1) I really enjoyed the show tonight. (Mostly) sensible marking, a good standard of dancing, and perhaps best of all, no Donny Osmond. Hurrah.
2) Last year it was trousers with stripes down the sides, now it's those rubbish skinny ones. The outfits were better this week for me, but come on, wardrobe...
3) There are very few couples which I dislike or feel 'meh' about this year, which is good. I even enjoyed Mark's routine!
4) This should be Scott's week to go, but I highly doubt that it will be. He'll be here until Halloween at least.
5) Let's hope the series continues on a similar path, rather than going back to overly-heavy theming and ridiculous marking. Not that I have much confidence.

Ali and Alj's dance - was that the first live dj on Strictly?

I used to wonder why Anton always got the duffers, now I think he just can't teach.

Scott is not very masculine. I don't have a problem with that but Joanne is so tiny it looks odd seeing her leading him around. The song isn't one of my favourites but they did an awesome job of singing it.

On episode 1 I told my g/f that Brendan's dresser hadn't realised that he's gone up two sizes. She told me I was jealous, now I'm sure I was right.

I was worried that Caroline or Pasha were going to slip on the hoop after he kicked it across the floor.

I don't understand how Jake can dance so well with that posture.

Up until today Pixie didn't look like she gave a crap about the show. I like the fact that she put some of her acting training in. It was amusing to see her washing up too.

1. Frankie got the show started with style.
2. Frankie's dance was a great dance, but it reminded me of Alesha's cha cha cha as it was great to watch as a dance but lacked power through the legs for the cha cha movements.
3. Show was so much better without there being a theme.
4. I am worried about Sunetra as that was a bit of a backward step, so I hope she is not in trouble tonight.
5. I adore seeing the non dancers/performers visibly trying and improving, particularly Steve and the 2 men I had I thought I would not like - Thom and Mark..

1: the skinny drainpipe trousers are simply dreadful
2: Frankie wasnt at her best tonight .
3: I simply love Iveta
4: Anton is unwatchable for me .He does my head in .
5: Trent and Pixie remind me of dolls that wake up and come out of their boxes to dance

1. Thom showing biggest improvement since the start

2. Such glowing comments and marks for jake always come as a bit of a surprise to me.

3. I just watched the awesome Natalie Lowe in that paso.

4. Pixie made me think of song for whoever by the beautiful south
"Deep so deep, the votes we hope to reap, depends upon the tears you weep, so cry, pixie cry, cry, cry, cry"
Although to be fair i am warming to her personality more than some of the others at the top of the leader-board.

5. Claudia was the best as always.

1 I have always liked Judy and I am pleased people are seeing her funny side. She has a great wit and is very self deprecating.
2 I know Alison has personality but she is very OTT. She shouldn't be getting marks as a sympathy vote.
3 Scott- enough now.
4 Jake is entertaing me the most at the moment.
5 Mark, Simon and Thom are not doing it for me.

1) Pixie is by far and away the best technical dancer on the show- I hope she does a Louis Smith and connects more to the dances because she deserves to win.

2) Yes, we know, Alison has a fun personality, but that Samba was utterly awful in every way, most over marked dance of the night.

3) I like Sunetra but in Latin dances she looks and dances like she's on the verge of a nervous breakdown at all times!

4) Caroline's dance would have outscored Jake by a country mile if it wasn't for that God awful bear gimmick half way through what was otherwise a great Quickstep!

5) Why do producers think Children are morons, and enjoy the "comedy" VTs? I want whoever's responsible sacked and/or shot- and I'm not entirely fussed which one first.

I don't get how people are calling Frankie dull, just cause she's not OTT and over confident, there's a lot duller celebs on SCD then her.

1. Tess had a lovely dress again. She either has someone new providing her clothes (obviously not the wardrobe department ) or Bruce had some sort of evil veto over what she wore up till now.

2. loved Claudia's 'A Donny 10'. She is so fab.

3. Simon showing his personality at last!!

4. watched Natalie not Tim - he is really bad

5. my husband had lie detection/facial expression training as part of a job he used to do. He doesn't watch the show but was passing the tv when Scott was on (he also often passes the tv when Ola has a catsuit on ) and stopped to say he is displaying a look of contempt and anger. Not sure how to interpret that.

