I've been watching some of her old dances on YouTube, and I'd forgotten how totally overrated she was. Rachel Stevens was so much better, but the judges were often overly harsh with her. By contrast Lisa seemed to get away with murder.

I can remember watching with my mum, who has some dance training, and she just couldn't get her head round why they were marking her so highly and letting her get away with mistakes. She often looked hunched during dances as well, she was too tall for Brendan.

Why did this judges love her so much?

She was better.

The marking of Lisa's dances, her quickstep in particular, is a mystery I will never fathom.

She didn't get away with anything on these forums, she was slaughted on the BBC forums back in the day (think they were still around when she was, unless it was here on DS).

The were pob picky with Rachel just like they are with better dancer (Natalie, Kara etc), as they then have to critique them on a different level to some of the other contestants if their is an obvious imbalance of talent.

It wasn't that Lisa was great in her own right, but just one of the better ones of the series. Rachel was better than her but I actually think she was better than Tom Chambers (overall in most dances, though not quite all), and I think if it weren't for Camilla's amazing showdance and people liking him more than her and Racel (as some found both girls cold and lacking in personality) then he wouldn't have won, imo. But he was very liked, personality wise (despite some thinking he gurned too much) and, becasue he wasn't bad at dancing too (like Lisa), he could actually look half decent more often than not in comparison to some of the others that were near dire.

When Tom won I don't think he was the best dancer overall by the end (in terms of dance quanity), and I think his Ballroom was better than his Latin (which I tended to cringe at sometimes) but he still seemed to get through even on that slight imbalance. He did a nice A.Smooth too, so sometimes he could look really good on individaul dances, even if not all. People seemed cold on Rachel even though she was a better all round dancer technically (imo), hence why she found herself in the BT, as well as Lisa who found her self there (quite abit) because people always seemed really annoyed with her for whatever reason. It was the usual "she's up herself, she's vain, she's nasty, she's fake, she's trained, she's not gebuine" and all that usual stuff that gets banded around about people's personalites (by plenty that admitted they had never met her in person). But as for the judges, she was better than other dancers below her, so she prob stood out in that context alot of the time to the judges, and to be fair she wasn't rubbish by any stretch. Her marks may have been overinflated, but what's new n Stictly, happens all the time plenty of previous years (so why just focus on her). Ben prob gets marks regularly that don't reflect his dancing, so this year th the judges aren't just over-marking bettwr dances to poss help them along, but anyone now that shows grade A effort (even if the improvement is minisucle but still partionise the celeb that they've improved lots all the same). All is just my opinion.

They hoped George Clooney might come to see her dance the longer they kept her in but they were disappointed obviously.

Austin was robbed
Rachel was better than Lisa & Tom so Vincent was robbed too.

.......and to think that after 5 years I'd almost put this behind me, and you have to bring it up again!.......................

Oops sorry SR

Ha ha, that's OK Jan.

No particular memories of the series other than

1 What a poor winner TC was
and
2 The Lisa waltz which was beautiful with great style and floor coverage

She was a great contestant, i've never figured out the disdain that many on here seemed to have for her.

I have no idea why she was even considered competitive with Rachel.

Surprisingly, it's Tom whose dances seem to have improved with age. At the time I was totally bemused that he won because Rachel did some of the best dances we've ever seen on the show. I think it's impressive that five years later, several of her dances are still talked about in terms of being the best ever of that genre.

Looking back at dances from that series now, Lisa looks even worse than I remember, Tom looks better and I'm more appreciative of Camilla's choreography, and Austin (much as I love his personality) also looks a little weak. I definitely would have preferred Austin in the final, but for me the best dancer hierarchy goes Rachel > Tom > Austin > Lisa.

Still one of my favourite series though, largely because of Vincent's choreography.

I thought that she was fantastic, my favourite of that season and i'm always annoyed at the amount of stick that she gets on here.

I willl never get over THAT showdance!!!

I think that series was the first time we really saw a lot of blatant overmarking and Lisa was on the receiving end of a lot of it. However, in my opinion, it's just got worse over the years and looking back she probably "deserved" some of her 10s more than a lot of the people who have got them since.

I'd agree with this. I thought Tom's ballroom was the best in the competition, overall he was not as good as Rachel but I thought he was as good as Austin and better than Lisa.

He has gone on to be Fred Astaire, to great success, in Top Hat so he can't have been that bad a winner, it's not as if he's Chris Hollins.

Back on topic, no idea why Lisa Snowdon was so favoured but then I never understand why they choose to favour certain dancers. Rachel, Alesha and Kara were never so favoured and were more successful as a result.

Lisa & Brendan took out my two favourite couples that year in Cherie/ James and Jodie/ Ian.

For that alone, she must never be forgiven

She did give us that absolute gift of a Showdance though.

She and Brendan did the best foxtrot ever seen on SCD and their Viennese waltz was just as good.

Lisa and Brendan's Foxtrot - Strictly Come Dancing 2008 Round 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M1E4...ext=1&index=31

lisa and brendan viennese waltz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht9zWK0VHSU

They got some great comments on the clips.

I like this version of it best with comments from the interweb pasted over. Are some of them from here?

Sorry forgot link!!!

Perception is a funny old thing. Because Rachel didn't win (despite being the best dancer in that series) and because neither Alesha nor Kara ever got a perfect 40 (despite being the winners of their respective series), we have the perception that the judges didn't favour them.

Rachel received the highest average score of Series 6, but she was simply not popular enough with the Great British Public and there was nothing that the judges could have done about that. And although neither Alesha nor Kara ever scored 40, they also got the highest average score of their respective series, so the judges thought they were the best, too.

I see your Snowden Foxtrot and I raise you an Austin Healey FT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyaafJZrn4c

Rachel and Vincent were better technically than both.

hope that fixed your link

Oh bless you - I am a techie disaster!

I did too. I thought she was great.

There is a difference between being the highest scorer and the judges 'pet'. I'd still say Lisa was the judges pet even though Rachel outscored her, Tom as well until the final.

Kara never seemed to be so favoured even though she was very good and it took various eliminations until Alesha stood out as the judges choice, but maybe it comes down to how deserved you feel the judges votes are more than the particular score itself.

I remain convinced that she was picked for tactical reasons to try and ensure Rachel won. Simple as that. I didn't mind her throughout the series aside from being angry at whoever it was wanted to keep her in the running.