Yes, she has musicality and a good sense of rhythm, and that's what puts her above the likes of Scott, Tim and Judy. But it's when the marks put her level with superior dancers that it annoys me. Below the waist what she does barely qualifies as "dancing", does her enthusiastic performance really make up for that every week ?
If they're going to be unrealistically generous with her marking, they should be consistent and mark others accordingly.

Being kind...... it's called political correctness, even Craig who is pretty blunt wouldn't dare to comment on her size making it difficult for some dances.

I'm a bit concerned about the rather "cavalier" attitude taken by the BBC in selecting Alison.

Now she's obviously a nice lady, how old 39?
But let's face it, she'd be described by the medical profession, as "clinically obese."
I don't know how much exercise she took before she joined this show, but I'd imagine that the amount of energy she's presently expending, is probably more than she'd ever spent in her life.

The health dangers are in situations like this, that enthusiasm and the will to compete can mean common sense can go out of the window.

Can anyone name a reality show that Alison Hammond hasn't been on.I find her truly offensive and a bad role model for our children.She attracts producers like a magnet and for many of us she is marmite

I agree. I've said on another thread that I think the judges are patronising Alison due to her size. I am no dance expert at all and watch it for fun but if any of the other celeb ladies waggled their boobs around instead of dancing I think the judges would be telling her it's just not on and mark her accordingly. Such a shame as I really like Alison and wanted to see her do well.

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here ! What's the betting that she's on that next year ?

I like Alison too, and enjoy her dancing, but it seems fairly obvious to me (a very non-expert) that her footwork is underwhelming. She did joke about it on ITT that she thought she was doing loads, then she watched it back, so even she's noticed! Presumably her size is one of the reasons it's harder for her to do so much with the legs, and also why whatever she does looks smaller.

I think she's does a lot better with her top half, and she's great fun to watch, which helps a lot.

Yes, remember "Nice legs, shame about her face" by The Monks. Alison is the complete opposite.

She's already done it

Can't wait to see her Halloween dance.

She's already done it and thankfully didn't last very long. I have to say I've never liked the woman since BB3. I always turn over when she's on my TV and was disappointed when I found out she was going to be on SCD.

So it was a surprise to me that until last night I found myself rooting for the Alison and Aljaz partnership. When she started all that hooting and hollering in the Clauditorium she reminded me why I've disliked her for so many years. The routine was ok and she performed it well but, it was not worth the marks she was given, and the OTT reaction to the judges scores.

The only reason she's on the show is because, judging by the overall "celebrityness" of this season's alleged celebrities, she's one of the few people who'd do the show. Plus she also gets to be the BBC's token obese, loud mouthed female. Oh, did I mention that she's black as well. That ticks another of the BBC's boxes.

There's nothing else to it. When the BBC signed up Lisa Riley the other year, it was only by luck that she turned out to have a borderline bearable personality, and that she could dance to reasonable standard. Neither of the above apply to Ms Hammond.

Of course Hammond's being over marked. The BBC's desperate to keep her in the show so it can kowtow to it's self imposed PC female/ethnic minorites agenda, just as it's desperate to keep Scott Mills in to so it can push the homosexual agenda, something it did at every available opportunity during week one. Every week, the judges become increasingly desperate to him off the show, but the BBC keep rigging the voting to keep him in. It's obvious that both Len and Craig are fed up with the whole charade, and are just going through the motions each week, especially Len.

That is true. I think Steve is undermarked every week.

I agree with you op. I like TEAM Alli BUT they were grossly overmarked last night.

How could Craig give her and Thom the same score ???

The judges are certainly judging some contestants on a different scale....

You've really mentioned nearly all the elephants in the room with that post.
But I have to say, I think there's a lot of truth in it.

She's danced four times and her average mark is 24. It's not as if she's getting 30 plus every week *cough Lisa Riley cough*.

Leaving aside week 1, where her cha cha cha wasn't bad at all and there was a plethora of "me nehrves" from everyone in direct competition with her, she's only actually finished ahead of the following on the leader board -
Judy, Tim, Scott, Jennifer, Gregg (every week)
Steve (once, where he did a carp cha cha and she did a slightly better carp foxtrot and scored 22 to Steve's 21).