1. Pixie and Frankie - best dances, best dressed.
2. Scott is an embarrassment and needs to go. Zero improvement.
3. Too many props - bed / teddy bear / hula hoops / car - why do they keep using them?
4. Craig and Bruno - spot on with their comments
5. Two incidents of trousers splitting now - time to abandon the tight cotton jeans for Latin !

1). Jake Wood is amazing
2). Cannot get the Alison love - think she's irritating and her dancing is terrible
3). Wish they would sort out the musical choices - I am sure it makes it even harder for novices to dance to
4) Bruno often talks a lot of sense!
5) Simon's charleston was great

6) sneaky six - love Claudia!

1) Don't shoot me but I voted for Double Ali team tonight - I know her footwork needs work but I really loved their routine and she deserves to outlast Scott at least

2)Much better show tonight - themes didn't hi-jack dances (except Caroline's QS) but were still there and interesting

3)Judging massively improved tongiht - fair and mostly constructive crit for celebs of all levels rather than you did great/rubbish/rubbish but amusing so - aka I didn't have a clue

4)Craig - have a slapped wrist for crit a contestant during the comment's on another's routinue - I accept your role as bad cop and/or panto villian means you do it after the less gifted's dances but do it afterwards feels like back-stabbing not cool and not cricket

5)The middle of the table I think were more enjoyable tonight than the top and bottom - the top were all a tad disapointing bland or containing errors - I thought Jake was below his usual standard and Caroline looked a tad overwelmed. Scott is now embrassing and Tim was too (I was expecting assumingly bad he was just bad) - although I'd rather keep Tim than Scott as we know he can do ballroom and be assumingly bad.

1. Quite the turnaround on here with regards to Thom, Judy and even Tess and quite rightly too.

2. Good on Judy - her routine was actually really enjoyable this week and she seems to be enjoying it herself. Light years better than that cha-cha a few weeks ago.
On the other hand, Scott seems to continue to struggle and I do feel sorry for him. It can't be nice struggling to improve while everyone else seems to starting to move ahead of you. And he seem to want to do well - but he really does seem to struggle for rhythmn and it just isn't nice to watch him struggle and become deflated.

3. That music for Simon and Kristina's Charleston was ... well something

4. Thom certainly a dark horse now if you ask me. He seems to be improving every week and showing more and more personality too in his dances and as ever seems a likable (if at times a bit reserved) bloke. I'm enjoying Mark & Steve too who both have basically started as complete novices and seem to be really improving. Prefer them maybe to some of the more able dancers at this stage.

5. Judges so much better too this week. Maybe I just appreciate them more after Donny-gate last week.

Bonus 6. Boy wardrobe don't seem to like some of the men. Some truly awful costumes.

1. Getting a bit tired of Pixie's standard leg wrap routine that is incorporated in every dance.
2. Caroline's Quickstep was a bit messy, reminded me of Susanna's QS last year (well except for the couch prop, though I did worry that she was about to dance with the bear)
3. Simon did improve, but it seems like he just doesn't have any chemistry with Kristina
4. Despite the scoring, Sunetra was better then Steve and especially Alison.
5. Tess should quite with acting like a bereavement counselor whenever a celeb gets a harsh remark from the judges.

1. It was great to have the judges answering/heckling back so much tonight, whenever the audience started their nonsense in response to anything less than fawning adulation.

2. Trent Whiddon - how TINY is he!! His trousers were practically falling down, and side-on you nearly couldn't see him.

3. The rumba is far from my favourite dance, but I thought Pixie's routine was lovely and really technically accomplished (as far as my limited knowledge goes). I have to agree with others though at being a little cynically suspicious of the post-routine 'performance'.

4. I agree that Caroline's Foxtrot was the best dance, if only there hadn't been the 'silly bits' as I really don't think with the base of the routine as strong as it was they needed to incorporate any props.

5. Dave Arch needs to have a word with his 'fabulous' singers! Whoever was murdering a cat to the tune of Bonnie Tyler in particular - their 'performance' gave Scott's dance a run for the money in the wobbles department.

Oh and just as an aside, re Brendon's WM - it might just be bad angles, but a couple of times now I've thought I detect a bit of a tum-tum on him - which presumably wouldn't help matters with such tight tailoring!

