I think he is a way better dancer than Ben whose only advantages are his body and the resultant ability to toss Kristina about. Is like Mark to stay another week or two. His dancing and improvement is entertaining.

It was a bit dry, but it came off as a joke to me as well...

I've been to Holburn (near the ancient-sounding Lindesfarne) in summer this year and it was senic and beautiful beyond description. Of course an excellent weather helped.

I think he's a much worse dancer than Ben. I think he's immobile, i find his expressions offputting, plus there is almost no content to his dances.

Mark should have gone several weeks ago.

If standing there mostly looking beefy and pretty or extending your hand out and carefully splaying your other hand in that extended leg shitck is content in dancing, then maybe you have a point there...

I think you might have sat on the pause button. We've all done it. Check your sofa cushions.

Pots and kettles, spoof Saturday Night Fever and MC Hammer routines do not SCD content make. I also direct you to the rumba.. oh and Mark's jive 'kicks and flicks' if you truly believe they can be called such.

Also compare the two jives and SERIOUSLY try to suggest Mark's is not massively inferior. Go on.



I think you need to watch Mark's rumba...there you have a man standing still and occasionally flapping an arm for a quite extraordinary amount of time in a 'dance' competition..

That made me

Mark's cha cha cha contained more movement than most of Ben's dances put together. Mark moves like he's dancing too; to the best of his physical ability. Ben is often leaden and does not get much movement through his torso.

I think Ben's jive was better than the 4 that Craig awarded last week. I'd give him a 6.

Even if he was just standing there flapping his arm (which he wasn't) then he wouldn't be immobile, because...you know...flapping your arm is moving. As it stands, apart from when he's supporting Iveta flashing her Val-Gina at the judges, he's more or less constantly moving his hips, even when he's not travelling around the floor. It's the male role in the rumba, are you expecting him to run round the floor like Chris Parker being Batman?

Love it!

He most certainly was,

You can try to fudge the idea with semantics, but the fact remains there was almost no movement of his feet. Watch other rumbas, there is decidedly more movement than from Mark.. also people may well criticise Ben's hand posture, but Marks is even worse, as the judges have repeatedly pointed out. So even his waving arms weren't ended well.


Simply repeating that he's a dancer or 'has musicality' as most of the people in these threads seem to be doing isn't going to make it true, however much people may wish it to be.

Yeah, bloody "semantics" and using words to mean what they mean. Pain in the arse.

Given that it is common practice here to slightly over state the extent of something,and given that it was perfectly clear what i meant, all i can see is that you want to indulge in petty point scoring rather than discussion.

That kind of behaviour does not interest me.

Have a pleasant day.

Erm, even when Mark was FORCED by the producers to do those silly themed dances, Iveta made sure there were RECOGNISABLE dance content in it. Granted, he didn't always do them to the highest quality finishes, and sometimes he completely missed the mark, but even in that state, lots of people could see that Mark is NOT IMMOBILE. Do not equate being big sized to immobility. That's a cliche that doesn't apply to Mark. At all.

edit: regarding the jive bit, there is no typical kicks-and-flicks jive bit but that doesn't mean there wasn't any jive content. In fact, I might remind you Darcey said it was FULL of jive content. Go on.

I really admire u Becky B because on almost every thread that contains posts about Mark u have shown how much you really dislike him. You keep going against the majority who like Mark and never waiver.

I like many others enjoy Marks committment and the entertainment he gives so I dont see why you have such a down on him.

Hey! All getting a bit fraught here.

I think Mark can do more than he' s given, if he is given it. OK he was always gonna struggle with jive, but his rumba could have been fine with the right music and staging. I wouldn' t just blame Iveta though, as I sometimes see on here. I think themed weeks and themed dances are largely silly nonsense and sometimes the producers go too far.

You weren't slightly overstating things, you said he was immobile and that he was just standing there waving his arm. Neither are even remotely true. He's making an effort at continuous fluid motion for more or less the entire dance, except when he's being called upon to bear his partner's weight.

I mean, at least go for how he spent too long sat in the chair at the start, honestly.

I don't have a downer on HIM.

I really hope i've not said anything personally offensive. It was never my intention to say anything bad about him as a person.He;s probably a lovely guy.

It's merely that i don't enjoy his performances. I really hope i've not given any other kind of impression.

This week is annoying too because my flatmate said she'd stop watching if he didn't go, she's far more negative than i am. So i'll probably be watching alone now.


Apparently this viewpoint is unwelcome. I thought it would be ok in the main forum, its not like i invaded the appreciation threads.

Plainly its not

And so i suppose i'll excuse myself.
I'm not interested in 'point scoring'

Please have a lovely day.

How will you cope? The loneliness!

What an unpleasant group of people

Hey, we will be watching with you on Saturday. You friend was just peeved XF was boring her heads off.

You certainly havent said anything offensive Becky not like someone who called him a lump of lard which I thought was disgusting.

You have your point of view and you stick to it and I admire you for that. Perhaps your flatmates negativity has rubbed off on you and you might be better off viewing it on your own.

Don't take to heart some of things people say on here. I try to see others point of view and I hope that I am not offensive in any way either.

Runs in screaming "I liked his armsssssssssss"

and runs back out before anyone has chance to tell me I have lost the plot

I can't understand why people are saying Mark had no hip action in the rumba. I saw him proper go for it quite a lot during that dance last week, and if he'd have had his shirt tucked in we'd have seen it better. Wearing the two-piece equivalent of a kaftan is as good for hip action as trying to peer through dry ice at a celeb's quickstepping feet.

People seem to see what they want to see in a dance despite how much they might protest otherwise lol. Anyway, Mark and Iveta are still with us having out danced two other couples in successive dance offs. He must feel so proud to be still in the competition.