Looks that way to me, I'm afraid. The texture of his forehead is quite waxy and he's getting a little bit of a "botox vein", but it seems more unusual for peeps on TV not to have it nowadays. Looking genuinely surprised will be a distant memory soon

Well done Lea and Artem for making it through to week 3

Bonjour à tous. Look away if you don't want to be dragged off thread.
On thread Botox
I am betwixt and between in my emotions about the two dance shows.
I am yet to discover whether an Artemless strictly will catch my attention and like others I find the short dances and general frenetics of the Spectacle Americain almost unwatchable, despite gorgeous dancing from Artem.

Off threadish I have been dragged along by the grand dames of our hamlet to Danse Breton classes for beginners. I was a bit sneery, and thought that all you do is shuffle along with linked arms. Turns out it is very hard and exhausting. I was saved by a lovely Breton man who took me in hand( literally) and kept saying forget the arms as my feet and arms went off in different rhythms. I went with my lovely neighbour who was born here and has never learnt. She was worse than me which was a relief as I was able to avoid attention with moderately good shuffling
Off to the boat this afternoon for an afternoons messing with fishing lines and crab pots and fish heads. OH very unhappy but has to put up with it as we have a fishing friend who is coming along

Lea was asked in an interview about.....

Looking forward to SCD this evening. I've got no idea who I'll support. With Artem gone, I'm kind of hoping that I can just treat it as a fun entertainment show and not get too caught up in voting and spoiler threads.

I received an email with a link to priority booking for the tour which started at 9am yesterday. Like many people I was busy at work all morning. By the time I got on the site at lunchtime there was very little left, certainly no dance floor tickets. Not too bothered. It's a bit difficult to get excited about the tour when we haven't seen any of the pairings dancing and don't know who will be on tour.

I've watched some of the clips of Lea and Artem dancing. They are good but that's not surprising given the amount of ballet training she had in her youth.

Morning Kartemites . I can see by the rush to comment that we were all excited about last night's show!

I missed the nervous anticipation of seeing how Artem would do with his new partner but I was hoping to get into the show regardless. Wish there had been a big pro number to open things up and create some atmosphere, but I found the first show oddly flat. It may have been my own mood, so fingers crossed for this evening.

Caroline and Pasha: She was lively and fun and her commitment to the dance made up for 'issues' here and there. She has bags of personality, so I hope the partnership can make some yin-yang magic happen
Tim and Natalie: He seems popular, but I find him affected and annoying, so I was probably never going to see the humour and charm in this. And I didn't.
Jake and Janette: He has ability but, goodness me, his personality is so downbeat. I hope he can lighten up and look like he's enjoying things, because he has ability and clearly worked hard. (Bit of an ominous 'serial killer' tango, I thought)
Judy and Anton: Oh, dear. She was crippled by nerves so good luck with the latin next week, Judy. Eek. Hope production have got, "She's SCOTTISH!!!" out of their systems now (although I did like her dress, the piper and the kilt. I know who I would have preferred seeing swooshing the kilt though )
Scott and Joanne: I like Scott and want to like Joanne, but I did wonder where the cha cha was. That said, I didn't think he was worse than Tim. Oh, well.
Pixie and Trent: Not warmed to Trent yet and unsure about Pixie. She's got lots of potential, but her feet weren't terribly nimble and she wasn't really 'in' the dance. I somewhat have the impression that Pixie is a bit absent when she speaks, too . A 'wait and see' for these two.

Looking forward to seeing how Aliona and Gregg get on this evening. I may watch from behind the sofa, but can't wait to see the body language. (I notice she was wearing gloves last night ).

Found it all rather flat and please, please will they get Tess a new scriptwriter, or better still, tell her to give up trying to be funny. I may very well not bother to watch next week's show if it doesn't get better than last night. Total waste of the Claudster.

I thought it quite simply ...dreadful .almost for me ,bordering on the embarrassing. However guess if I look back to all my comments on opening night. I may be guilty iof saying the same every opening show
But it was awful . Where was the excitement and enthusiasm ?
Maybe having watched the overly excitable and very enthusiastic approach on DWTS I had forgotten what scd. Is like .


Poor Claudia ! What have they done to her ! I'm thinking she had forgtten to put her glasses on .Then had it pointed out it was her fringe and heavy eyeliner that was missing. And wearing pink .
To be fair to the professionals they had very little real talent to work with But have had ...is it three weeks to make something of them .

Sure Judy Murray strong competitor that she is will have died a little last night .Have to say as a Scot Anton looked alright in his kilt . But... Nae quite Artem.
Heigh Ho it can only get better. Hopefully

Agree. They didn't do anything to generate a buzzy feeling. They managed to do it well enough in the launch show, so they have the ingredients

Hi Soupy, thanks for your thoughts above, most of which I agree with! I've been away for a few days and so don't feel 'into' it all yet.
One thing I noticed was that Claudia didn't seem very in control in the Tesspit last night, anyone else think that? Maybe it was nerves and she'll settle down soon.

