OMG - I now suddenly like Ann!

Never was a truer word spoken. Arlene - you've just had a taste of your own medicine!

And this is how a master does it.

Funny and deadly accurate.

Well said Anne!

Great, just great.

Well said Ann.

I think even Arlene could have come up with a good response with a bit of advance warning.

I'd like to see Ann produce some spontaneous wit on the show - she seems confident she will.

To be fair if it's a battle of wits between Widdinator and Arlene, Arlene has only half the ammo.

And since when did Arlene ever produce any spontaneous wit on SCD? She obviously thought she did - but I'd hardly call her tiresome alliterating and personal put-downs 'wit'. (Something that rhymes with 'wit', maybe ... )

Two Numpty Knighthoods in the post - wear them with honour!

To be fair I'm guessing you are both too young to remember when WYSIWYG was first used and I'm showing my age!

Arlene did say once that she had a little notebook that she carried around with her to write down ideas for comments.

... was it, perchance, a back of a fag packet that she used to crayon all over?

Not as far as I know.

Oh no! - that wasn't directed at you BuddyBonthenet...

... it was a reference to the quality of 'comments' that Arlene used to come out with. To be fair she was/is a great choreographer, but I have to agree the the mighty MS that her communications skills are sub-optimal. She was rather tactless as well. She could also be rather snide and sometimes it was all too unnecessary and unwarranted. The tortuous, contrived alliteration used to make me swear at the tele and I for one am thankful that she's not judging anymore.

I can think of a phrase, and it involves, nettles and bulldogs.

LOL! I had to Google that phrase - it's a good one!

I did once characterise Arlene, back in the day when she was backing Gethin and Len had been photographed taking the bin out.

eg.

Deep in the underground bunker off the Picadilly line, Uggg, oooH! And Errr were having another argument.

Uggg leaned forward “I’m going to say 'You look gorgeous together' again this week and this week I’m going to finish it off and say 'and I wish I was Alesha.'”

oooH! leapt to his feet “You cant do that! Remember our mission.”

At that point the 7.15 to Kings Cross screeched to a halt outside, there was a hiss of doors opening and closing and a train hurtling off down the tunnel.
The steel door swung open and Emmm chassayed in, resplendent in his bathrobe and slippers. “Sorry I’m late, had to finish the bin round.” Emmm took his seat between Errr and oooH! “What’s all the noise oooH!, I could hear you from the train.”

oooH! Leapt to his feet again “Its Uggg, he wants to make Matthew understand how he feels about him!”

“That’s right boyo.” said Errr - then stopped, realising she had said the wrong thing.

Emmm leaned back and stretched his neck to it’s haughtiest height “Is that a Welsh accent I heard?

Errr had to act fast. Her training with the Welsh CIA had prepared her for just such a moment. She spotted a wasp on a piece of lettuce dangling from Emmm’s bathrobe and quickly popped it into her mouth. “I’m here to tell you…”

“OK, OK, I thought you sounded different for a second there.” said Emmm. He swivelled round to oooH! “And you sunshine, I don’t want to see your leather-clad arse off that seat again til the final.” He swivelled back round to face Uggg. “You’ve done a good job so far. “When you said ‘You are Fab-u-lous’ and ‘Absolutely gorgeous’ Alesha thought you were talking about her. Keep that going. We’ve got to keep our focus. The Prime minister has set us a task of confusing the British public and I think so far, this mission has been a great success, only one more week to go. You slipped up a bit last week Uggg – I mean - how can I give double your score if you are going to keep pulling out the big paddles?" He scowled at Errr “And you, people are starting to understand what you are talking about.”

“I’m sorry Emmm, my jaw dropped open when he danced that Waltz and the wasp got out.”

“Well don’t let it happen again. Give them some more of that ‘Make love to the floor’ stuff, or ‘Luscious, lascivious langoustine languishing in lubricated’ bullshit.” He swung round to oooH! “You’ve done OK so far sunshine, just keep remembering to say ‘I talk from my heart.’ Because everyone else will be thinking it’s coming from lower down.” He leaned back again, smugly this time “Me, I don’t even have to try – it just comes naturally.”

Uggg, Errr and oooH! looked at each other before raising their eyes in unison.

When did any of them for that matter? and at least she had the decency to sit on her ass when she was talking out of it - unlike Bruno

Yep - 'cos she's only half the size.

To be honest, they both have a point.

On the one hand, I kind of agree with Arlene that I'm not particularly looking forward to watching Ann on Strictly. I admire her for trying and I'm certainly willing to give her a chance but I can't help but feel that she's going to be very limited in what she can and will do.

On the other hand, it's time - beyond time! - that Arlene moved on and stopped talking about Strictly. And it's certainly not fair of her to criticise contestants before the series has even started and we've seen what they can actually do. I don't count the group number on the preview show as a real indicator - it's not the same as working intensively with their pro partner. Even the training clips so far haven't really shown very much.

TBH, I agree with you about Ann's presence in the show - but I am now heartily sick of hearing what about Arlene thinks. It's unprofessional and undignified. If she wants to look bitter, fine - she's succeeding.