Whilst Alison was fun and enthusiastic her footwork was not great and she did not deserve the high score she got.
Craig in particular praised her and gave her a high score when other dancers who were far better were criticised and he gave them lower scores.
Methinks he has plans for Alison in the same way he had for the big girl from Emmerdale in a previous series, who was given a job in his theatre show after Strictly finished.
He is not scoring fairly, and that is annoying.

I agree. Alison clearly enjoyed herself and was confident but she was also quite clumsy and her footwork wasn't great as you say.

If she had been a skinny girl, Craig would have been much harsher with her but because she's fat he definitely favoured her.

I don't agree at all and I hadn't a clue who she was before she did the show.

Alison danced a good routine, not missing a step and gave a great performance too. She was a bit flat footed, but as was said, that was probably down to the shoes. Overall there were not that many celebs who managed their whole routine as well.

In fact, I'm offended at the first two posts.

Does anyone know why she was wearing those shoes ? Looking at the photos earlier I could see extra strapping on her feet, and wondered why.....

I'd say it affected her performance but then again, pushing her centre of gravity too far forward with a higher heel might not work either....

I'm just puzzled because as soon as I saw those shoes I was worried for her. I loved the routine and her interpretation and performance of it, but her footwork was the main thing I noticed.....

It's a bit disappointing to see Alison wearing those shoes because it reminds me of AW, who couldn't dance for toffee (or wouldn't dance). Maybe be her weight means the shoes are the best for protecting/supporting her knees or something? Perhaps she will change them later. Years ago didn't someone start with one pair of shoes and then others were ordered for her?

Maybe she's got bad feet and can't wear heels ? I thought she looked flat-footed ?

To be fair, Alison has pitched herself as the new Lisa, to some extent. I am not surprised Craig has reacted in kind. That said, I think Alison has better moves.

Craig seems to favour the OTT , loud , and blousy ones

What was Craig's mark, a 6 wasn't it ? Maybe it was only worth a 5 but I don't think it's such a big deal. It was full of of energy and crowd pleasing, being from a theatrical background that always impresses Craig.

I didn't know Alison had done that, but is every fat person on the show going to be tarred with the same brush? She knows she won't win, so she's just going to enjoy the experience. Sounds okay to me! I think Craig just likes hardworkers.

I don't know if the reason for the lower heels might be because there isn't much of a height difference between Alison and Aljaz? IIRC there's only a couple of inches or so between them, so it might be that they don't want her to look too tall next to him, how Holly did with Artem.

According to this article she has - or had - a twisted ankle so that might be the reason for the low heels or maybe she is not used to higher ones?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/a...ancing-4331519

I really enjoyed watching her tonight, not only because of her enthusiasm but that was a well executed dance.

I can see thinking a few of the people lower than her danced better than her even if I would disagree (Sunetra, Mark, Thom) but far better?

yep l agree with this post, she was ok but the judges were way to kind in their comments . I hope i am wrong but i think we will see much of the same from her in the coming weeks.

Well said. I loved her routine.

I enjoyed her routine for two reasons: her joy in doing it, and Aljaz's enjoyment of dancing with her. They both were having fun, and only a few partnerships over the two nights showed that same feeling.

Aljaz choreographed a good routine for Alison & I applaud him for not doing gimmicks or making her the laughing stock. Take note Anton & Robin!

I can't stand Alison Hammond, I've never liked the loud mouthed harridan since BB3. I usually turn over when she's on my telly so I was dreading having to endure her on Strictly. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed her routine. Ok, she's never going to win "best dancer" but, over the two nights she definitely wasn't the worse.

The fun and enthusiasm of the routine was great and as we all know Craig loves that type of stuff I think his mark was about right (for him anyway).

I love Alison, such a fun confident lady! Same goes for her routine, she wasn't the best or most technical but she really went for it and I thought she was so entertaining and so much fun, I think she'll do well.

I second that - dancing aside - those two are my favourite 'characters'.

I'm a little bit in love with Aliajz truth be told

To be fair, the big blowsy out there women are more like the drag queen style Craig, so not surprising that he favours them.

Okay, some people are going to see Alison as the new Lisa Reilly and it may be that Craig is one...
I was actually worried that she would be seen this way (as Len's 'Peoples' Champion' in particular),because I found Lisa to be annoying in the extreme and didn't want to see that happen all over again.

However, I haven't seen any evidence that Alison feels that she is to go the Lisa route. In fact, she seems very much her own person. And she has a partner in Aljaz who is very capable of bringing out something more than a hand waving, gurning crowd pleaser.

I wasn't expecting much from her routine, but actually felt it was okay. And no gurning so far, always a bonus!
Alison does have a good sense of rhythm and that's what Craig picked up on the most, so fair play.

I really hope she doesn't get pushed to follow the 'peoples champion' route, as I will find it hard to watch her, but so far, so good.

She sold the dance. Her joy and enthusiasm was absolutely infectious. She made you want to stand up and dance as well. While not technically perfect, she was certainly one you remembered.

She did well. A wee bit flat footed but she danced to the music. That is something many of the celebrities fail to do.

Many of them count their way through their steps at the beginning of the series. If they could listen to the music and dance to the beat, like she seemed to be doing, they would be much more natural dancers.

I liked her enough, I just hope they won't create another monster like with you know who and should she not be good enough it will be pointed out.