Series I
aka "The Unknown"
Remembered By: Obsessives even DS would consider banning
Remembered For: Natasha Kaplinsky looking like an extra from Carry On Screaming
Best Moment - Chris Parker running around the floor like a Peter Kay "kid at a disco"
Worst Moment - Chris Parker running around the floor like a....oh, wait.....
You're My Favourite Rating: Dust covered CD at the bottom of the pile

Series II
aka "The Showing Promise"
Remembered By: Jill Halfpenny's agent with an increasing sense of diety-like satisfaction
Remembered For: Esther Rantzen's hair, which had last been used by the make-up department for "Kitty" from the Victoria Wood programme
Best Moment - The realisation in Aled Jones' eyes that there probably was a God after all
Worst Moment - The first time you cancelled an appointment to watch
You're My Favourite Rating - a cut price Danish at the supermarket

Series III
aka "The Revenge of the State Broadcaster"
Remembered By: Ministers at the Department for Culture as a good reason to keep the licence fee
Remembered For: Darren Bennett wearing the worst fixed smile in professional history
Best Moment : Zoe Ball having, quite literally in and in real sense, a ball
Worst Moment - the realisation that the BBC couldn't possibly keep the same rules twice in one series
You're My Favourite Rating - prime time roast beef

Series IV
aka "Watch out for the shark!"
Remembered by - everyone for the wrong reasons
Remembered for - Jan Ravens. Jan. Ravens.
Best Moment - Peter Schmeichel proving that 'dad dancers' can come from any country in Europe
Worst Moment - "Will Mica Paris take too the floor......"
You're My Favourite Rating - tip of the almost top

.....more to come!

Series V
aka "Lock, Stock and Too Many Rule Changes"
Remembered By - The BBC with a whistful look in its eyes
Remembered For - Gabby Logan trying to out Hardy Karen
Best Moment - Penny Lancaster turning a salsa-jive hybrid into an LSD-trip
Worst Moment - Stephanie Beecham. Stephanie. Beecham.
You're My Favourite Rating - It takes more than two, usually.

Series VI
aka "Sgt Major Headache"
Remembered by - DS regulars with a returning sense of nostalgia
Remembered for - Lillia Kopylova and the camera angle of destiny
Best Moment - Men of a certain age sighing whenever Cherie Lunghi walked on stage
Worst Moment - The self-referential will-they/won't they it's all a laugh John Sergeant nightmare
You're My Favourite Rating - Slippy slope


Series VII
aka "Hingis and Hiatus"
Remembered by - Team GB Olympic selectors, Swiss Visa Dept. chiefs, Eastenders script-writers and BBC generals
Remembered for - Being a good series wrapped around a bad series acting like a good series with a serious bout of the bad series disease
Best Moment - Craig Kelly getting to, dancing through, and leaving Blackpool
Worst Moment - every living minute of Craig Kelly not being in Blackpool
You're My Favourite Rating - YouTubeTastic

Series VIII
aka "Licence Fee Renewal Period HO!"
.....

I love your diagnosis Doktor!
Jan Ravens. Jan. Ravens. rofl

Love your summaries but I hope you mean Stephanie Beacham= Worse Moment is her being eliminated second not her participation!

Quite.

Stephanie is a goddess!

....just one who couldn't be bothered to take it seriously :P

She just wanted to have some tea!

And we were cheated of her Tango which was meant to be shaping up to epic.

Thanks for the kind words, btw. If anyone wants to do their own version of my summaries, please do!

Brilliant !! Thanks for that

Worse moment over all : Dom Littlewood groping Lilia as she frantically tried to prise him off with a smile plastered on her face .
Best one : Darren charging in on his white horse and prying Dom Littlemansyndromewood off

I'm sad enough to thought of titles for each series:

Series one - Chain of Fools.

It was the first song danced on the show (the song which started off Strictly) and with Chris Parker's antics on the dance-off and the rumours and speculation about Brendan and Natasha Kaplinsky off them then it seemed to fit and because as with anything do for the first them - a lot of people involved at first where taking a gamble by doing so hence 'the fools who rush where the angels free to tread'.

Series two - The Good, the Bad and the Wardrobe.

This is borrowed a bit from the Strictly Annual which calls it 'The Good, The Bad and Quentin Wilson' as a pun on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly - I think he comes under the bad really though although it wasn't the only bad of that year - because he was so bad - people forget who awful Diarmud Gavin was - another person whose record low scores are unlikely to be beaten and from whom reduced Nicole Cutler to tears at being able to teach him anything. A lot of people on here remember Carol Voderman's rhumba for all the wrong reasons too.

However, this you started to see people whom were good enough to hold their old against what would come later - Natasha Kaplinsky has said she wouldn't have got past the first round of the competition these days - you can't say that about Jill Halfpenny as proved on tour and although Denise Lewis didn't get the votes on tour her judges marks were there or thereabouts with the others and she unlike everyone else had the handicap of dancing with a new partner and doing the rhumba a dance that relies on chemistry to boot. Aled Jones was also the first man who raised the status of the male dancers on the show although he wasn't the man in the final whom was of course Julian Clary - whose memorable wardrobe culminating in his Officer and a Gentleman uniform was that part which probably helped to get him there.

