Neither did Craig but that didn't stop him coming back week after week

To be fair, she did try. I think if Jade hadn't have been injured she would have pulled out this week.

I'd be very surprised if she continued, that injury looked serious, and I can't see her putting Strictly before her athletics career.

I don't know how Laila could even bear to WALK on that. Let alone attempt to dance! Leave her alone. God.

Actually, now

I see your point

[quote=ForerroRocher;36663709]I think, if Jade makes the final, she should get to do her Tango in it.

It looked like an amazing dance [quote]

However we have seen plenty of training dances that looked 'amazing' but either went wrong or were not as good as the preview clips suggested. Just getting a bit fed up reading how Jade would have definitely gone through/been top of the board with her tango but that is just guesswork and we will never know hoe good it would - or would not- have been.

I only saw the show up to natalie's FT. Can't believe she got a 34! And I'm gutted phil tuffers got the boot. I'm sitting in the theatre at the interval checking the results on my iPhone and I'm so gutted for Phil!!!! I didn't even know I liked him until he got the boot!

Did you vote for Tuffers?

I thought Ricky danced better than the first time and I didn't think it was skippy. If you'd have asked me before the show who should go home out of all the remaining couples I would have said Ricky G. I thought he danced better than Phil both times tonight though, so the dance off result was the right one for me.


It was a weird show. I thought Tess and Claudia did very well and the bits Ronnie did were just fine. Between them they did a good job in the circumstances.

I do think if a celeb can't dance then they should be eliminated or withdraw from the show. I hope Jade is well enough to dance again and that her injury doesn't threaten her athletic career.

I didn't like the Jersey Boys slot (didn't like them last year either). Were we supposed to know who the dancers were?

I did feel sorry for Laila as she was clearly in pain. She did try to dance and I can't decide if that was good thing or a bad thing, but I'm glad she made it through to next week.

I am so glad Team Cole lived to dance another day and their Paso was the highlight of the night for me.

I felt so sorry for Jade and Ian - I really wanted them to win. I do hope she hasn't done herself any permanent damage.

I suspect she won't be back in the competition. In fact (conspiracy theory coming up), I think they probably knew this afternoon that she would have to drop out, but they didn't want to announce it before today's show because that would mean the last evicted celeb would have to be allowed back in, which means the awful Craig would be back!

Evening everyone!!

Just swung by to put in a (potentially) minority comment- I would dearly love to see Laila and Anton's rumba in full in a few weeks. For some reason, possibly how much she was reliant on him during the part they actually danced, I thought it had great connection, and a potential to be fantastic - I know I'm a big girl, but I found it emotional to watch even before he picked her up and swung her round.

Glad that Ricky and Erin were spared, but feel it may be their week next week (assuming, o/c, that Jade returns). I feel for Jade, she was clearly so upset, and how terrible that she may be out of athletics. I hope for her sake that she will be back to full strength soon.

I loved Claudia in the Tesspit, and thought that Tess did a good job of presenting. I didn't even mind Ronnie C coming along, although would've prefered 'keeeeeeep dancing' rather than the line that just isn't funny coming from anyone but Ronnie Barker!

What if Jade is back next week? She starts with an insurmountable disadvantage in terms of both judges scores and votes. I don't watch DWTS, but have they only done carry overs when somebody has withdrawn from the competition for whatever reason, or have they done them in cases like this when somebody's been unable to dance through injury? In which case, do they divide by two the scores of those who've danced both weeks and leave whole the score of the single week couple?

On a more general level, this evening felt very flat for me, too. I'd been really looking forward to Jade and Ian's tango and was so upset for both of them. I really hope that Jade hasn't blown her real career for the sake of a light entertainment show. Fingers crossed for her. Then poor Laila - I actually did have a tear in my eye when Anton swept her up and carried her over to the judging area.

I couldn't get into the dances so much this evening because of all of the other drama, but I do have to say 'wow' to Kristina - how athletic is she? I've never really seen her dance properly before, but I was so impressed by her in both her show dances tonight.

Sad to see Phil go (how lovely was he when he put his arm round Leila on the couch in the red room?), but happy that Erin stayed in. Both she and Ricky looked stunned. Odd how the exit interviewlet with Tess was all about Katya, not Phil!

I didn't enjoy the show much tonight - possibly I was influenced by my disappointment at Jade's injury.

I thought Tess made an excellent job of filling in for Bruce, Claudia was equally as impressive doing Tess's job but Ronnie Corbett was an unnecessary distraction.

I thought Phil and Katya slightly undermarked - that 7 from Craig was harsh imo.
Ricky W and Natalie didn't wow me at all. On this occasion I did agree with Craig, the choreography stuttered here and there, I thought the 9's were generous. I wasn't impressed by his reference to injury, when we'd just witnessed Jade's awful pain.
Ricky G and Erin - it didn't flow, and I think Len overmarked, but it didn't affect the leaderboard, so no harm done.
Sorry Team Cola fans, but I couldn't believe the comments and marks their Paso received. In fact as soon as they started to dance I actually started laughing and I laughed for a different reason at Alesha's 9. Chris's face was a picture and not a pretty one; it reminded me of Tom's last year!
Laila and Anton - what can I say except that it was genuinely sad to see her in pain and so upset.
Natalie and Vincent - overmarked; 9's from Len and Alesha were bizarre.
Ali and Brian - a pretty dance, but she just didn't bring any passion to it. Again I thought 9's generous.

