As I feel SCD is on the slippery slope to idiocy, I feel the best thing to do is to bring back Come Dancing so that us dance purists can have something to watch without feeling like we are being party poopers to the GBP who want to 'ave a larf!

Excellent idea.

Put it on at BBC2, 10:30 on Friday night.

Almost 90 minutes of pure, perfect dancing ... Boring.

The Beeb could put something entertaining in the Saturday evening slot.

Time to revive The Generation Game. Maybe Anton could front it?

Then we could legitimately enjoy watchIng some family stuffing up a dance routine.

I agree. When Strictly first started I thought it was an homage to Come Dancing. A sort of gentle reminisce and a nod to the 'past' with tongue, firmly implanted in its cheek.

Over the years it appears that the audience has polarised into 2 camps. Those that watch for the dancing (I'm not going to call them 'purists') and those that watch 'for a giggle' (I'm not going to refer it as being 'entertainment').

I think the content of numerous threads would give the Beeb a clue that there remains a market for Come Dancing. If they were to revive it, it would save me having to trawl 'Youtube' for pro dance competition footage.

Please no!! Hole in the Wall was bad enough

But a big part of the joy is seeing how people who aren't dancers can progress through sheer hard work and actually the joy they derive from it when they start to make real progress..

For me along with seeing the pretty dresses and it has to be said some of the pretty women it is total escapism for an hour or so each week.

On the other hand the joke contestants represent all that is wrong with this country these days and it totally spoils the illusion

Both SCD and IAACGMOOH have both descended to the depths of mediocrity now and I suppose appeal to the LCD of TV audiences.
I am seriously thinking of ditching both, either during the current series and giving them a wide berth next year, if they continue to keep on exhuming these programmes which have really come to the end of th useful lives, to be honest.
However, God know what you fill their gaps with!

Come Dancing is of another era. It is best left there. This does not mean I feel one way or the other about keeping or scrapping SCD..........

I like seeing the dancers who aren't so good, improve towards the end to become great dancers, but as you say, the GBP champion these novelty acts, and the producers make money from those that vote for it.
It's not going to be how it used to be.

I have many fond memories of watch Come Dancing in my early teens. Beating out my own rhythm to the Latin American dancers.

I would think it is a bit twee for today. But I am sure that a modern program about ballroom dancing could be made that would satisfy those who want such a thing. Tuck it away on BBC4, with the rest of the arty stuff, where the rest of us can ignore it.

I am not completely averse to SCD but they could improve it and stop the obvious rot by getting a good band and ban most of the singing; stop those ridiculous props and resort to the previous studio settings. It was obvious that the visit to the Blackpool Ballroom was noticeably better in ambience compared to the offerings from the BBC. The latest BBC ballroom area seems so much smaller.
The latest programme has become too chavvy, noisy and brash.

I don't know about 'Come Dancing', but I would have thought with four channels to play with there could be room for the odd package of highlights from dance championships or something like that.

Not on Strictly. The Beeb aren't allowed to profit from the phone votes. Reality shows on other channels do though, hence the difference in the costs to vote between the Beeb shows and the others.

I doubt the BBC are interested in accomodating a niche market.

Viewing figures for Strictly are better than ever.

I suppose that there are a lot of young girlies and twinkies watching at the times that this show goes out and the dumbing down is a way of attracting a larger audience, this way.

I'm still unsure of what this 'dumbing down' people refer to is?

A new, rejuvenated Come Dancing might be welcome .. put it on Beeb 2 for forty minutes, that'd be enough. It would need to be less old fashioned than it used to be, but more serious than SCD.

I can't answer for anyone else Sid, but what I consider to be 'dumbing down' is the over-use of props, faffing abaht, naff theme nights, an epileptic fit inducing light show, Len's selective amnesia about what he's actually judging a performance on, Bruno's increasingly manic behaviour, the god-awful results show...I've got more but I'm getting short of breath

Thanks for answering that. It was obvious to me what a dumbed down programme was but I could not be bothered to reply, to be honest with you.
I concur with you on evey point you made regarding SCD. It has become a tawdry show and I can't even be bothered to watch the professionals doing their special routines, now.
The results show I always record and FF>> through the naff popsicles miming to their latests 'hit's etc. and run the recorder at 1.5x normal speed when the results are eventually shown.

From what I remember of Come Dancing (I was quite little when it was on), it bored the pants of me. I don't think the show would work today at all.

All they need to do with Strictly is make it more like the early series before they started trying t make it the BBC's answer to the X-Factor. But they won't, of course...

Exactly...

Just to clarify, no-one makes money from it.



Hi Sid, you're not supposed to remember that Chris Parker reached the final of Series One and he couldn't dance


I believe this is the BBC's response to all those calls for people to make SCD more like Dancing with the Stars, which not only uses props but which actually seems to not require the stars to dance more than two bars of any specific given dance.

Ideally I would want a Strictly that the audience has absolutely no say in, or at least not as equal a say as the judges. But it'll never happen.

As for Come Dancing, I would watch that again actually. It would be a hell of a lot less boring than watching Ann Widdecombe flail around thank you very much. I like skill, not uselessness. I love dancing, hence why I watch Strictly but I also love seeing people learn to dance and those with real natural talent tap into their hidden depths and I would miss that aspect of it.

A revived Come Dancing would be a smash hit IF they used the same production values as they do for Strictly, AND if they put it on at prime time on Saturday.

JJ (who isnt holding his breath)

Memories........
I used to live in the Midlands when Come Dancing was on and the one thing that comes back to mind was the strength of the Midland's Formation team

I have dim and distant memories of the Peggy Spencer Formation Team from Penge!!

JJ