6) Frankie was brilliant and deserved to be top of the leader board and will give Pixie and Caroline competition.
7) Claudia looked much better tonight with her hair and make up - she suits wearing darker colours.
8) Simon should have kept his mouth shut and him and Kristina are a bad combination - they will be hated on here.
9) I enjoyed watching Mark, Steve and Sunetra - all gave a great effort and are coming across well.
10) Aliona keeping any contact with Greg to a minimum and I will be astounded if it isn't him who goes first.

he is there, they have moved him so he isn't in shot all the time but I saw him clearly tonight, complete with said hat

1. I hope Iveta never leaves. She's hilarious.
2. Frankie was excellent. I was really distracted by the song though.
3, Love Claudia, even if she doesn't quite look like Claudia.
4. Free Aliona.
5. Stop with the props and the themes. They're Irish? I never would have guessed

1 - I was on The Unappreciation Thread but there wasn't anything too serious to unappreciate. Great show, slick presentation, fantastic opening number, great mix of celebs and lots of content and actual dancing in the routines.

2 - Claudia is a massive improvement on Bruce; genuine spontaneous laughter, instead of forced, indulgent laughter. I feel more relaxed when watching the show.

3 - I liked virtually all of the celebs and their dances and the ones I didn't like I felt sorry for - even Gregg in a way.

4 - The marking was shoddy again. Simon should have been at the top of the board, Steve was a couple of marks better than Jake and there is no way Jenny should have received the same score as Gregg (based on dance content alone).

5 - I'm getting shades of Ramprakash from Steve. I think he will be whom I am supporting. It's nice to see a non-dance trained person actually learning and giving it a good go.

1. Love Claudia

2. Thought the judges were good tonight - that has been rare for me recently

3. Simon and Frankie maybe are a bit too far in front to be caught?

4. Thought Brendan's choreography was spot on.

5. Could be a good series.

Night 1
1. Jake surprised me, even though I wanted him to do well
2. Pixie wasn't as good as I expected.
3. I think Tim's going to last a while...
4. Caroline's a definite contender.
5. Joanne always seems very excited to be there

Night 2
1. Mark was undermarked
2. Steve surprised me, I think he's the dark horse.
3. Not sure if Frankie will be able to cope with the tour and the show.
4. Simon is irritating me...
5. Gregg... oh dear.

1. Claudia basically carries it. Tess needs replacing.

2. Judges marks bang on.

3. Alison the only one actually dancing rather than just doing a routine.

4. Frankie might be the first "ringer" in years who isnt instantly dislikeable.

5. Poor Scott Mills.

1 first and foremost, how much better it was without Bruce, sorry Bruce!
2 lots of potential in this years bunch
3 lots of poor dancers, to pick a few ....... Judy, the old bloke, Scott (dreadful)
4 tess and Claudia both looked good for a change
5 who let the singers murder a Wham track....not to mention Adele!

1: love Claudia , she made me laugh out loud
2:. Iveta is fab . A great addition to Strictly
3; Joanne is trying to hard
4; Alison surprised me by being able to move well
5: Judy looks like a waxwork of herself

6) Len comes across as a right moody b*gger. He's not panto nasty like Craig, and last series he wasn't even always constructive either. Sometimes he seems to be nasty just for the sake of being nasty - and his attitude of telling the audience off for disagreeing with him ... (like he's going to turn around and stop the show if they dare disagree with him again) - that doesn't do him any favours in my eyes.

7) Steve is very cute. I have a thing for guys with huge innocentish smiles (I like Kevin too for the same reason!) He was a better than expected dancer too.

8) I disliked Alison marginally less tonight. Given that I'd already decided to forgive Steve for being a spoilerish idiot in the Eurovision semis, if she can win me round, then I won't be disliking anyone except for maybe...

9) Simon, who isn't coming across particularly well. Going to give him a chance as I think it might just be perfectionism, but (like Len) he's also coming over as surly and moody.

10) I know I mentioned it in my first five, but it's so important that it's worth repeating - for the love of God! Please stop it with the cringeworthy themes & forcing everyone to the their characters/celebrity selves instead of who they are!! I just want to watch people, PEOPLE, not characters, going through the learning process and producing entertaining dances. It's the human side that helps make the show so compelling. If you try to poke it and manufacture it, you lose the whole charm.

night 2 thoughts

1. frankie a clear but somehow rather vanilla winner

2. thom should have been paired with natalie, he's too tall for iveta, and they aren't doing it for me.

3. claudia looked a bit more like herself thank goodness,

4. greg was dreadful.

