....the Emma Bunton and Heather Mills Show. Im really sorry to people who like them both but they really get on my nerves! Emma talks all the time when shes not spoken to and Heather constantly has this smug look about her. I understand shes doing an amazing thing and that and im really sorry about her leg but shes only doing this for the sympathy!

I think DOI has lost the feel of what it used to be, its all about how dangerous they can make the moves now, not about whether or not the skaters can do it. Take Sinnitta for example, Torvill and Dean said themselves it was 50/50 whether or not it worked, so why not change the move and work on it for next week? Its not IF they can do it, its you WILL do it and if it goes wrong then never mind!

Anyway sorry for the moan, feel free to rip apart my post, im sure everyone will have an opinion lol

Take Care

I agree about Emma Bunton. I'm not really interested in her opinion as l dont think she is qualified to judge the contestants.
Regarding Heather Mills, l,m trying to judge her impartially. and so far have been impressed with her guts.

I'm enjoying this series, I like a lot of the celebrities. They do seem to be pushing Heather a lot, but I have respect for what she's doing.

I know what you mean about the dangerous moves though, I love the lifts, but they should have some confidence they can do it. I'm not sure they're getting credit for it either, seems better to do a safe routine.

I agree it seems to be all about the lifts instead of concentrating on good basic skating - but I suppose that wouldn't make good TV!

I actually really like Emma. I think she speaks very articulately about the contestants and seems to have been well accepted by the other judges. Holly does go to her too often but that's not Emma's fault!

The Sinitta frog lift thing struck me as very unfair - she lost out (in my opinion) in the skate-off purely because of it, and I did feel aggrieved that she'd been pushed into it as I felt she had a lot of potential to do well in this series, and had looked forward to seeing her.

I also find I agree with Emma sometimes more than the other judges, but maybe that's because I don't really know that much about the technical skating. Doesn't mean she's not qualified though, that viewpoint is necessary in a show like this as the majority of the viewers won't be skating experts either.

Thanx for your replies, im glad most of you agree because i thought it was just me being bitchy, its been known to happen lol. I tried to come into this was an open mind aswell about Heather, i dont really know much about her cos to be honest im not really bothered and im not really sure what shes meant to be famous for! but i find myself getting annoyed.
And just for the record im not some woman hater lol i agreed more with Katie Price (dare i mention her name! lol) then Peter Andre so dont get the wrong idea about me lol.

I don't think it's become the Emma Bunton show at all. In the first show she was asked more because she was new but since then I think she's been asked around the same as the other judges (excluding Jason who always gets asked more.)

But no post above that one said anything about Heather having a smug look, so how have they agreed with you about her?

Hi Veri,
Thank you for your very constructive post. i meant largely agree with me, not that it really matters, i was being chatty and friendly, you might want to try it sometime.

Hi Ethereal,
Thats fair enough you dont agree, not everyone does lol i agree about Jason, hes always being asked, although i think they have been asking Karen and Nicky more then him this series so far. on the subject of Nicky, why has he been marking people so low this series??

Take Care both of you

The more I watch it the more I realise that what they do is really just teach them how to do the specific things they want them to do in a routine - they don't really teach them to skate that well. So they have people who can barely skate confidently doing tricky moves - it seems a bit stupid to me.

So when you look at the girls especially - they do maybe 2 or 3 steps, in hold, in between being lifted or spun round. That's not skating. If you put them out there on their own what could they do?
Someone I know went to the show on Sunday and said they do skate incredibly slowly - more slowly than it looks on TV.

I agree about Heather - I think she is incredibly smug and just wholly dislikeable.

Emma and Jason know nothing about skating. I don't mind their comments from a performance point of view though - after all, as I said, the celebs do very little skating really so I guess it's perfectly valid to equally judge the dance and performance aspect. It does irritate me when Jason argues with Nicky and Robin though - last week he was arguing with Nicky about the skating and he lost himself some credibility imo.

We don`t see more of Heather Mills than any other celeb Neither would I say she has a smug expression on her face.