I thought Claudia was okay, but Tess bothered me a bit! There were some awkward silences during the judges bit. Praps they were all nervous!

I can't quite pinpoint what was wrong, but I had the feeling that the judges were going through the motions. They had no new comments to offer, just the stuff we have been hearing for years. Craig, takes it all seriously and gives proper criticism of what he has seen, but the remarks of the others are somewhat hackneyed. Maybe time for some new judges. Surely Len and Bruno must be totally jet-lagged?

I felt the same. I know they do just 'rinse and repeat' the same old stuff, but they didn't seem able to muster any enthusiasm to dress it differently. The more I think about it, the more the whole thing seemed 'off'.


Len is having a break from DwtS this Monday, so perhaps next week he'll be more lively...

I really enjoyed tonight. Claud was much more on form and looked more comfortable I think.

Will hope to give my thoughts on all the couples sometime tomorrow.

A much better show tonight. Claudia more like her old self, probably due to make up and black dress!

Loved Frankie and Kevin and Steve and Ola. Gregg.......

A much better show tonight.


I couldn't stop laughing!

Good Morning,

I didn't watch the Friday show and judging by the above comments I haven't missed much. I might view Jake's tango and Caroline's cha cha but happy to accept your judgment on others.

I enjoyed the show last night. Definitely a few contenders. My thoughts:-

Mark - A cheeky chappy performance who had the smug smile wiped off his face by the judges. He has potential and I did enjoy his dance.
Alison- A complete joy. She has such natural rhythm and musicality that she is vey watchable and Ajax is just gorgeous.
Thom- he looked vacant- handsome but, at this stage, not exhibiting any sex appeal and I found his comments in the VT cringeworthy. I like Iveta and hope they develop a natural chemistry.
Steve - promising first dance. Those muscles. Has Ola worn that dress before?
Mrs Brown's wife- oh dear, she may have enjoyed it but I didn't. The pro really out danced her which surely must be a pro sin.
Sunita- better than I expected from her VT. She has a natural ability and Brendan must be pleased he has been given an actress who will deliver a performance
Gregg- OMG. Very camp! In danger of being the first one out (remember I haven't seen Friday's show)
The 'Saturday'- Beautiful, a magical first dance and despite the fact I'm not a Kevin fan, it was my favourite performance
The 'Blue member'- He did a decent job but I noticed his errors and his inadequate flicks. He knew himself he didn't put in his best performance.

So overall it's a 7 from me and enough to engage me over the autumn months.

Sorry I don't remember all the names and I may have left some out, still early!

Oh, I watched Artem and Lea's dance, good but 9s! Thanks for keeping us updated

Hi all, here are my thoughts on the celebs so far:

Caroline and Pasha: Great start to the series. They seemed to have good chemistry and she managed to smile through the dance. I’m looking forward to seeing how she copes with ballroom.

Tim and Natalie: Not totally plodding but pretty bad. It was probably nerves making him talk so much, but I kept wishing he’d button his lip.

Jake and Janette: Both OH and I really enjoyed this. He got into character and was nice and sharp. I didn’t think I’d like him but I do so far. It's nice to see Janette getting a contender.

Judy and Anton: She looked lovely in her frock. Shame about the dancing! Bad frame and she completely lost it from about ½ way through. I like her, she’s a scream on twitter but I don’t think she’s going to last long.

Scott and Joanne: I’m loving their partnership. Like Soupy, I couldn’t see much Cha Cha in that dance. I kind of expected more from Joanne. He gave it a good go though. He seems to be popular so could stay in show beyond his ability.

Pixie and Trent: I surprised myself in quite enjoying this dance, though I still think she’s not really fully engaged in the show. I have the feeling she says things that she thinks she should say rather than what she really thinks or feels (I’m not sure that made sense, but I know what I mean)!

Mark and Karen: So far, one of my favourite partnerships for this series. I didn’t really see what the judges saw re getting ahead of himself in the dance. I enjoyed it and thought Len was being particularly picky.

Alison and Aljaz: FAB! Her enthusiasm is infectious. I really enjoyed this dance although I could see what the judges meant re being a bit flat footed. It’s great to see Aljaz so animated. I’m not sure how she’s going to cope with ballroom. It will be interesting to see.

Steve and Ola: I notice he’s now pronouncing her name correctly! I quite enjoyed it. He’s got some impressive muscles on him hasn’t he! He was quite sharp, not as good as Jake yesterday, but better than I imagined he’d be. I’m hoping he’ll be quite good in ballroom.

Jennifer and Tristan: He gave her too much to do for a first dance, specially a Jive which is a shame. He also completely out danced her. I can’t see her lasting long.

Thom and Iveta: Nope, still not getting the Thom love. He has zero personality showing so far and seems all too conscious of his good looks. For a couple that is supposed to have mutual attraction going on (apparently), I felt no chemistry from them during the dance.

Sunetra and Brendan: I was worried that these two weren’t getting on, but they seemed fine with each other last night. It was a pretty good tango (the dress looked a bit odd to me) and to my inexperienced eye, she did the pivots fine. Not a dynamic partnership yet though.