5. most intriguing dancer of the show so far is sunetra. although lots was wrong for the tango, something about her movement is really very captivating and beautiful

Friday:

1. Caroline was my favourite. She put a lot into every move, which made it look more natural and professional. She's also quite likeable too. I think she's one to watch.

2. I thought Pixie would be a lot better than she was, especially as she was last on. She was far too heavy footed. I'm not sure if she's going to fully embrace and enjoy the experience as, for example, Caroline will.

3. I know it's weird but I find Judy adorable. I didn't think I'd like her (particularly because of Andy), but I do. She's trying really hard, and she just looked frozen last night and tonight. She needs reassurance.

4. I feel the same way about Scott too. I did think he'd be (slightly) better than he was, but maybe that's down to Joanne's choreography. It was a bit too basic.

5. I think Claudia works very well up in the pit. I'm not sure about Tess' role yet, but I think she'll settle into it within a few weeks, and it'll be as if nothing's changed.

Saturday:

1. I loved Frankie's dance. It was sweet, elegant and cute. I think she and Kevin will be a very good partnership, and I think they could go on to win, despite her "ringer" status. However...

2. The arrangement of Someone Like You and You Raise Me Up really annoyed me. I don't understand why they can't just use lesser known 3/4 songs that will obviously be easier to Waltz to than well known 4/4 songs. You could hear the singers struggling with the transposition in Someone Like You - it all sounded so muted.

3. Thom didn't really live up to expectations, did he? His training video looked much more promising and I was hoping for a lot more. My mum thinks he could be the Mark Ramprakash of this year. He also needs to lighten up a bit. I know he's shy, but he looked really out of it tonight.

4. I'm a fan of Sunetra. I really like how she seems to be enjoying it all so far, and I think her partnership with Brendan is great. I also like Jennifer, and I'm surprised to say I quite liked Mark tonight.

5. I can already tell I won't like Simon. He seems really arrogant - you could tell that before he got his scores he was thinking he'd get straight 8s. He looked shocked and angry when his actual scores came in!

BIB
Agree!

I'm hoping (praying) that it was only for the first week and the producers will let the pros do their job with minimal interference.

1. What a relief not to have to mute half of the show. Thank God he's gone.

2. Frankie is a beautiful dancer - miles ahead of Caroline & Pixie. Let's see what her latin's like, though.

3. Top marks for Steve as the complete and utter novice/out of his comfort zone in he line up - reckon he'll be there for some time. And what a lovely straightforward guy he seems. He and Ola make a really interesting partnership.

4. I loved Jake's tango - what can he produce when he's out of the Max Branning character? Can he actually lighten up?

5. What a very interesting cast of characters overall - well done BBC.

Oh - and I LOVED Alison tonight. That's a sneaky six thoughts but

Friday
1. It's a WIG - we all know it's a wig. Stop wearing stupid hats during training
2. Claud - ignore the "makeover advice" and do your own thing
3. Janette showed can do her stuff when she hasn't got a whiny Welsh narcissist to work with
4. Judy Murray is a funny witty lady - forget the tartan and let her loose !!
5. Who's got the skinniest legs? Trent or Pixie

Saturday
1. Claud's fringe is BACK !!! Yaaaayyyyy
2. I hope Mark and Karen do some light-hearted routines, they could be the Mark and Iveta of this series
3. I was hoping Gregg Wallace was a secret ringer (for Aliona's sake) - looks like I was reallllly wrong !!
4. Alison is going to break Aljaz at some point
5. Feel sorry for Thom and Iveta with all the nudge nudge stuff.

1 It has made my night that Steve did so well. I really didn't think he would, and he was great. Don't know how the cha cha cha's going to go, but I am so pleased for him.
2 Altogether a great show tonight, from the pro dance at the beginning onwards.
3 I'd been worried that it would be a contest of the already very good versus the never going to be any good this year, but I thought there were several couples that could be very interesting to watch learn.
4. Scott wasn't good but he doesn't deserve to be last. Several worse than him I thought.
5. Couple of people came across as arrogant. I think it's too early to start calling people names, I don't know them yet, so I won't name anyone, but I thought there were a few that came across as if they are already in the final in their minds, which is never a way to win votes.

I already did my fivepennyworth from Friday night, but here's five more on tonight's show:

6. Frankie stood out from the crowd in the launch show three weeks ago and her waltz tonight didn't disappoint. If that's what she can do with the minimum of training, she'll be brilliant. Really loved that sweet waltz.

7. Thom's waltz, on the other hand, was Iveta being hauled around the dance-floor by a wardrobe, so wooden was he. Am I shallow in not caring one little bit just because he is such an utterly gorgeous wardrobe?

