To be honest, most ballroom dancers are taught from a very early age to stand there and take their judging with a polite smile. You have to bite your tongue and the Brendan approach is quite rare in such a disciplined atmosphere.

Flavia is a quiet person. shes not got a "big" persona like gobby Brendan and so the comparison isnt effective IMO. It always strikes me that Flav tries her hardest to make the celeb the centre of attention in Strictly, which is the right attitude IMO.

She did say the judgements were harsh in ITT tonight. She also said that she was was relieved that theyd gone this week, so that confirms a little of what was being said by people here.

Yes, I agree that towards the end she DID kinda dance around Craig, but Ive seen that done by many a dancer in the past incl Kristina and ola...

Look, Alesha said what the rest of the judges said: you are crap; you cannot dance. Personally think Flavia was relieved, must be hard to put the hours in and not see any semblance of improvement in the celeb. Oh and LMAO at that poster who overreacted and reached for the ignore button.

Don't mock or you may be ignored too. I'd hate for anyone to suffer the same fate that I had to endure.

Soulmate's post is great and articulated what I felt!

I agree. I thought they seemed to have a lot of warmth between them and Flavia was lovely and the same as she has been with any celeb.

Love Flavia

I would agree with what others have said with regards to the fact that Flavia doesn't come across as confrontational at all. Also, she was probably just as shocked at what Alesha said as we all were and maybe in the moment she literally didn't know what to say at that, but I've never seen her make comments back to the judges anyway (although have to say I don't really pay that much attention before you bombard me with the you tube clips of her making 20 minute speeches to the judges and having to be played off by the band ). She seems more of a "speak when you are spoken to" kind of person on camera and I have noticed the nervous giggle thing, it is so hard when you are being interviewed live. Its understandable that you wouldn't want to start a b*tch fight with Alesha on national television. Had her and Craig got through she probably would have spoken to him to boost his confidence afterwards and reacted to that comment in private. I did festivals for years and thats how you are trained, you take your criticism from the adjudicators quietly and politely and go home and work on your performance and technique for next time.

I'm not saying that she shouldn't have defended Craig, perhaps in retrospect she feels some regret for not saying something as it was somewhat unfair. As the Queen of the nervous giggle myself, I just feel sorry for her. Like I said, its hard being on live tv especially when you are used to performing but having to be yourself in interviews etc. I was interviewed on the radio last month and when I listened to myself back on the iplayer all you could hear was "Yes (nervous giggle) ...... umm.... (nervous giggle)." alternated with loads of silence, more nervous giggling and the odd polite giggly sentence. And I spent lots of time nodding which is pointless for a radio broadcast. So, yes, I'm sure she would have liked to have said something back to Alesha but instead opted for the good old smile, nod and if in doubt giggle.

I disagree. I don't have a serious problem with people who simply have less natural talent - dance skill is a wide spectrum, after all, and I'm a slow learner.

I do have a serious problem with people who simply won't accept their limitations. And Craig didn't; he consistently over-rated his ability.


Oooh I never knew there was an ignore list. I wonder how many people's I'm on?

When they came off he said ' I didnt think I was that bad' and Flavia said nothing. He turned to her and repeated it. She said oh no not that bad.

She couldnt have indicated more clearly that she agreed totally with the judges!!

( and imho, she was right!)

Flavia is not a confrontational person like Brendan, Erin, Katya, etc

I think tonight's ITT proved that the relationship between Craig and Flavia was much warmer than some self appointed body language experts have deduced.

I think as his partner she should have supported him..........

I agreed with Alesha's comments harsh as they were, maybe Flavia did too. Craig seemed to be delusional about the quality of his dancing - he genuinely seemed to think he was quite good when clearly he was not.

I guess Flavia just hit a brick wall with him - he showed little improvement throughout the series despite all her efforts. I'd say she's relieved to be out of it!!

I agree.


