And no concessions made for his knees either......in fact barely mentioned. I get huge pleasure from being entertained by him. If I want technical brilliance I focus on the pro dances. But I adore the partnership of Mark and Iveta and maybe there have been some dodgy moments but far outweighed by the fun factor they generate.

Mark and Iveta have been better than Fiona and Anton most weeks (apart from Mark's rumba) in my opinion.

I have to agree 100% with you. Mark is a farce.

True that. But since Mark did 'gave it all' in the dance off, so based on that alone they MUST save him since it's what dance off is all about, esp. when they scored the same on the leaderboard?

Perhaps someone is trying to audition to take over from Bruce?

I think Mark had lesser scope to improve than Fiona, both not great dancers but with all but Craig vastly overmarking Mark on the saturday they had to stick with him, as Len said when deciding i gave you an eight, thats the thing with overmarking it leaves you no where to go sometimes.

I've noticed also there seems to be one set of rules, allowances, made for larger people like Mark and Lisa from last year and another more strict for their slimmer counterparts.

The judges usually say 'based on this dance....' they should probably still say it so that people still know that's the point of the dance off. Fiona made several mistakes, Mark didn't.

It's not the skippity kickity jive, no, but there are very many recognisable jive steps in it.

Whereas Mark's dance was perfect??? I don't think so.

Mark was picked to help the ratings.

You are so right, and it is so blatant . Utterly disgraceful. This show has lost any credibility it might have had, and that was little enough.

It's a VERY difficult one, because out of Mark and Fiona, Fiona is the best dancer (she's obviously not very good, but she does have some limited dance ability, more so than Mark) but in the dance off Fiona made a very critical error, where-as Mark performed his routine no worse than than he did previously (which isn't saying much because his routine was dreadful in terms of dance ability)

Ultimately, I think I'd have saved Fiona, but I can see why Mark was saved.

I prefer to watch Mark dance than Fiona. She's a bit predictable and dull and too self conscious to let herself go a bit. - At least he performs.

Perhaps, but at least Fiona's dance was clearly and obviously an American Smooth where-as Mark's dance could have been anything really given how little technical content there was in it.

So do seals.

Why are you watching it then benjamini ??

Well i think fiona was robbed. Yes she made the odd mistake but her dancing was better than that flat footed stompy thing with not a single decent kick or flick.

I think Fiona had accepted she had got to the end of the road especially as goal of Blackpool reached.

Actually surprised Len voted her off as he has consistently scored her well.

Mark to go next week, like his personality and performance but his size does hamper his mobility and no more obviously weak dancers left.

Mark and Iveta outdanced Fiona and Anton. Result!

Okay hands up anyone complaining on this thread who actually believed that Fiona had a chance of winning the competition. anyone you at the back No.

Okay so what harm has been done then

I love Mark and can't bear Fiona but I wouldn't have caused a fuss if it had been the other way around because it's all relative. They are neither of them show winners & Mark will be gone before long it's not as though he has avoided the dance off all together. So for goodness sake put it into proportion & some of you stop being personally abusive, it says more about you as a person than Mark who doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body.

It's very disappointing and a little ironic to see the rudeness and insults being bandied about when the two people in question were so sweet and polite and just lovely. Can you imagine Fiona turning to Mark and hissing 'It should have been me you fat tub of lard'! Or Mark sniggering 'In your face you old codger'. No his response was genuine and very sweet , hers was genuine, gracious. If you like either one of them perhaps you could take aleaf out of their book. The reason - imo -that they both got as far as they did was because they are both nice likeable people in their own ways but neither were destined to win so have done really well and reached their personal goals of getting to Blackpool.

Hear Hear

I'm sure Anton is pleased to have gone out on a Ballroom dance too. I do hope that this is last series just from the point of view of him having gone out on a high with someone decent and likeable.

Even I could see that Fiona made loads of mistakes, as I'm sure she'd be the first to acknowledge.

Unfortunately for Len, as he decided to be so unpleasant about Mark making mistakes last week, he had no choice but to vote for the person who made the least mistakes.

I don't get the feeling Fiona was that unhappy to leave at this point, she's looked a bit out of her depth for a couple of weeks now, and said herself that she can't remember the steps!

I'll miss her on the show but I think she did pretty well.

It's pretty much like this every week, but people seem to like the persona and forgive the lack of dancing, the mugging to camera, and the poor travolta/hammer/etc knock offs.