8. Gregg - I haven't seen such a dreadful cha-cha since Gary Rhodes played Karen Hardy as if she were a piano. Are all cooks/greengrocers dreadful dancers? Free Aliona.

9. Absolutely loved Simon and Kristina's rock'n'roll jive, but I fear he won't be popular unless he can learn (or learn to fake) some humility.

10. I really, really hope that those song choices were just first week 'introduce the celebs' themes and that the choices will in future be dictated by what tempo is right for the dance instead.

1. The SCD singers were shockingly poor tonight
2. Claudia is a great permanent addition to the show
3. There seems to be a big gap between the dancers and the non-dancers
4. Darcey probably has been smoking something before the shows (Gregg a 5!!!)
5. Thank you Brendan, for that move in the Tango (men will know what I mean) Here is hoping for a party latin dance next week (*whistles*)

Saturday thoughts:

1. I was absolutely astonished by Mark's scores for flopping about like a dead fish, leaping up like he was about to light a fart and doing some very bad cha-cha-cha.
2. Semi-finalists: Frankie, Jake, Caroline, Pixie and Simon, with Simon having been in at least one 'shock' dance-off.
3. Did they give Claudia her eye-liner back?
4. Darcey's marking is risible.
5. I really like those Dairy Milk Oreo bars, don't you?

1. Standard was good for week 1, not amazing but good

2. Judges seemed more alive on Saturday then Friday flow of comments should improve as we go along

3. Claudia and Tess did ok, Claudia the better of the 2. I think the problem Tess has is when performances don't go well and the audience don't react with enough excitement the atmosphere dies she had that with Scott and Judy yesterday and the Jennifer, Thom, Sunetra and Gregg block today and things get quiet and awkward when the energy dies, Bruce would have picked it up with a good/bad joke but Tess can't really do that and she shouldn't either, she didn't over egg some things though, which is good

4. Most people met my expectations with the dances, Thom was a let down think he needs to not let the nerves get the better of him and get a bit more 'showy' Everyone else was as expected and I think there is something unlikeable about Simon too and I wonder what effect that will have

5 Overall the two shows were a 6.5 out of ten for me, a good solid start but some improvements to be made.

1. I find Steve very irritating

2. Alison has the same issues as Lisa Reilly. Lots of musicality but all delivered on flat feet

3. Loved Simon's jive

4. Thom was a huge disappointment. Very wooden but was peeved when criticised.

5. Loved Frankie's 'Audrey Hepburnesque' performance. Gentle and stylish.

1. Steve is such a nice guy. Shame he has been paired with Ola, who I have never cared for.

2. I will try and warm to Frankie, and love her dress and the colour.

3. Really like Sunetra too. I see her with as one with potential.

4. Simon needs to reign it in. Not. A. Fan.

5. Pixie will get a ton of flack regardless of what she does.

Sneaky few more:

6. What on earth was Scott's dance?!?!

7. Oh Gregg... free Aliona.

1. I am simply delighted for Steve and Ola. He's a genuine beginner and a truly lovely bloke. For my taste, there was maybe too much aggression in the performance but I'm beyond pleased that he and Ola may manage to stay in this comp a few more weeks. He's a seriously big-spirited individual, is Steve

2. I really want to like Simon. I loved his jive.

3. Frankie's waltz was beautiful and probably the best dance of the first week.

4. Loved Claudia's instruction to Sunetra's Noah to eat chocolate and get on a trampoline (sneaky 4 and a 1/2: Pleased for Sunetra's tango too. She was floppy and uncertain but she got through it and it looked complicated to me)

5. So glad Strictly is back & I love this forum too

6) Hurrah...some men who could be genuine contenders (however personally unappealing the rugby bloke, Simon and Mark are)

7) Claudia looked much better (less sick/haggard) tonight

8) Alison very annoying

9) Gregg/the Irish woman

10) The corny themes are good for those us would not recognise 3/4 the contenders or know who/what to google otherwise

1. Scott and Joanne's so called Cha cha cha was merely a disco dance and a pathetic one to boot. Disqualification material imo. If no effort is going to be made to choreograph a proper cha cha cha what on earth is the point?
2. Claudia very effective in the co presenter role. Tess rather uninspiring I'm afraid.
3. Len being his usual prickly and unable to accept any grief self.
4. Jake the surprise of week one, a highly accomplished display.
5. Frankie the star of the weekend - cue the unfair advantage theories. I see a thread has appeared already relating to it. Knew it wouldn't take long.