I do wish the gang of asst producers would try to quieten the studio audience. They seem to get louder every week and were especially raucous at Wembley.
The non stop screeching,cheering,screaming which go on during every dance is spoiling the show as far as I am concerned.
It seems to be a form of mass hysteria which amazes old Brucie Woosie every week " Oooooooh, look at them, Oooooh, listen to them, they love you " he says to every contestant as they come off to applause as if they had won an Oscar, a Bafta,a Tony,the World Cup and a gold at the Olympics all rolled into one.

Not alone will they not try to quieten them down , they actively encourage it .Many who have been there have told how they are encouraged by the floor manager to yell and scream
I hate it too , espcially during a live performance by a singer .
I could barely hear El Divo with the screeching going on .

It was worse than ever at Wembley.

I agree wholeheartedly. Perhaps I am just a grumpy old woman but it is annoying me a lot!

This grumpy old woman agrees with you!
How do they expect the dancers to stay in time with music they can't hear.?

If it's clapping and cheering for a dance I don't mind. It's more the booing even before a judge has said something that makes no sense to me. But at least you can hear the judges speaking on SCD more than on XFactor. I flicked over to that show the other week and a judge, maybe Kelly, was talking but was completely drowned out by the audience! And I'm in my twenties but even I hate the loud reptative mob chants from that show.

It's not going to happen.

The BBC are "on a roll," it's all about ratings, so the nearest they can get this once completely enjoyable programme to the dire shambles which is the X-Factor, the happier they will be.

I did write in recommending they hired a Spandau MG-42 for their crowd control needs, but the health & safety gnomes nixed it. Apparently if a nearby baby gets hold of the bullets they might insert them in their nose and there is no safety warning on the box.

Most of it they could quieten down on the TV tranmission. They don't want to do it though

What's wrong with hearty applause? Spare us the howling shrieks and catcalls which have arrived from the USA to make programmes intensely irritating and uncomfortable. At least the SCD audience have the common courtesy to let the judges speak (well usually) and compared to the X Factor audiences they're pretty well behaved. But applause would be quite enough to show appreciation. With the occasional cheer for Brendan of course ...

I'm reminded of this whenever the programme starts and how I imagine the audience is urged by the floor manager to greet Bruce and Tess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zck0_J2qJDc

Craig could help reduce that if he made positive comments first before giving technical criticism. He tends to make a series of technical critical comments, which are booed, then often will praise the dance but it is not heard because of the boos.

I've long suspected they do the same as X Factor...boost live applause with an additional feed of recorded applause.

I am not sure if its me but I find in the last few years audience shouting has got high pitched and squeeling .It used to be a shouting or hurray or yay at a lower pitch .Now its a high squeal and shrieking and it is grating on my ears
Its not just SCD its all programmes now and I wonder have people changed how they shout in an audience or is it me who hears it differently

At the risk of sounding grumpy I also don't like the deafening shouting, screeching, booing and clapping at every little thing. I'd love to be able to hear the music sometimes. As they encourage it, I suppose that's what the BBC want though, to be as much like XF as is possible. They seem to think that the louder the audience, the better the show.

^^ Agree.

The X Factor is a dreadful programme. But my OH always turns over to the XF when Strictly has finished. So now they don't clash, I've seen a fair bit of it.

It's true about the screaming on XF and the BBC are trying to follow suit by having the SCD audience whipped up into a near frenzy, so that they are quite vocal.

All we need next is the judges appearing a la XF - a booming voice to introduce them from behind a big screen bearing their pics and the apppropriate music, like they are gods.

Silver lining then.


Mims, that would be a valid argument if we weren't talking about a] DayVarch and his caterwaulers, and b] Anita & Alex.

If the audience feel like it, I don't mind the clapping and cheering, but I'm not so keen on them being actively encouraged to make as much noise as possible. It also bugs me when Brucie tells a couple to look at their standing ovation in case they miss it.

There has definitely been change in approach about this kind of thing.

People at the show in earlier series were told to give a standing ovation if they felt like doing that, but apparently now at the end of every performance, the audience is actively encouraged to stand up and cheer (not sure about the last series tbh).

Also one person on here said when they were at a show this series, it was decided that the audience reaction was not good enough the first time for the guest performance and they had to sit through it again.

This kind of thing is not a good move at all.

PS Mind you if I'd been at Wembley, I'd have been yelling my head off!

The audience is positively encouraged to clap and cheer most of the time

I remember being in the studio audience for one show, I wasnt clapping at the time as I didnt want to and I was actaully glared at by one of the "floor managers" and TOLD to clap!

He didnt move on until I was actually clapping!

Me too - 'let me out' mostly.


I would have sat on my hands and let him stand there. Maybe lift my hands up as if I was going to clap, just to tease him, then sit on them again.

I saw the floor manager actively encouraging the audience to clap Brucie's awfully obvious Mexican wave 'joke' at Wembley. It's all so fake.
I particularly hate the audience booing the judges for any criticism whatsover, and it seems to be actively encouraged by the BBC.

I don't know about getting rid of Len or Bruce, I think it's the floor manager who needs to be sacked. Still, I suppose he's acting under orders from the juvenile producers.

If the floor managers treat this show like a pantomime, encouraging "over the top" reactions by the audience, they can't expect to pick and choose where it happens.

It sounds like you have been in the audience more than once!

They do. In fact, it's painfully obvious on occasions that the volume of the cheers, boos and general hollers is much greater than could possibly be generated by the number of people one actually sees in the audience.