Every time she's finished ahead of someone, I think she's been better than them.

She was a bit out of place last night as both Sunetra and Steve were probably a bit better than she was yet were marked the same. This is the fault of the judges creating a million ties (which are the work of the Strictly devil) because they
a) Think the God of Niceness will smite them with poisonous concrete ballet shoes if they ever give lower than a 6 to someone who doesn't actually dance like a sea sponge on acid (Darcey)
b) Have had any paddle lower than 5 shoved where the sun don't shine (Len and Bruno)
or
c) Somehow come over all warm and fuzzy when they see a large woman enjoying themselves (Craig)

This happens a lot. Not just with Alison (well apart from Craig but he has a disorder in that area - it's a bit strange).

I don't think she's been vastly overmarked or out of place as yet. She's had scores of 22 and 21 (ignoring the Osmond cos let's face it... we all did) - they're not actually afraid of marking her down.

Last night may have merely been a slight anomaly or it may be that Alison gets stuck on 27/28 and the judges refuse to go any lower cos that would be meeeann. In this case, there might be reason for irritation but I'm not panicking yet.

I'm so sorry, I appear to have written a thesis on the subject. I did not mean this to happen, Please feel free to ignore.

I know the above is exaggerating for effect but Lisa's overall average score for the entire series, even factoring in the end stretch when you'd have to actively stop dancing to score below 30, was 29. She didn't go over 30 once in any of her first five dances. Her overall average is in fact hovering around the same level as other dance luminaries as Lesley Garrett and Natalie Cassidey.

Every year now the most bizarre exaggerations always get levelled at the grossly overweight contestants. I thought Alison was overmarked this week (although not nearly as much as Mark who produced one of the worst quicksteps I've ever seen not performed by a geriatric and got scored the same as Kimberley Walsh did for it) but for people to act like calling out the fat contestants scores is somehow "the elephant in the room" is laughable. There are at least three threads rehashing the point every week.

I thought Alison should have been placed below Steve and Sunetra instead of being tied. But....


He doesn't need to. Alison's spoken openly on ITT about her size limiting what she can do in some dances.


I feel like I've just read a UKIP leaflet.

Hey - seven out of twelve dances plus a 29 (for a jive in week 3) isn't actually a bad strike rate for exaggeration for effect .

Ooops ! Should have checked - sometimes I can't be bothered to watch it, especially if there doesn't appear to be anyone I know / am bothered about. Must have been the year she was in it obviously !!

I think her scores and place on the leaderboard have been pretty fair so far. I mean if she was a serious contender then a samba to Beyonce should have put her in the top four, because she is going to have to improve a lot to find a dance that suits her more than a party Latin to that sort of song. I think Steve and Sunetra had to work harder for the same score (but they are two of my favourites and I love them, so I'm biased) but if Alison had been one point less that would have been fair, and the judging system doesn't suit that kind of distinction. She put on a good show and I couldn't even see her feet most of the time, and Alijaz is great with her.

I remember when the judges were routinely blamed for keeping people in by being rude to them. If people feel the judges are being too kind to her, it won't be a vote-winner for her.

I saw Alison on a diet show many years ago (can't remember what it was) and my impression was of someone very vulnerable and emotional under the confident exterior. I wouldn't like to see the judges ripping her apart. I don't want to see them rip apart anyone, but I'd rather stop them doing it to others than wish it on Alison as well (sorry I can't word that well).

If she can stay in, tango is going to be a tough dance for her. But so far I have enjoyed her dances.

I suspect they have already earmarked her for the tour for comedy value and her personality, they have to keep her in for a few weeks to justify her place on the tour, they did the same with Anne Widdicombe and Lisa Riley.

Nail. Head. Hit correctly and true. I hope she does not last weeks. But goes around week 5-§

They did a pretty good ripping apart of Scott last night.

I agree, and it's not just about the scores.

The Judges have no problem ripping in to Judy and Scott with their very harsh critique. What is stopping them from saying it like it is to Alison?

They pussy foot around her telling her how entertaining and bubbly and blah blah blah she is. How about being honest and critique her crap dancing, and the reasons for it.