You've got to be joking! Apart from his first dance (the Waltz), every other JS dance was dreadful or so slow that even Craig would have looked good going at that pace. At least Craig's dances were at a reasonable pace, apart from the Waltz which was very slow. JS was a much older man and a slow pace could be justified. Craig might have looked better going at a JS pace, but then people would have questioned why the pace was so slow!

Absolutely (and he was/is a tad overweight as well...). As much as I love and admire JS, he was pretty damn awful; what was really great about him was that he had no illusions about how awful he was.

He knew he was no dancer and had a jolly good laugh about it - and in the arms of a beautifu partner too. We should be so lucky.

I know JS was awful Buddy - but the sharpness of his wit and his ability to put the judgs in their place, made up for any shortcomings on the dance floor.

Who could ever forget that Paso?

The thing is I didn't find him funny. In fact, the whole time he was on the show I felt he was laughing at us all and not in a nice way. He did a half decent Waltz in week 1 and that's the only good thing I can say about him. Sorry, but I was not a fan of JS. I knew what he was like before he was on SCD.

I agree that Flavia isnt the kind of person to talk-back to the judges, so never expected it from her.

However, when she said on ITT tonight that she didnt want her and Craig to be the couple people hated because they stay in too long, I did have to question whether Flavia is really cut out for Strictly.

I disagree , Flavia got it Craig didnt ,.She knew there would be bad blood if good dancers went out before them
She is a pro , she knows the game and I am surmising that her work was cut out with Craig .He was deluded and coming across as slighty batty at this stage .

To me her comments came across as a last attempt to make clear to Craig that he was crap as he was still yacking away about how great it all was and how he improved during his djearney. It looked to me as if she was trying to get Craig down from Planet Craig to Earth before he was making an even bigger fool of himself.
Craig seems a nice person to me, but in need of a regular whack with a reality-stick.

I think Flavia and a lot of the dancers want to keep their jobs with the BBC Show. Look at how Arlene was treated and disgarded yet she has said nothing about her treatment by the BBC. We have all heard from "friends" and other people but not Arlene who just smiles at the photographers and says NOTHING. I do not think Flavia would say anything controversal on the show or defend a celeb who is being torn to shred (for the sake of entertainment) by a judge. It is all about money, money and more money!!! Craig seemed a nice guy who was doing the best HE could and Flavia should have managed to stay something to Alesha in his defense.

Er - Since when has Arlene said 'nothing'? Look at the strap line on the top of this page: 'Strictly sacking still painful' ...

Arlene has made her opinion more than clear by agreeing to write a column for The Sun. Yes, The Sun, whose proprietor is actively campaigning to have the Licence Fee removed and the BBC's programming output massively scaled down (particularly its populist programming ... like Strictly). Actions speak louder than words ...

Flavia has been a consummate professional about her time with Craig but I don't think that has anything whatsoever to do with the hypocrite Arlene or a climate of fear. She has politely defended Craig against all the judges' criticism (and specifically Bruno's) but just isn't the kind of person to throw a strop a la Brendan. She has made it clear that she knew they were lucky to remain in the competition as long as they did and been nothing but gracious about it. Quite why she is expected to enter into a slanging match with Alesha beggars belief ...

You're it's just not Flavia's style. On the Alesha thing I think it's more appropriate for us to complain than Flavia.

I thought they got on really well, and Flavia said Craig had a great attitude. I think Craig was never comparing himself to others he was comparing himself to what he had done before, why does he have to appreciate how bad he is?

I thought the bit on ITT when he said Flavia told him that the dance off would be their last dance and he said 'It might not be' he is an odd person.....Erin could have sent on one her dancing dummies and still won that dance off.

I said Lucie would sail through the X-Factor sing-off on Sunday, Craig's right you never know. Most people thought Craig would be off when he was in the dance-off against Lynda.

So he had a positive attitude all the time, it's better than people who whine and cry when their in the dance off.