Ricky was in another league - and he was actually gorgeous with it. Matt will never reach that level. Ricky was a fantastic dancer and not fake like Chris and his gurning

Sorry to be thick, I must have missed something but what has Ann done?

Nothing yet But she does turn up, bless her!

Agree about Ricky sofakat. What made it even more impressive was the fact he had messed up legs (from his injury and the fact he was bow legged) and it was something he managed to overcome quite well given the short amount of time he had.
I think a lot of people don't appreciate how hard it actually would have been for him to minimise his bandiness.

Matt had good hips but wasn't a fan of his dance styling. It looks too forced. He reminds me more of a Tom mark II so yeah - he'll probably win.

There is no denying that Matt was almost professional, but he lacked the personality of someone like Ricky Whittle. I think maybe Matt has peaked too early, but I love his hip movements.

Tom Chambers was good in the first show, and won.

Mark Ramprakash was good with his cha-cha in series four opening show, and won.

Your point?

LOL. Personality of Ricky Whittle!

Oh, are you serious?

I could be wrong because I am not born here natively. But Matt has a Welsh accent. Am I right?

Alesha and Jill were both good out the gate as well. And nobody has reached a final since Series 2 without having hit a 30 in one of their first two dances. The whole "journey" thing is a bit of a myth.

(And Matt's from Durham, not Wales)

Sorry, not good with accent.

I remember watching him in BBC Bedtime stories telling some really good story about a lamb and a wolf with my five-year-old niece and she really like him. I think Matt is that kind of person that is fearless, and as a Blue Peter host, you have to be thick-skinned, competitive and have a certain tenacious determination to do well. Gethin is a case in point.

So right about Ricky. He worked his butt off and triumphed. Yes, I didn't like Matt's forced style either - and the weird arms. Being able to handle 'latin motion' doesn't make you a great dancer, but it clearly fooled the public

Please allow others to have their own opinion. You should know that by now: you've been here long enough!

For my part Matt has all the charisma of a cardboard box - and I am allowed to have that opinion. Yes, really.

Being English is not a crime. Don't be silly. It's just that they find mastering Latin so hard because of a tendency to be too uptight, stiff and embarrassed by the sensuous movement it demands. They can manage jive OK.

And no, I don't rate Matt, but then I am judging him with some experience in the dance world so maybe I am a little more critical than the average. He's very Blackpool.

I actually don't dislike Ricky last year. What IS your point? Perhaps you should define what 'personality' or 'character' is. Often it has a negative conotation, no?

When we see an unruly child answering the parent back at the supermarket, I overheard an old lady saying 'What a character!'

Sorry, English is NOT my native language.

And personality. I remember Len saying to Dominic, "you have what everyone has but BIGGER, personality!" And it turned out he was a creep. *cringe*

Is that what you mean by calling people with 'personality'?

It's just MY opinion about the things discussed. Relax, sofokat.

Ricky was a very good dancer and he was also good looking. He seemed a bit vapid, but I actually quite liked him. He received a very hard time on here for no apparent reason whatsoever.

Chris was a very mediocre dancer. Some of his dances were truly laughable. His Paso was cringeworthy.

Matt is a good dancer, but I really can't warm to him. I don't think his technique is all that great yet. He's very average looking and he isn't remotely sexy. Far too "nice" to be sexy.

hmm I think Bernie Suntan won't win - he has far to much of an advantage and will have no journey either.

Bernie who I hear you say? That was one of his names when he was part of a 1970's revival disco show called "Richard and Randy's Disco Inferno"....

Hence why I feel his "learning" is fake.

A lot of people are put off by Ricky here in this forum due to the fact that every other day, there's some DS news of him speaking about his 'package', his muscles, his girlfriend, and his ex, then his girlfriend, and that silly brush with a very eager reporter, who was apparently ran over by him in a car (but later he was exonerated)... He's fine as a person, quite pleasant actually, but a bit reckless for having to dance with some kind of hernia (?), lifting his partner in the finals with his neck (!) which he later said in interview could go really, really, wrong. Some call it professionalism, I guess, like Matt Baker, who just revealed that he broke his heel doing the cartwheel at the beginning of his cha-cha and carried on with the routine...

I agree, terrible outfits!

Professional?

This is interesting because while I thought Matt gave a very good week 1 performance last night, I really think he has a long way to go still. To me he looks promising but at the moment his technique is very "right, I know that has to go there and then the hips go like that and the arm goes... er... there... oh and the hips again... right body ripple needs to be fluid... hips again.... umm..." He looked to me like someone who sort of understands the technique but is still imitating rather than feeling it, which is a very respectable position for week 1 and way ahead of most of the others who danced the cha cha cha last night. I don't think it's a given at all that he'll get to the final. If nothing else the younger male competition seems to be between him and Scott, and if they both deliver dances of a similar standard next week I wouldn't want to call a popular winner out of those two.

I'd agree though that his biggest advatange is probably in being a BBC-style Nice Young Man. Thankfully it seems he can dance as well!

None of them topped the leaderboard, except Ramps, although Emma and Louisa's first scores were higher.

The winners are generally showing promise in their first couple of dances but the favourite is generally someone else.

Too bad I am not a betting man otherwise I'll take note of what you've observed here.

I did say "good" rather than "the best". Really I just mean that someone like Goldie who may well become a "dark horse" in the show's parlance doesn't really have a chance (unless his ballroom picks up next week, and even then I doubt it).

On that score think someone will almost certainly outscore Matt (and Pamela) on tonight's show, especially with the surfeit of Craigbait pretty young girls. And yet barring a minor miracle I think he'd still be the obvious choice to win. I'm almost on the verge of putting cash on him without even watching tonight to be honest.

Could Matt win it?

Yes indeed - just like a number of others.

Pamela danced beautifully but might meet her Waterloo with Latin.
Scott also danced well and there's no doubt Natalie sets some very challenging
choreography.

Tonight I'm looking forward to Jimi - I think the early signs are good.
I also think Kara could threaten.

Sofakat - being English did not hamper Karen Hardy (with Bryan Watson she was World Masters and International Open Latin American Champion) or Matt Cutler (World Masters Latin American Champion with Nicole) and if we extend the nationality to British, Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather didn't do so badly. 14 times World Professional Latin Champions and 11 times International Latin Champions. I doubt it these records will ever be broken. I know Donnie was a Scot - not sure about Gaynor.

Don't forget Jimmi Mistry.