I am confined to the house at the moment with a stinking cold, and feeling sorry for myself, but cheered up by reading Craig's comments in the RT published today. Like him or not, and I do, his comments are perceptive and shrewd. Looking at the full list of celebrities, I realised that, as usual, they divide into three groups for me - people I have never heard of before, mainly because I don't watch the soaps they are in, nor do I follow much pop, nor watch much on ITV; this includes Jamelia, Georgia, Jay, Anthony and Kirstie), people I have heard of but know very little about (Peter, Jeremy - love his brother Tim though - Ainsley, Daniel and Iwan), and people I do recognise and already have an opinion about. (Helen - love her in CTM, Carol, who makes the dullest day full of sunshine, Anita who is lovely whatever she does - her Who do you think you are was one of the best in the recent series for me, and Katie, who, unfortunately really gets on my nerves , especially on the Proms. So I must admit that I come to each series of SCD with a whole basket of prejudices. People I already like I like even more, those I know little about don't usually mean much to me, but those who are unknown I am probably less biased about. This year it is Kellie who has really captured my heart.

So Craig's comments really chime with my views and I feel a lot less sorry for myself, though still sneezing and coughing. It does make me wonder, though, if I am ever really fair in my judgment of the dancers.....

Some of the things he said were nice, but I think he should remain impartial as a judge.

It somewhat detracts from his credibility when he already has a few in mind who may win.

Also, it's a little unfair and disheartening to those he thinks don't have a chance. If a judge has already made up his mind, then why bother?

To prove him wrong, perhaps?

I agree that Craig should really be impartial. Anything can happen in the next few weeks. As a judge he shouldn't write people off at this stage nor should he be predicting who will win.

I liked Jeremy's article in the same RT about the rubbish written about them in the tabloids. He said he's never met a group of people he has liked and trusted more. The stories about Helen were particularly cruel, he said, as she is the shyest of the group but is delightful. Daniel is still supportive even though he's left and seems a lovely lovely man.

When I saw the thread title I thought we were giving Craig a half term report, not reading one from him. I was going to give him a B minus since it appears that he is no longer reading his “Quick guide to….” books properly. Instead he is just taking a pin and sticking it into a random page to find his topic for the week.

So for Argentine Tango it appears that the pin landed on “gancho” this week. For Rumba he apparently found a blank page and decided there were no steps.

In respect of the RT article, I think I would also prefer a more open mind at this stage. There is still some way to go.