Jezza's been in heat magazine!

Why didnt anybody tell me

Thank you for the replies about the poppies.

I hope Jeremy stays in this week. I'd rather lose Jamelia or even shock horror, Kellie. I enjoy watching Jeremy more.

Thank you very much.

I would imagine actually winning the thing with Caroline was a little bit amazing too

Then theres Rachel....

I think Pasha has a bit of the Carol personality too

I usually read Heat in the hairdressers, so better late than never!

Across the nation retired Army Officers will be drowning their sorrows in gin at the thought of no more Carol running up the stairs.

My friend's husband (a nurse with many working years ahead of him) watches the show under duress, and says that the running up the stairs bit is the only part that makes it bearable for him.

Carol and Pasha - lovely people. Not a lot happening though, which isn't great for Strictly.
They did OK, and Carol is very popular - probably even more so after Strictly - so a success.

Jeremy and Karen - lovely people, but there is energy, purpose, - stuff happening. Makes great entertainment on Strictly.

CC with Karen was OK but I preferred Kristina or Joanne. I was hoping Karen would become a bit more efficient (like Kristina), and I would prefer if it felt a little less like she isn't allowed to criticise.

Ditto. It looks like she has learned something, though, from the positive reaction to Jo - her demo today was a lot more precise than normal - much more of a teaching exercise. People are interested in that - we want to really understand what they mean. Being told someone has a lovely top line does not mean a whole lot to most viewers, who can't tell a good one from a bad one (and I include myself in that category - I can more or less tell now from years of watching the programme, but don't know the fine detail). Jo however did many more demos.

Still, where Karen did criticize today, I think she criticized the wrong things. Jay's problem is not in his body (if there's anyone out there who is not using the full extent of the lines, it's not him), it's in expressing the dance in his face. He is very aware that he has trouble with this and is trying to deal with it.

I don't think anyone was better than Joanne on CC and my feelings remain with Karen back. She'd obviously seen the reaction to Jo in particular, but even then, it still feels a bit stale. I feel like as time has gone on Karen has started to 'phone it in' so to speak, so while it seems the others have given her a kick in the derriere I find her a bit lacking these days. I don't dislike her or anything, I just think there may need to be a fresh perspective, or instead, getting some fresh eyes back more often.

I feel Ian is starting to wane on his mid-week slot as well.

At least Karen wasn't doing all the girly squealy stuff.

My other half says he only watches it for the running up the stairs bit.

However he did volunteer that Tristan was doing to dance Jamelia into the guitar case if he wasn't careful. So he is paying attention at other times, much as he'd love to deny it.

BIB
I agree. I didn't understand what she was talking about for that reason. Maybe she was told to push the 'Jay can't express' theme? Jay has said many weeks ago that he needs to show on his face what's inside, so I'm going to be patient about that. I think he is an emotional guy, but has trained himself for many years to suppress it.

I loved the laugh that burst out of him after going through the sparkly door after the AT. It sounded like he had been holding that in.
https://instagram.com/p/9y403lH6EF/?...by=bbcstrictly

You can see how he controls himself at the end of this.
https://instagram.com/p/8AefwtNewg/?...y=birdspotting

He's getting there though. Once he can learn the dance and not have to concentrate so much to deliver it, I think he will start expressing more.

That's what I thought about Joanne when she was doing CC. She dropped that which was one of the many reasons I enjoyed when she did CC.
Karen also does annoying facial expressions and some squealing as a rule so on that front I found Joanne better.

(of course Jo could revert if she was on regularly, so I won't be using that as an argument for her to replace Karen)

Jay did an AT though. Someone correct me if I'm mixing my dances up, but I thought the AT posture was supposed to be like this:
/ \
(A shaped)

If I am correct, then driving a (very tiny) bus through the gaps in an AT would be a good thing.

One of the things I love the most about this show is the genuine friendships it creates. I believe that carol and Pasha and Jeremy and Karen will remain great friends. Lovely interviews from these 2 tonight

I thought that too, anothermi. Also, there was no gapping in the American Smooth the previous week, so Aliona must have worked on it for the dance where it was needed.

That's what I meant. Joanne much better.

Annoyed me that they didn't get complimented for that (in the AS). The amount of gapping on Strictly nowadays is really noticeable and the judges used to bang on and on about it. Then when you get a couple who are glued together when in hold, they don't say anything. It seems like the judges are gradually giving up on the technicalities year by year.

It's like her "telephone voice" everyone's mum had a telephone voice didn't they.

Yep .. that was mentioned by someone. Either Len or Craig .. Len I think when he was explaining the difference between tango and AT.

Honestly, if you want to know anything about the AT - don't look to Len or Craig

I find it rather sad that a dance that has been elevated to almost mystical proportions on Strictly is so terribly misunderstood and explained.

[quote=fatskia;80300763]BIB
. I think he is an emotional guy, but has trained himself for many years to suppress it.

Nah - notice the Northern No

He's from Nottinghamshire - almost the North.

You don't cry in public - Jay said after that Jive he was determined not to cry.

He gets over-whelmed I suspect - joy of dancing and adrenaline

On the TV show there's the crowd cheering him, the enthusiasm in the Claudatorium

Plus he's still in the 'zone' and has to come back to earth.

But whatever you do, you don't cry in public

Ah. Thanks for the clarification. I clearly misunderstood your point. At least we agree though.

I thought that was an slightly odd thing to say considering he won it last year and met his girlfiriend on it!
When they were doing their final talk with Tess on the Sunday show, Pasha said he couldn't believe someone could be so nice. I thought at the time that Rachel might not like the implication that she isn't!