There might be a bit of a culture clash going on here. Brian is American, they are much more extreme and emotional than Brits, and tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves as far as I can see.

It looks very much like he loves her, and she is hurt for the second time. He was very distressed, probably about them missing Saturday too.

They shouldn't have had him on there at all if he was that upset, much less rearranging the guests to make room. What were they thinking?

I don't think you are in a position to judge how serious her injury is AND I think you are being unfair to both Ali and Brian. He became emotional when he watched the playback of the injury happening. We all differ in emotionality and I don't consider anything wrong with his behaviour. Ali who cannot walk at the moment did not appear. Anyway, I'm going to bed.

Why am I not in a postion to judge on the information I have been given ,

You know nothing of me or my medical knowlege

you know nothing of me or my dealings with sports injuries

you are not in a postion to judge as I havent given you the information and I beleive ( given the information we were on ITT that Ali's injury is not as bad as jade's) and I maintain that Brians reaction on ITT was OTT!

I thought Brian was OTT - emotion is fine,
that's him- but there was a dramatic
line going on with all the possible problems which, errrrr, weren't problems. Can't see the reason to even mention things that haven't even happened, even if they did originally think that might be the situation.

Also Claude didn't change her interview technique which sort of
stood out in the light of mass sympathy for jade and some sympahy for Laila.

It was odd,'at best, but half dozen of one 6 of the other.

I've just watched it again on iplayer and logged back in to add another tuppence worth.
I totally agree with what I've highlighted here.

When it was live tonight on the tv, I initially thought there was a fracture involved, and now that we know there isn't, why was it ever mentioned in the first place?
All Brian had to say was that Ali had bruised bones in her foot after a fall and it may jeopardise them dancing this week as she is still unable to walk on the foot.

I fully understand his emotional involvement, but it's statements given like this which lead to hysteria in the press - and forums.

I now fully agree with those who have said that Claudia was trying to lighten the mood of the show, as Brian was indeed in danger of 'falling apart' and I think that would have led to embarrassment for him and Ali once Friday/Saturday came along.

One thing that puzzles me - if it happened on Monday, why did we only hear about it on Wednesday evening?
If Brian and Ali hold hands, it's on youtube within half an hour!

This in no way detracts from the sympathy I feel for Ali and her second injury within 4 weeks and I wish her the quickest recovery possible.

Well he's making a bit of a fuss about this injury. As I said I'm sure it's painful but there will be no lasting damage from bruising so no need for tears and shaking.

I didn't watch ITT until this morning. Imagine my surprise, after reading DS, to not find Brian shaking and weeping and in a state of complete emotional collapse.

There's a lot that's OTT about this interview, but I didn't see it on ITT.

IMO there was nothing wrong with having Brian on, it was Claudia's lack of presenting skills that was wrong, she can only do giddy and ott silly . I am not a Brian fan but I did feel for him last night.

As a huge Ali and Brian fan i'm amazed to find myself chuckling reading this thread this morning!

You'd think from the recent posts that Brian appeared on ITT last night weeping and wailing and tearing his hair out

The only OTT reaction i can see is from some posters on this thread!!

What on earth is OTT about a man talking seriously and realistically about what the injury may mean for their future on the show. Its obvious what it means to him but he hardly lost control of himself ffs

I was thinking the same thing. I was ready to brace myself for an overemotional weepy Brian based on these posts. Instead I thought he was calm but quite sad, which to me is an appropriate response to what happened. If he wasn't worried about her he would be accused of being insensitive. It is so hard to win with the public, damned if you do and damned if you don't - somehow people know *exactly* how another person "should" act and what they should say. They also seem to know the extent of her injury and how much pain she feels. Really?

I did not find Claudia insensitive but more that she seemed to be minimizing it as much as she could almost trying to cheer Brian up but you could tell he wasn't up for that.

I think in comparison with Ian he seemed more OTT. Ian I think realised there are more important things than continuing with the show, disappointed as he was.

I think the Beeb overplayed it by intimating its more serious than it is. However, its serious for Bryan and Ali because it means they too may have to pull out if she can't even walk. He was evidently upset, but hardly weeping, wailing, gnashing teeth. I thought Ian too was upset, particularly last Saturday night.