Series three - Cinderellas, Journeymen and Dummies

The cinderellas refers to the fact that women were the disadvantaged ones during this series - it was commented on at the time that the first four people eliminated were all female - this may have been what led to the gender split first rounds of the next three years. My father in law things that Jaye Jacobs got a raw deal and based on her dancing in the final I think Siobhan Hayes might have got somewhere - but at the end of the day the blame lies with the supporter of statistically -and having seen her dancing I think deservedly so - least talented lady ever to set foot on the Strictly dancefloor Fiona Phillips. The other cinderella is Zoe Ball (whom when Len was spouting his gubbings about Lisa Snowden being the best contestant not to win - I was shouting at the screen 'no you arse that's Zoe Ball') whom probably ought to have won and has taken it in good spirits. The judges would have liked Patsy Palmer in the semis but I disagree and think she existed at just the right time.

The Journeymen are obvious - not just the winner but the popular figures of Bill Turnbull and James Martin - talented in ballroom not so much in latin but engaging and entertaining and emerging from the show as stars. The Dummies is dancing dunce Phillips whom one of the judges made some sort of comment on her dancing alluding to one and of course is the biggest cheorography own goal in Strictly's history - oh Erin what where you thinking? but also to the haribrigner of what would be in many people's books Strictly's best showdance - Camelia's innovative and memorable tango for James.

(to be continued)

Series four - May the Best Man Win

I suppose because there was a lot of talk about the men being better than the ladies at the start of the competition and because two sportsmen ended up in the final despite the fact the judges obviously wanted Emma Bunton there too.

Series five - Something for the Ladies

If series four was a strong male series or at least percieved as one at the start then series five the talk from the judge's talk was about how good the ladies compared to the men again. With some justification ladies dance fantastic - men's not so much - and it was a shame someone had to leave in the single gender ladies week as they were all good except hopalong Katie whom was injured. In many ways series four in terms of gender divide was mirror of series four - both the shock eliminations and the follow up ones that annoyed the judges but not so much the public were from the ranks of the 'stronger' gender that year whilst some candidates from the unfancied gender got stronger. Title fitted due to the fact that this year the two men who turned out to be good were the two most conventionally good looking ones and one of them I think towards the end at least was determined to succeed solely for his partner. It alludes to other personal elements going on too - the two most successful ladies in the competition seemed to find Strictly something that gave them renewed confidence and joie de vive (not to mention a career boost after the marriages had gone belly-up) - it also perhaps gave Kelly something personal to make her dead proud before he was no longer there.

Series six - The Politics of Dancing

Title deprived from fairly obscure 80's pop track by one hit wonder Re-Flex containing the words "you know you can't stop when they start to play, you've got to get out of the way". The year dominated by a political commentator manipulating the public and to some degree having his cause manipuated in turn by anyone looking to ruffle feathers, have a go at the beeb or in a year when government and business failed us stick it to the man in general which only stopped when he left - although in fairness some did find his dancing amusing. If John Sargeant was one of the sides of the power play that had always gone on around Strictly voting but seemed particularly accute and irritating to all sides that year than Lisa Snowden was the other - never did it seem the judges seem so determined to keep someone who was so disliked in the competition and it whipped up resentment against the dance-off especially when Austin was eliminated. In a sense the power play ended in a mess when the system was so stacked against Tom Chambers he had to let into the final to give people any choice and then proceeded to win which some people like my mum think shouldn't have happened.

Series seven - We go together

Named for two reasons - the chemistry between people was paramount - the great rapport of team cola steered them to victory, and the fact that team Vitalie seemed to be having the time of their lives helped people warm and vote for them too and the lovely rapport between Jo and Brendan seemed to earn Brendan a few fans and probably kept them in the competition longer than her dancing did. Then there were the two showmances and the rumoured one between team Ricalie. The flip side was that there seemed to a few couples whom didn't gel at all - I was pretty shocked how blantently Rav cold-shouldered Aliona, apart from Dom and Lilia you don't tend, to see a pro treated that badly. Then there was the Anton's faux-pas and I'm not convinced him and Laila got on that well even without that and the often preversely funny to watch in interviews mental dis-connect between Craig and Flavia.

Another meaning for me was how bodies failed to stay together - the worst example being Jade - but Laila injured herself the same week and Ali seemed to prone to them too.

Jan Ravens - I'll never forget what happened in the show. She said 'are you happy now?' to the judges, when she got voted out! Soooo funny!!! The judges reaction was a sight too! She took it too seriously and blamed others than herself for her crap dancing. Get over it! Thank god she got voted out that bitter woman.

It was just Craig R.H she shouted out but even so and her husband pushed him in the bar afterwards when he attempted to be consiilallatory towards her too. Not cricket definately not cricket. It's just such a shame Spoony went before her and even Georgina Bovova's as she was starting to get better. My most disliked Strictly contestant ever by a long way.

I can't agree with your assessment of Series IV although I agree that Jan Ravens was memorable!

Many people, myself included, thought that Mark and Karen were the best partnership ever - confirmed last year by a forum member's poll.

And earlier on this thread Mark and Karen's Argentine Tango was cited as the best ever dance.

Series VIII
aka "Pick 'n' Mix"
Remembered by - TDisgruntled members of the Maidstone and the Weald Conservative Association, women of a certain age (not necessarily the same thing), and for the first ever time, a member of the DWTS production team (oooh, controversial, etc)
Remembered for - A joke going a bit too far, judges going not far enough, and more coverage in the Guardian than ever before
Best Moment - Pamela's "spinning top", Gavin's Kiss, or the Bendy Felicity
Worst Moment - Erin Boag's seething resentment breaking through the walls of BBC One and into the warm sofa'd land of BBC Two
You're My Favourite Rating - A little (too much) of what you fancy.....

Series 6 - Rachel woz robbed.

/and that is all.