So there it is. Perhaps I'm being an grump, but I saw nothing to warrant a 9, which is disappointing at this stage of the competition.

Then to top it all - Phil who I thought gave a really good performance, went out!

In his defence, he was defending Natalie's choreography from the criticism by Craig and said she was a 10. Most of us know that he had a terrible injury when he was younger which resulted in him not being able to play competitive football. The doctors told him that he wouldn't be able to walk without a limp and has had a lot of physio since doing SCD. Natalie had to slow down the choreography four times this week because of the difficulties he had with his leg and it was still a very fast routine.

I know that Laura - but it seems hardly a week passes without reference to his injury.

Phil also suffers pain, but made little fuss about it.

I'm probably being a grouch because for me the show lacked any pizzazz tonight.

Phil mentioned his injury tonight, making reference to his operation and injury in his training VT. Im not saying he made a fuss but neither did Ricky. Ricky has been having physio all week as well on his legs as noted by twitter, so he's allowed to mention it too. Hardly a fuss. And may I just say Ricky was one of the only ones who mentioned Jade as well in a rather charitable show of support? But then, as always, one rule for him and another for the others.

This comment puzzles me - what did I post that suggests I'm judging Ricky by different standards to anyone else?

I know he's your favourite - but sometimes you are a little oversensitive to criticism of him. We all have opinions and all are equally valid.

I did notice that he mentioned Jade (I actually thought he was the only one) and I thought it kind and considerate of him.

I was interested in this, so I checked Wikipedia.

According to that, this is only the second time she's contradicted Craig (last time was Zoe vs Ali). Both times Len has backed Craig.

In fact it's Len who Alesha really isn't on the same wavelength as, meaning that of the 9 dance-offs she's been overruled by him in 4 of them, which is fairly extraordinary.

Len has thrown his casting vote against Craig twice and Bruno once (tonight).

Again, this is all according to Wikipedia, so could be rubbish.

Not a problem...because the reason I'm suggesting a carry forward in the first place is on the basis that Jade should have been eliminated from the competition.

I understand that some viewers wouldn't find that satisfactory and that the BBC has to be mindful of what causes them the least potential aggravation in the hysterical climate in which they operate...but I think what happened tonight was more unfair than several alternatives.

I thought last nights show was very lacklustre . I did enjoy Ricky's jive and Ali's cha cha, but I couldn't be ar*ed to vote for anyone.

I've been wondering why Hannah Waterman is not seen in the audience or on family and friends VT's for Ricky G. I hope it's not why he's so emotional and clinging to staying in....

Also, it's probably been mentioned but Natalie exposed a bit much of herself in those shorts at the end of her jive

Perfect summary . Nothing worth a 9 at all .Seriously underwhelmed by Ricky W and Ali and Natalie . Though I did enjoy Cola's OTT paso .

Phil was really unlucky to go out last night; Laila attracted a huge vote I am sure and i would guess both Ricky G and Phil had a good vote just not good enough to beat the combined scores ones at the top of the leader board , whose scores were all artificially inflated last night .I would not be at all surprised if Ali and Ricky W had the lowest public vote ....again maybe ?

The panel are desperate to keep them both out of the dance off . Ricky had mistakes again and still had 9s, phil lost the dance off for a mistake . What is good for the goose is good for the gander .

I thought the show was a bit flat .

Thanks for clarifying, Robert. I don't think you'd explicitly mentioned the elimination part, hence why some of us might have been struggling to grasp the evident simplicity of your proposal. As Chris Tarrant always says, it's only obvious if you know the answer!



I think that last night was such an odd, lacklustre show for various reasons that whoever left would have been unlucky - even if it had been Laila, as she found herself at the bottom of the leaderboard through injury and what little of her dance she managed showed signs that, fully fit, it might have been very good. Although I agree with you about the overmarking, I think that the final rankings on the board were correct and - leaving aside any discussion about the new scoring system - it is the points, rather than the judges marks per se, that matter.

Why do you think that?

She was dressed, made up, hair done etc. and ready to go.

[quote=ellie1167;36664186][quote=ForerroRocher;36663709]I think, if Jade makes the final, she should get to do her Tango in it.

It looked like an amazing dance
Oh I wasn't meaning to offend. Sorry. I was simply just trying to get across that I had been looking forward to the Tango.

Lets be honest, a lot of us look at the midweek training and judge for what we think the final performance could be like from there. It's all we get to see of their dance before they actually go live and since Jade didn't even manage to do the live performance last night, I was just thinking how disappointing it was because of how good I thought her Tango could have been from the snippet we'd seen in training.

I get that we'll never know how good is may or may not have been and I wasn't sayingg for definate which way it would have gone, I was just guessing at how I personally thought it would have gone.

I'm also not saying she would definately have gone through/been top with it, just guessing, which is all we can do.

I think Lizzie meant that if Jade hadn't been injured then LAILA would have pulled out. Suggesting that Laila didn't want to pull out because they were already one person down.