There is no way Patrick deserved to be (joint-)top of the leaderboard after his dances tonight. The Rumba was quite uncomfortable to watch and his Swingathon dance was a complete mess. Darcey specifically lacked any sort of subtlety about it, giving a 10 for a very mediocre dance.

Judges are hoping for Patrick in the semis

agree 100%

Same here. It was an average dance.

most weeks I always think he is overmarked there was hardly any hip action yet they have a go at Ashley's lack of it

I like Patrick & think he's a strong contender, BUT- that swingathon was APPALING, he shouldve gone out before Ashley & OLa. For him to stay till the last 2 was simply WRONG!!

Agreed. In the Swingy, he was hardly dancing after half way.

Patrick, IMHO has produced one outstanding dance his American Smooth if they hadn't ballsed up the ending that dance would have been the first 40 of the series, since then everyone of his dances have been mediocre at best.

Patrick should have been out first in the swingathon he was static, stuck to the dancefloor.

His hip action was very poor, and he's been getting over marked for weeks.

Best dancer tonight?

Give me a break.

He's been overmarked all through the series.

He's on the over-50s marking scale.

patrick is great. but it wasn't his best week. rhumba was ok, bits i really liked but its not a wow dance, and the swingathon, well, everyone looked a mess to me, except artem.

Looks like the judges want a male in the final, and have written off Ashley for some reason.

Have to agree whole heartedly
Can't believe the BBC are making it so obvious !

I did feel sorry for Ashley tonight (perhaps we are meant to?) He was clearly better than Patrick (and everyone else save Natalie) in the swingathon and I thought Patrick's rhumba absurdly overmarked.

What he had to do he did reasonably well, so why they're fawning over him i don't know. This show stinks.

I've been saying this for weeks. He's been continually over marked and mistakes ignored.

Perhaps because he's not employed by the BBC!

Totally overrated this week. Any two of the top three in the dance off please

Ridiculous he's top of the leader board, no way deserved.

Judges obviously want Ashley out, he was doing well in the swingathon so why voted out second?

Patrick has always been over marked but in the swingathon there was no way he should have stayed on the floor as long as he did. Watching him, at times he hardly moved and was very flat footed.

I am a big fan of Patrick but agree he was not the best tonight. I liked his rumba but he was average in the swingathon

Gosh, the bias on this thread is quite shocking

I wonder why so many of you dislike this man so much when he is clearly the best male dancer - and I know what I am talking about and am the hardest critic. All dancers are.

His rumba was superb. Ashley's salsa was a badly executed, wooden hipped samba with very bad salsa steps thrown in. Awkward, flat footed and devoid of any Latin movement.

Patrick is streets ahead of him. Deal with it.

That's it. He gets dance points plus the number of groans he makes as he tries to haul his stiff body out of bed on Saturday morning.

The smooth was primarily an acting display - from an actor. Ashley does far more steps every week and gets penalised for making mistakes doing them - they just haven't worked out how to mark an less energetic older male versus a younger one. Ashley seems a decent actor and could probably do all of Patrick's routines. There is also a bias - which almost must be a BBC one for lack of any other reason.

I'm surprised by this thread. (For me only Abbey and Patrick danced with any expression tonight. Everyone else was stiff or weird or a bit ordinary )