique, indeed the actual comments she made about Craig's cha cha would have been fine had they not sounded like an afterthought following the Zoe/endure remark (I'm splitting hairs now ).

Just to clarify; can anyone remember another judge specifically making a comment to a celeb that could have been taken to indicate that said celeb's performance was an ordeal that they didn't want to have and indeed shouldn't have had to sit through/critique? Because that was how Alesha's comments came across to me and that's why I thought they sounded personal. I know that all the judges have made unwise and cutting remarks about the performers before now but I can't ever remember any of them coming out with anything that I could have deemed totally personal to the celeb being critiqued.

Of course there were posts supporting Arlene, just as there are posts supporting Alesha. However, my collection was the work of about two minutes and compiled by putting Arlene into Search and scanning through the first few posts in the first few threads. Believe me, I didn't have to dig deep to find my selection.

They were posted as a riposte to the poster who alleged that no judge had ever had anything as nasty as 'Bitch' levelled against them. I think 'wizened old hag', 'dirty old dog' and 'bitter old shrew' are far nastier than anything that has been said against Alesha. I've even selected a post from a thread supporting Arlene. The title of that thread is 'Has anyone checked Arlene's HRT this series?'

Oh I dont know maybe the use of hyperbolic phrases like "when a witch hunt is underway"


A lot of people are making a very big deal about Alesha recieving negative criticism to the point that they are describing this thread as "a witch hunt".

You say you do not mention the people who dont mind or hate Alesha because it isnt relevant to the point your are trying to make.

I beg to differ.

If you are going to label this thread a witch hunt then you have to take into acount the views expressed by all the posters or at least, attempt to aknowledged ALL the points being made.
Also you claimed your reason for posting was that you wanted inject some ballance and context into the disscusion (in the post I initially responded to and you claimed I missunderstood I didnt btw ). To then use the phrase "witch hunt" in relation to this thread and then fail to meniton the views of a great many posters would seem not a only a little hypoctritical but also a tad futile.
If you want others to be more ballanced and reasoned in their posts you have to be preapred to do the same.

Like I said, ballance, fairness and context is needed n both sides of the debate. It cuts both ways not just one.

Alesha was rather blunt (some might say rude), but this thread being this long is also uncalled for as its making a mountain out of a molehill.

Wouldnt that rather depend on the content as opposed to the length?

The majority of the views here are completely balanced and rational, whether they are of the "blunt but needed" or "rude and unnecessary" opinion.

And you have just made it longer !

I remember Arlene yelling out "BORED NOW!" whilst scoring somebody which, whilst not as specific (and funnier) than Alesha's comment, had more or less the same meaning.