JMO

You're so right about teaching them just stuff for a routine. In the real world they'd not be doing a lot of those moves, especially the lifts, when they can't do the skating safely. Well they'd have a job to get anyone to agree to being lifted if they didn't have professional partners. In fact they'd have a hard time finding a partner

I did wonder what Jason thought he was doing arguing a technical skating point with Nicky. What an idiot Jason is. But yes as they do very little skating the Jason and Emma do have a reason for being there. It's a very unrealistic show as far as learning to skate goes.

I wondered why the camera work was so bad until I realised it is is carefully done to make the skaters (celebs that is) look better than they are.

I think this year's series will be much better than last , more of a level playing field from the start.
Emma B is a little OTT atm, just hope she will settle down a bit.

I think Heather has a naturally "smug" expression - I don't think that is what's going on in her head but can understand that's how she comes across. I have to say, I am finding myself coming round to her and for the first time am wondering whether she did get a very raw deal in the whole divorce debacle. A lot of people go a little crazy when a marriage breaks down and to have to do it in such a public way, perhaps she should be forgiven for her behaviour, at least she should be understood. I guess she is getting more attention on DOI because of her unique situation and, whatever you think about Heather, her participation will do a lot to inspire other people.

As for Emma, I don't think she is really getting any more attention but agree with you that I have no interest in what she has to say at all. Couldn't stand Ruthie either. I would have preferred them to pick a former winner - Suzanne Shaw perhaps.

I believe you're one of the knowledge gurus who's been saying that competitive elite ice dance is all about the big tricks and not about the actual skating though? Perhaps they're just trying to mirror real life (though obviously the professionals can skate fine )

SCD teach stuff for a routine as well though don't they? I bet you don't know enough just to cha-cha round the floor by the time you've finished a week of training for that show

Well competitive elite dance probably is about big tricks BUT the people doing those competitions can skate competently before they get to the big moves can't they?

Dancing is different - all you need to get started is have 2 feet and be pretty confident in walking on solid ground! Skating is quite different, I would say, in that there is a lot of basic skating to get right and perfect before you do the 'fancy stuff'.

When you look at what the celebs can do - it's basic forward and backward skating, crossovers (but they are not very good at these if you know how a crossover should be and you pick it apart), mohawks and 3-turns - again, they are not that competent at these if you look closely.

These celebs are not even getting near to the equivalent of skate Uk level 10 - by the end of which you can pretty much skate confidently and do turns but that's about it really.

So being very, very basic skaters, not even at skate UK 10 level, they are doing lifts etc when level 10 skate UK skaters aren't even doing basic jumps yet.

Sorry if that's a bit rambly!

Sorry, I was taking the mickey a bit, with all the complaints about how ice dance is just tricks set to music in costume.

I didn't realise the gulf between the skills they're doing and basic skating was THAT big. No wonder the pros don't do the choreography - it's probably all they can do to stop the celeb killing them in a badly-timed manoeuvre

Oh I see

Yes, it's pretty big - if you went to your local rink and started learning to skate, it would be a pretty long time before you did lifts and spins.

There is a ton of stuff in skate UK 10 levels that the celebs on there won't have even touched on.

I did go when I was a little younger - I thought I was quite advanced once I could spiral, and crossovers were a closed book. So I definitely appreciate the harditude of what they're attempting...

Oooh 'knowledge guru' - how lovely! Pretty sure it's not me saying elite ice dancing is all about the big tricks though. If anything it's all about the twizzles these days And the step sequences are very involved to get the high levels called.

SCD is not quite the same though in that for dancing the basic steps are a lot easier in that they are not on ice! And lifting is easier when you know you are not at risk of sliding over.

On DOI Elphabatoo is right in that the celebs skating is a very basic level. Most of them would be hard pushed to pass level 5 or 6 in skate UK (the basic learn to skate courses) let alone level 10. They only skate in their favoured direction so never learn the turns on the other foot and many can't hold an edge so are skating on flats all the time.

That's what made Ray and Suzanne so impressive (and Chris now) and one or two of the others. They could skate!

What it does show is just how good a very basic skater can be made to look, when skating with a professional.

Skate UK level 5 requires a one foot backward glide - so you're right! Not many of them could do that unassisted I don't think!