I'll mention the four finalists and the current possible. (In my opinion of course)

1. Frankie was superb. Enough said.

2. Jake, excellent again but seemed to tire and the latter choreography let him down.

3. Enjoyed Carloline but it didn't wow me.

4. Pixie....stunning but I judge every good celeb with Kara Tointon. No one comes near to her rumba.

5. The dark horse this week? Well maybe Simon but the four finalists are so far ahead I'm wasting my time.

1: Natalie did an amazing job of hiding Tim behind her wafting and flouncing !!
2: Natalie is a fabulous dancer , I could watch her all night
3: iveta has a great sense of humour and a great addition to Strictly
4: i am not surprised Brendans trousers split . Who thought that drainpipe trousers are good to look at ?
5: Claudia make me laugh out loud

1. Simon undermarked

2. Caroline overmarked.

3. I adore Pixie and Trent.

4. Please god will someone teach Iveta how to pronounce Thom.

5. It's such a good year that after Tim, Judy and Scott are gone, I'm going to be sad every week.

1. The marking tonight was consistently fair throughout, no overmarking, no undermarking.
2. Except for Sunetra, she was.
3. Joanne's choreography is clearly too complex for him, back to basics. It can't have helped that he hadn't done the Waltz or Foxtrot before the American Smooth.
4. Whoever is styling Brendan doesn't like him, not because of the trousers, but that shirt was very tight on him and made him look chubby.
5. Mark needs to man-up.

1. It was a good show tonight with lots of people improving and doing well. It felt less like the four chosen ones and the others tonight, it felt like things were shaken up a bit and there might be some surprises as we go along.
2. Having said that, my favourites were the same as last week - Steve (completely love him and big improvement on the CCC), Jake and Sunetra.
3. What is it with trousers this year? Something very odd going on with the way the men are being dressed. The caps I could also do without, and Mark's scarf looked weird to me. Just generally all the men's clothes - odd.
4. The VTs were pretty bearable tonight (Iveta the star) but I roll my eyes a bit at some of the excuses people come up with to get their various family members in.
5. Claudia was fab, as ever. I know others have said it but I did love the line about Donny's 10. Generally I think Claudia and Tess work as they are and I don't want anyone else brought in.

Which one?

1) Worst dancer had the best male costume.
2) My word Judy is brave
3) Pixie & Trent showed how to do a non raunch Rumba
4) Too many props scattered around for Caroline & Pasha.
5) What a comeback for Simon & Kristina.

1. Judy's slide across the floor showing more than she intended made me laugh.
2. Judy's jump into Anton's arms was very brave!
3. Anton's repartee with the judges made laugh.
4. Simon was very good, loved the routine - ditto Mark, I thought those steps were very tricky. Thom also very good.
5. Loved Tim last week, he was so funny - this week AWFUL!

ETA Alison needs to wear heels, she looks flat footed and inelegant.

1) Simon and Kristina were fab-u-lous!
2) I'm really warming to Pixie and Trent
3) Thom and Iveta have no chemistry whatsoever
4) Scott really doesn't look very happy to be doing Strictly
5) Aljaz is just too fine!

1. Jake's a showman. Even if not technically the best, he has that extra something that the others are lacking. I want him to win but may main worry is that he'll run out of juice. Any Eastenders fans know whether his character's involved in big storylines at the mo or in the near future?

2. I thought I saw some of that much-needed and talked-about hip action in Pixie's Rhumba but what do I know. That said, I'm afraid I still wasn't moved by her performance - and to me, the display of tears afterwards felt manufactured. I don't think Pixie's devious or anything, but I do think she's desperate to have that emotional connection with the dance, her partner and the audience, and she's forcing it because it's not happening naturally.

3. Mark and Karen - nothing against them personally, but I forget their performances as soon as they're over. And maybe my memory's playing tricks on me but Quicksteps in years gone by seemed to fly across the dancefloor, yet they're looking a bit pedestrian / lacklustre these days (even though the music's still fast and the couples are keeping up. Maybe it's the 'lightness' and 'brightness' that's missing as opposed to actual speed or I'm just imagining it).

4. I missed the chat with Thom's brother, but are they twins? If not, what a striking resemblance!

5. Not one of Sunetra's better nights but she still managed to sparkle in my eyes.