He is funny and can really move well! But would he stand any chance of winning if he changed his approach, removed the comedy element completely, and totally focused on his technique?

I think he is rather shy in real life so uses the comedy element as a shield.
As long as he actually dances properly I don't mind the humour.
Rather his gentle self effacing humour than Dave's inyurface stuff. Used to like this Hairy Biker but I think maybe he should stick to cooking

Hope Mark stays in for a few weeks yet

I don't think so.

His size is a problem as he will not be able to rehearse enough and his knees look like they can only take so much work too.
If he was about 80kg he would be capable of being a good dancer.

His acting skills and being a nice guy help a lot on the popularity contest side of the show. A lot of the celebs would wish they had his qualities in those areas.

I've been impressed by Iveta's choreography so far this year. I would expect her to be good at teaching technique to amateur dancers but to be able to play to Mark's strengths and teach him some technique as well has surprised me. Its the successful comedy side which I hadn't seen from her before.

Mark is my favourite as a person this year (in a lovely bunch). I'd love to see him do a brilliant dance and get high scores. But really - no. As fatskia says, he looks to have issues with his fitness and particularly his knees that will limit how much he can learn in the time. He always seems to be walking very carefully when he finishes his dance and goes upstairs to Tess. He's better than many this year, imo, because I feel that he is dancing to the music, not just a set of steps he's learnt, and I don't feel the 'comedy' aspect has taken away from that (though that may change with M C Hammer). But I really get the feeling that Iveta is teaching him as much technique as he can handle with his knees, etc.

I also feel that maybe having the comedy content helps him have a bit more confidence.

:
I was slightly afraid of mentioning his size, since I get verbally mugged for being so abrupt on this forum, but I do agree with you, and wondered if Lisa Riley blazed a trail for him to achieve greater success as a result

Prefer him to Dave. Mark can dance.

I think at the moment he is getting the balance about right.
As Fatskia says, his fitness will limit what he can do in certain areas of dance, but I still feel that the dancing is taking priority, and the humour is added on

People will vote for someone for various reasons:
Technique
Humour in dancing
Off stage personality
Making an effort to learn.

At the moment Mark seems to be ticking all the right boxes to ensure he stays a bit longer, but i can't seem him winning.

There is no way he can win. I think at best he could come 7th/8th.

i dont think he can win, but i do think he could make it to the last 5, based on a combination of ability, improvement, and public support.

I hope he does well, after they ran through him in 5 seconds at the end of the Launch Show, all "oh yeah Mark Benton's also here lol bye", but as the weeks go on he's going to be closer and closer to the bottom of the leaderboard, and it's going to get harder and harder to beat the people there in the vote.

People like Julien or Patrick I don't see there being much problem. Dave, increasingly Ben and maybe Rachel on the other hand...

He still has to prove himself technically on a consistent basis which I think he has yet to do. I think his Tango showed there was a glimmer of promise, but I think his A.Smooth (was that it was) was slow and uneventful and his Latin wasn't great technically. My house say it will always be hard to see if he has real hip movement because of the shape of his his body (as that slinky snake action looks much more obvious on svelte people), but, even aside frm the obvious traits of Latin, he has to still prove that he's not just a character dancer (and relient on that) but also skilled dancer too. I know Iveta is trying hard and stated frm the off that she wanted Mark to be seen to do technical elements as well as comically selling himslf, so finers crossed he can still show that there is more to him than an actor acting-the-dance out well (as opposed to actually dancing it well).

I wouldn't want Mark to win, but I would like to see him in the competition as long as possible. Not sure which position he could achieve as that depends on how much he improves compared to other celebs.

People have made the relevant points about his size and fitness issues. He looks to me as if he has shed some weight already from the beginning but his size will also prevent him from achieving as good visual lines as the thinner contestants however much his technique improves. He is pretty obviously also carrying a knee injury. I am enjoying his participation though because he is showing how, even with those disadvantages, basic musicality, engagement and dramatic skills can produce very watchable dances.

Their 'Salsa' was one of the dances of the series so far. Not a great Salsa but a great showdance.

Yes it's one of my favourite dances this series.

I'm really hoping Mark has a good run. Such a lovely, unassuming man - really loving his partnership with Iveta

He seems really nice, but for me he just doesn't move enough across the floor in the ballroom. It is all very small. Also I had a suspicion that his latin may all start to look the same. However keeping an open mind.

Completely agree with you. I shall be voting for him tonight like I have in the past weeks unless he is really bad. There r a few people I would like to see go well before him. As Jenny said on the panel yesterday he is a really nice bloke. You can also see that he is really trying.

I think he's fab always have liked him as an actor.

I tweeted last night about Jennie Falconer saying he was 'the nicest guy on the planet' & he replied to me saying how sweet that was of her to say that.

He isn't the best but he's definitely not the worst. I actually quite look forward to Marks dances. I think he deserves to stay for quite a while yet. I'd rather watch his humour over Daves too tbh. Nothing against Dave but I don't have an overwhelming wave of "oh my god I love Dave he's so funny"

Jenni Falconer said last night on ITT what a lovely, lovely man he is.

I hope he gets more tv acting work as a result of his raised profile on strictly.

He was brilliant in Hairspray.