Perhaps he should retire from both and spend some quality time with his new wife and let someone with a good personality for eg Ian Waite take over. Get fed up of his constant bickering with other judges as well. I can't coment on DWTS as Ive only seen it a couple of times.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...ona+speaks+out

Let's face it, he's no spring chicken and he's 10 years older than when he started so not surprising he's knackered....and disoriented and miserable.

Being a judge means giving a personal judgement.
In Len's judgement Mark and Natalie deserved the same score, that is his professional judgement and that is what he is paid to give.
Len has always moaned about "too much messing about" at the top of and end of dances and may have docked marks because of that, same with Craig and too many lifts.

Aliona was ill-advised enough to say something on the lines of "I listen to the judges but ignore what they say" (she went on to win with Harry Judd). Following that crime, she was marked down by Len, landed with a duffer in the next series, and booted out for this series.

It's not personal to Natalie, it's personal to Artem. Len is obsessed with how much Artem choreographs out of hold in ballroom. He did the same with Kara's American Smooth.

He's far more relaxed about Latin, then he can mark anything. He's more interested in the feel than the steps.

He doesn't help himself because he won't go lower than a 6 at this point, so he only has a choice of 4 scores (6-9) and can't differentiate the dances enough. Terrible - 6 , bit error strewn - 7, remembered routine - 8, good-amazing - 9.

In Natalie's case, it was lose a point for the choreography.

Agree he does seem to have more an issue with Artem's "out of hold" faffery than anyone else's though. I seem to remember there was a lot out of hold of another dance this year (with another of the good dancing couples) but cant remember who (which he failed to comment on the "OOH" faffery).

I think Len has a sliding scale for getting uppity about faffery depending on what he considers the potential of the celeb. So faffery with Dave wouldn't get as much of a reaction as faffery for Natalie or Sophie.

Blokey blokes often get overmarked by Len. They get points for being slightly less blokey but doing little. The females who try and do more difficult stuff in much greater volume get points deducted if they make technique errors trying much more. He's also got an age determined view of many of the females too. He;s got form for throws marks at older ladies for trying and goes around accusing some of the younger females who have actually made money from their sex appeal of being sexless.

Len = totally unpredictable. 35 seconds of 'faffing' from Artem with the best celeb on the show and not a mention from Len.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnjjeQsPZVU

Looking at this thread title, I am less concerned that Len has lost the plot than by the implication that he ever possessed said plot in the first place.

Two weeks, one of which was that bloody awful tango that might as well have been specifically designed to piss him off.

"No! No, I won't have that! There's a place in Eastbourne....."
I'm sure he used to have a plot back in the early series when it was all about the dancing and there was none of this entertainment rubbish!

I'm trying to remember the earliest time he randomly popped off on a dance whilst everyone else sat there baffled. The earliest I can remember is Austin's paso, but it must have happened before. Probably a rumba that offended him on a moral and sexual level.

If Vincent's "I want to do bad things to Rachel Stevens" Rumba didn't whip him up into a state of moral outrage then it's unlikely that any Rumba will.

I have mentioned these points many times about Len over the years,but few seemed to agree with me.In the first year Vincent joined in 2006,Len was exceptionally rude about his physical appearance on ITT.Even US viewers on DWTS were complaining about his behaviour a few seasons ago!!!

You might be right

I can't do with this old fool anymore. He turns on the audience for the slightest thing, shouts Craig down whilst he's giving his critique, yet gets upset when anyone dares to interrupt him. Hypocrite.

Every few weeks, Len tends to mark one pro down for not sticking to ballroom choreography. It was Artem's turn and it'll be someone else's turn later in the competition. He generally makes sure it is a couple that won't be in the dance off.

Yes I agree with you now! When he was first on the show he was ok, Craig and Arlene were a bit nasty but Len and Bruno were nice and mostly supportive. Now it's Craig that I like (a bit panto villan at times) but I like him, Len is terrible I can't watch him anymore I have to record the show and speed up his bits, I only watch for the score. I'm afraid Lens Lens goes past in a blur.

And that was correct. The pro partners choreograph routines to the level that their celeb partners are capable of achieving. Choreography, therefore, is inextricably linked to the ability of the celeb. Faffing around is the tool that all the pro's use to waste time so that less able partners don't have to spend much time actually dancing. Faffing around = less able celeb = lower score.

The first one I remember is Kelly Brook the day her father died

However, the mathematical field of Goodmangebra has some anomalies.

For example:

Giving lots of welly + less able celeb = 7
Less able celeb + lots of faffing = 7
Sportsman = 8
Sportsman + Less Able Celeb = 7
Sportsman + Giving Lots of Welly = 8
Sportsman + Lots of faffing = 7

I don't think that's what Artem was trying to do though. He had a concept and his faffing was just as hard as the actual quickstep imo, they were perfectly synchronised out of hold and had canes which has so much potential for disaster that it would have been much easier without.

I also think he might have had to adapt it to more out of hold to make it easier on her back but was prepared to take the hit from Len that he knew was coming to make it as comfortable as he could for Natalie.

I'm kind of contradicting myself, I know, but I don't think Artem was using avoidance tactics to avoid dancing, he just adapted the dancing to make it less painful.

The "Affable Uncle Len" act does get old when he's shouting down Craig (I did love it when Craig answered back with "It's only my opinion.") and cutting Darcey short in the most disrespectful way possible if he thinks she's been talking for too long. Bruno may talk for as long as he pleases so long as he begins every sentence with "Len is right..."

Partly I think getting grumpy about "faffing abaht" and "too much time spent out of hold" has just become Len's thing in the same way that Craig goes on about thumbs, Darcey is obsessed with core strength and Bruno... falls off his chair?

I also think there has always been a tendency to hold the contenders/more able celebrities to more stringent standards than the no hopers/less able celebrities. I think Natalie was penalised more for spending too little of the routine in hold while the "faffing abaht" in Mark (though Iveta swears blind it was full of Cha Cha Cha content) and Ben's dances was overlooked (and over generously marked) because Natalie was fully capable of doing an excellent Quickstep while Ben and Mark are less capable dancers and had to add entertainment value to their dances in other ways.

I'm not saying it's fair or consistent but then we all know that neither Ben's Salsa nor Mark's Cha Cha Cha were in the same league as Natalie's Quickstep and disregard the opinion of our esteemed Head Judge.