Gregg and Aliona: Bruno’s comment of ‘mince pie with soggy bottom’ was spot on. VERY mincy and dad dancing. Aliona seemed to choreograph minimal body contact. Not something she’ll manage in the ballroom dances.

Frankie and Kevin: A lovely Waltz, nice and elegant (lovely arms). I can already see her making the final.

Simon and Kristina: He’s a weird mix of over confident and sort of ok. I can’t make up my mind whether I like him or not yet. It looked a bit stompy to me, but was pretty good for a first dance.

There seem to be quite a few middle of the road types this year (Jake, Mark, Alison, Steve, Sunetra) which is going to make it interesting viewing.

Hello lovely peeps.

Trying to catch up with both shows, really liking Caroline but need to have another watch and get through the second show.

Just wanted to agree wholeheartedly with Anam here -


Utterly yum.

And as the song goes in Oliver! I'll 'be back soon!'

Thoughts on the second night show...

I liked the opening pro-number and thought the set-up was clever. It does make me laugh how they find little things for Anton to do which aren't really dancing . The opening started things off nicely. Feel a bit sorry for the ones who got stuck with Friday night's show.

Mark and Karen: A lively performance. Could have done without the tricks although he does a very good caterpillar! I'm afraid I recoil a little from all the Essex-this and Essex-that in the VT (apologies to Essex folk, it's a beautiful county, but the Towie-fied version of it makes my flesh creep)
Alison and Aljaz: I'm on the fence! She had great rhythm and ...erm....gusto . More disco than cha cha I thought. They were having fun, which is great, but it may be overload...
Steve and Ola: A pleasant surprise. He's a bit muscle-bound for me, but it was a powerful tango and I think I preferred it to Jake's.
Jennifer and Tristan: Not an easy first dance for someone older and less lithe. She was a bit leaden and hunched forward. Hope to see a nice ballroom from her before she goes.
Thom and Iveta: The dance was very tentative. I really thought he'd be more elegant, too. Didn't like his VT much and found him pretty dull. Iveta seems struck dumb by him so we didn't even see much of her funny side
Sunetra and Brendan: I've liked Sunetra since she was in Brookside and No Angels, so I wanted her to do well and I thought did a great job. I noticed her left arm flapping around, but I'm honestly not sure - given how short she is - how on earth she was supposed to get the correct hand and elbow position on Brendan. She doesn't seem too inhibited, so I'm hopeful.....
Gregg and Aliona: Behind the sofa time. That was terrible, So mincey and uncertain for him, so squirmy for me. I know these two haven't got off to a good start, but he was sounding confident in his blogs etc. I wonder if Aliona can put one or other of them in a suit of armour for when they have ballroom. I loved Aliona's dress.
Frankie and Kevin: Sweet dance, maybe too saccharine, but beautifully presented. She's very pretty. Wish I liked Kevin a bit more, because I could get behind these two.
Simon and Kristina: I didn't like this as much as the judges. Well performed but not as sharply kicksome and flicksome as they made out. I'm not sure about him (as a character). Those boys from Blue all seem a bit full of themselves. Softer hair and make-up on Kristina looked nice. Glad she gave him lots of content and didn't fall back on distraction

My current faves are Sunetra, Frankie and Caroline but I like a lot of them and am on the fence about most of the others. Hope a few can prove themselves next week. I'm worried for Judy. As people have pointed out on the MF, if Anton can't get a decent waltz out of her with three weeks training, she doesn't stand a chance in latin.

It's a shame he hasn't sparkled yet, isn't it?


Agree about Simon. Am also distracted by the shape of his hair.

Agree also about the middling celebs - quite a few could go down as well as up!


Tonight Artem and Lea will be dancing a cha cha in movie week. They are dancing to 'The Power of Love' (from Back to the Future, naturally).

This interview with Lea was posted nextdoor. I thought the BIB was funny:


She also says he's a stickler for the rules and wants to please Len. (I wonder what his detractors here would make of that!!). Len is not there this week and she's worried there's no-one else there who knows about dance or cares about the rules

Thanks to OP



Completely forgot ITT started tonight - is it worth watching on catch-up?

Yes, if only for the gorgeous but silent Aljaz

Judy and Anton have the cha cha next- Anton singing the praises of Judy's legs! I heard Judy on the radio yesterday and she said she now realised that 'performance' is key and something she was lacking.

I look forward to seeing Arty's 'Back to the Future' cha cha.

I laughed at Lea's description of his fans

Gosh, Cilla was a diva! Sheridan Smith is brilliant!

Thanks anam - I've now watched Judy's bit (thought she was lovely). Will go and have a gander at a silent Aljaz. Did Alison speak for them both, perchance?

I haven't watched the Cilla thing - find her unbearable - but I do admire Sheridan Smith. Praps I should have given it a go.....

The new series of Lewis starts in early October (I saw a brief advert yesterday evening). Kara features in one of the episodes; it will be nice to have her on our TV screens again, if only for one episode .

Thanks for the reminder, c4kLooking forward to it.