Right, talking of injuries, I'm about to go into hospital to have my knee reconstructed tomorrow, after an injury sustained nearly 3 years ago!! No-one's crying in my house, even the kids are more interested in what life insurance I have!

BBC interviewers who aren't news specialists can be pretty tactless. I don't know whether it's because they are instructed to carry out the interview as planned to maximise the dramatic impact or because they are not necessarily very good at reading body language etc. when they're stressing themselves about getting the interview "right". Sports interviewers tend to be quite bad, as they tend to be ex-players rather than journalists. (Proper news journalists tend to be much better, as 99% of reported news is bad with unhappy interviewees, so the journalists must get quite good at being tactful.)

One cringeworthy example sticks in my mind from the Beijing Olympics. The British women had just narrowly lost the gold medal in the rowing (they were in front until around 200m to go) and were having a "team cry" by the side of the lake. The interviewer dives in, thrusts his microphone under the nearest nose and asks "How did it feel when the Chinese overtook you?" (I mean - they had been training for 4 years for this, and the gold medal had looked "in the bag". How the **** did he think they were feeling? A bit disasppointed?)

The ladies concerned were so choked that they couldn't speak but the interviewer still persisted until he got some sort of response. It was too painful to watch, so I switched over.

Is Claudia's background journalism or TV presenting? If the former, then she should have done better (unless she was following instructions to wring every ounce of emotion from the situation). If the latter then it's more understandable that she read the tea-leaves wrong.

Fingers crossed. Hope it goes OK!

Kids can be very supportive at times, can't they?

Ali has only bruised a few toes, she is not in intensive care fighting for her life.

Well, Brian and Ali did ridiculously overdramatize a STUBBED TOE. I mean bloody hell yes they hurt but the way they portrayed it back then was as if she'd broken her foot back then.

Think this is why people feel Brian's reaction was a bit OTT - he acted the same after a stubbed toe, maybe that's why Claudia couldn't see the seriousness?

And bruising of the foot is very painful, yes, but not so serious as people are making out!

Good luck with the knee peely!

I jsut watched the first few minutes of the interview on i player and Claudia had her concerned face on, I'll presume the 'woo-hoo' comment came later. What I saw she did OK in her slightly eccentric fashion. Brian looked upset, not traumatised, I guess he was just worried about Ali and the competition.

All seems very mountain out of a molehill to me.

Given that she giggles and gurns like a 10 year old, how much emotional depth were people expecting?

I don't think she realised how serious it was. As mentioned already the injury was Monday, she didn't seem to be expecting the situation to be as grave as it is. Judging from Brian's interview Ali could be gone.

But isn't everyone different? Now I am very resiliant, never make a crisis out of a drama, and see others as wooses and can't understand how they can fall apart over what to me are minor issues. So they get scant sympathy, and more likely will be told to pull themselves together!

But I do know that there are more sensitve souls out there like Brian who should be understood and not critizied.

Just not by me though!

Well said!

I thought the biggest issue on the "Laila" front was that she made a huge meal of her ankle injury. I'm sure it was a genuine injury, but hardly worthy of the reaction. I prefer the Tuffers-style gritted teeth and a stiff upper lip, myself.

I don't think we should be comparing Brian with Ian who is of a different temperament and about ten years older.

This thread is supposed to be about Claudia and its emotive title may have influenced some of the OTT responses. I felt let down and disappointed by Claudia who seemed lacking in sympathy right from the moment she introduced Brian. She may have thought that it wasn't serious because there was no torn ligament or fracture. However, If Ali can't put her foot on the floor it is serious in the sense that she can't dance. The whole thing seemed hastily put together and out of synch with the rest of ITT.

That's hardly fair. She barely complained at all, danced twice like a trooper and kept smiling throughout. Plus I think it was more than just a case of stubbing your little toe on the coffee table. It was really swollen and her shoes were making her feet bleed. There was nothing dramatic about it at all - perhaps if they had over dramatised it like Laila did they may have gotten some sympathy votes (like Laila) and avoided the dance off that week!

A mistake people make is to judge others pain.You or I have no ideahow her pain is or why .
Dealing with others pain all my life I have learned never to estimate others pain for them ,

Well said. We al have different pain thresholds and we can't possibly know how Ali, Jade or Laila might have been feeling.