I can say that about Sophie and she's one of my favourite singers.

If Ashley worked on say Emmerdale or Corrie as Natalie had or even in an ITV drama he may stick more in the memory as we'd know his character more however he doesn't and his time constraints do hurt him.

I'm not going to assume you don't watch Hollyoaks Rorschach because I don't know but this may hinder your remembering of him - just a thought ...

He's a good dancer but he hasn't really had any memorable dances. There's nothing shouting out saying 'vote for me'. Patrick, for example, is larger than life and invites the audience to like him but Ashley hasn't done that so far.

Agree - and, as I predicted before he even started, Hollyoaks' executive producer Bryan Kirkwood is to blame.

Quite why he can't see the obvious bonus having one of his stars on a show that gets at least ten times the number of viewers his does beats me.

Instead, Ashley is destined to go the way of Scott Maslen - who did SCD when Kirkwood was in charge at EastEnders - unable to improve in the way he should be able to because of sheer exhaustion.

It's actually a real shame as Ashley had tremendous potential. And nobody wants an unhappy Ola!

Patrick is obviously being given more leeway by his Casualty bosses, who can see the value of one of their stars being on Strictly and are being flexible with his schedule.

Ashley has been struck with the Kirkwood curse and so is doomed, I'm sorry to say ...

He's OK, but to be honest, he's not good enough to win, so I think he's better off spending time with his new baby.

Let's face it, if it were a woman with a young baby spending all her free hours working on Strictly instead of being with her young child, she'd be getting crucified.

Having read these forums a while, I questioned a couple of weeks ago why Jorgie Porter felt the need to leave her role as Theresa at a particular point i.e. now and then I heard the confirmed rumours of a DOI allstars series. She came second in her run despite being hampered by the same gruelling schedule as Ashley - she was amazing and was actually robbed.

If she's in the series this time and no more Theresa I can see her claiming the trophy rightfully hers the first time.

Might just be that Casualty is one 50-minute episode a week and Patrick's character might be taking it easy at the moment, whilst Hollyoaks is five episodes of (excluding adverts) 22-25 minutes a week and Ashley is in the middle of a big storyline at the moment. (Oh yes, plus he has the new baby.)

I agree with a previous poster. At the launch show I felt Ashley had great potential & that Ola was lucky to get him. I think that his lack of training time & Ola's choreography have meant he hasn't progressed like I thought he would. He seems to be forgotten & is hardly talked about on the DS at all.

Abbey & Patrick could have been bottom of the vote this week & still avoided the dance off so he was unlucky perhaps.

Ash gets to appear on a show with 10 times the number of people who watch Hollyoaks and has had some articles in the newspapers so he has gone from 'Never heard of him' to someone who may have a better chance of continued employment and therefore keep earning a crust for his family.

Good enough reason to do Strictly.

It's not that I don't care it's just I find him instantly forgettable, he dances and meh, his performances don't stick in my mind, he hasn't done anything WOW in my opinion and, well, yes, sorry I find him forgettable

It's also a big storyline which shows no sign of slowing down. The spoilers that have come through this week have a reveal in them which involves Ashley but who knows how long ago this was filmed.

Will be very interesting to see the hospital scenes he was in when Ola was filmed in between takes training with him and am certainly keeping my eyes peeled for them.

He actually started to speak and tripped over his words, so then exaggerated it into a pretend really nervous mumbling. I thought it quite sweet and he was fine and not odd at all.

I think songs have a huge deal in this too. Look at Patrick - two dances stick in my mind - It had to be you and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I hate When Harry Met Sally and never seen the musical nor the film but still Patrick captured the dance and the performance of both. At 50 years old and doing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to time - immense. I also love DWTS but he put Shawn Johnson's Freestyle in the allstars final to shame dramatically slowing down the Carnival de Paris - gymnast, still relatively fit and 20 - nah Patrick better everytime!

Yes, I'd forgotten he mentioned the flying carpet at least twice - maybe he's a bit afraid of heights or something as he seemed quite nervous and preoccupied by it, despite the seat belt

Yes I think so too. And if you notice there was less use of the arms at the beginning of his flying.

Didn't seem to affect his performance once he landed though. For want of a better word he seemed to fly through that.

My problem with Ashley is that as a person he's a lot of "bits" (I've just had a baby, I'm working all the time, all my routines are in fancy-dress, I have BANTER with everyone and do PRANKS and am a LAD) but at the core he as a person isn't very interesting or engaging I don't think. Maybe it's the tiredness but he's just...anti-charismatic. The most I get from him personally is that he always looks absolutely mortified throughout the group routines he's done, like he thinks he's a bit too cool for it.

Sophie and Abbey have very young children.

I do! I care! I was sad to see him in the DO, he is my second favorite. But I sort of thought it might happen, especially with the overmarking in other quarters. I'm glad he was saved. I agree, he probably isn't getting enough training time compared to others, which is a shame. I thought his rumba was good though- perfectly respectable. I don't think he's going to win though- sadly I think whatever he does, the judges seem to be keeping him down, and they won't let him get much further. Just my feeling.

True but they're not newborns. At the end of the day Ashley could have taken paternity leave but seems to have done the exact opposite to that. He'll probably have a little time off screen at the end of Strictly in Hollyoaks where he can digest these last few months and spend some quality time with his expanded family. At the moment he seems ok with doing it, maybe the experience is hitting him more than others because of what he's got going on but really that should earn him a bit of credence - it does in my opinion but that's just mine

Well I voted for him and Ola and I like him too! I think the over marking earlier in the show didn't help him either, not sure he will make the latter stages but would like him to go on a bit longer!

Agreed - if he was a different celeb doing the same dances he'd have 10s by now.

As I've said previously the judges seem to earmark one celeb to mark to the letter - unfortunately for Ashley this year it's him.

The good news is that some have made it to the final and a couple even won but I've lost any hope of Ashley winning at this point and I'm gutted to be saying so

I agree. He can't do the tour so he's surplus to requirements.

Kimberley couldn't do the tour last year and they were hurling 40s at her like they were on special offer at Poundland.

I'm amazed that some Soap stars don't do better . You would think they would have a big Soap fan base .

Not sure if you can do that in the showbiz world. If he has a contract to appear on tv and is featured in the main plotlines, can you really just 'waltz' off on paternity leave?