I think Blackpool Fever's doing strange things to me. I have to be fun fun fun when Blackpool Fever's about.

*twiddles a stick of rock whilst being sick on the pavement*

I agree with the OP, the judges are biased but not regarding Natalie v Sophie but regarding Blackpool v normal location. They were just itching to get the 10s out tonight.

TBF I think the people who got the 10s for these two dances tonight were the professionals.

Kevin was so front & centre the way a man should be in the Paso I was barely aware of any more than a bit of skirt wafting from Susanna.

Artem did his usual schtick which worked very well for the style of Charleston he choreographed. Where Natalie was not as polished as previously.

musicangel if you look at my posting history you will see that I'm an enthusiastic Brendan admirer and tonight I was delighted to see Sophie return to the mix with a great quickstep. However I do think you should be able to show positivity towards Brendan and his partners without the need to comment negatively on everyone else.

Much preferred the Charleston Sophie & Brendan performed, in my opinion a classic.

If the judges are so biased against Sophie, why did they overmark her Samba and Cha Cha?

This is why I preferred it when only 2 dances were performed each week. It meant you could compare the dancers with each other and the marks were a lot more accurate, not always fair, but at least could be compared more evenly.

Natalie's was full of mistakes and was sloppy, timing issues, where as Sophie's was near perfect. If they were marked on the same night, Sophie's would have had higher marks by rights. Not just favouritism by the judges like Natalie's.

To be fair though, thinking of your preferences, I'd wager you remember every detail of virtually everything Brendan's ever done. You probably remember bloodylulu's cha cha whereas I (and many others) have had therapy to block the hideous occasion from my mind forever .

Well they weren't going to give Sophie tens in week 2, I'm sure she'll get straight 10's if she does it again in the final.

I thought Artems choreography was spectacular and Natalie had a more complex routine to do with less guidance from her partner (elements of dancing separately). The only less than perfect part was the shoulder flip at the end where Natalie seemed nervous.

The problem with the marking is that everybody was more or less overmarked - with some of the judges only making use of the 8, 9 and 10. If you keep giving 9's then there is only one place to go for better performances.

For me there were three stand out performances, Natalie & Artem, Suzanne & Kevin, Abbey & Aljaz - they filled the dance floor with energy and entertainment.

Opinion heading steadily towards obsession possibly.

Sophie didn't get 10s really because it was too early in the show. They couldn't really give 10s out then. If she did it now it would defo be 10s. They always love to throw the 10s about at the Tower

Sophie's was much better. Natalie's underwhelmed.

Darcy started the trend when she awarded a '10' for Patrick's dance which contained a mistake. I don't like them say that it doesn't matter if there's a mistake. It does and they marked Sophie and Brendan down because their dance wasn't perfect. Susanna and Kevin's dance is the only one so far that has come anywhere near too good enough and that was largely down to Kevin's performance.

Actually Sophie's Charleston was in character and was as neat and tidy as a Charleston should be!

Exactly! The judges are biased - Len, Darcy, Bruno AND Craig as we'll?!, yeah right. But me? I'm not a bit biased - oh no.

why should there be restrictions? Sophie's Charleston deserved 10's it should have goten them. It showed the ceiling when darcy waved the 8 paddle.

does the mark really matter? Sophie was the outstanding dance of that week and she topped leader board surely that is what matters?

I have suggested they be merged they are on page 5 now.

To be honest, lots of people have an agenda when posting. I think it is more obvious in musicangel's case that she is a Brendan fan. In other cases it is more subtle (consistently criticising certain pros and celebs for example). We very rarely see people do even a small U turn in opinion during a series, let alone a complete one.

In this instance, I actually preferred Sophie's Charleston to Natalie's, but generally up to now Natalie has turned in much better performances in other dances. Also, I wasn't at all keen on Sophie's AT last week and felt it was overmarked. So it's a case of swings and roundabouts really.

Natalie didn't perform well but IMO the problem was Artem's choreography. I don't understand those saying his choreography was spectacular. I thought it was dreary, dull, and an incoherent mess.

Almost right. Because it's later it IS better. The finer details are better because the dancer will have improved after all these extra hours and weeks of it raining and practice.
Perhaps if Sophie were to do the same routine now and compare it with the original there would be a marked improvement otherwise we'd be saying that Sophie's technique hasn't improved in all these weeks? I think it has.

And adding together the two top-viewed videos of her Charleston on youtube, she has nearly 250,000 views so far - by far the highest for any dance this series, which must be very satisfying, more so than the points. Her Argentine Tango seems to be very popular on youtube too and, with over 43,000 views, is probably the second highest viewed dance of the series.

Not a great fan of anyone on this series but I do believe that Sophie last night danced brilliantly and she was greatly undermarked. I was surpsied that Brendan held his tongue and did not go barking mad! Unfortunately they were first on this week so perhaps that stopped the judges for giving them a 10 but their Routine was wonderful. Wasn't crazy about Fiona's Routine and she did wander around looking for Anton during the Routine!!!! I wonder who will be out tonight???

I comparing dances not people, haven't read that thread though, just wanted a Charleston comparison

That'll be funny if they comply, because it was only after I was unable to edit my post that I noticed the other thread was Suse vs Nat, not Sophie

In my defence, my eyes seem to have had an allergic reaction to something and I'm looking at screens through the blur of tears and much itching.