Best - Series 13. I'm not a diehard Strictly fan and had dipped in and out of each series, got interested in some, less so with others then last year I was hooked.

Worst - probably Series 12 - it really didn't spark any interest at all. In fact, I nearly didn't watch Series 13 ....... cue the Holy Jive

Series 11 has a real place in my heart. I know that everybody whinged about it being filled with a bunch of no-names, but star power/iconic presences never really corresponds to great dancing or being entertaining to watch. The cast is an absolute hoot, including (but not limited to):

. The early exits, so gloriously annoying: Vanessa Feltz and the accompanying tornado of verbal diarrhoea, her desperate quest for 'badinage' and breaking James Jordan. Julien McDonald and his inability to make anything coming out of his mouth listenable/bearable, and probably giving Janette tinnitus.
. Deborah Meaden, who was clearly having the time of her life before having that carpet yanked right out from under her feet. I remember her exit being a minor heartbreaker.
. Rachel Riley (who is one of my favourite celebs in general) probably having one of her favourite shows forever tainted in her mind by that run, but gaining herself a Pasha in the process.
. Fiona Fullerton, the most unfounded of all signings (I still reeeallly want to know the thought process that led to the producers pulling her name out of nowhere), and her Daily Telegraph column passive-aggressive flame war with Susanna.
. Ben Cohen, treated like, and most often dressed like, a common-or-garden Channing Tatum Magic Mike stripper throughout (which I feel like we wouldn't have gotten if he'd been paired with Natalie as presumably planned). Unfortunately, the Matthew McConaughey equivalent character here was Bruce Forsyth bellowing out 'Get ready ladies, herrrrre's Big Ben!', which rather kills the vibe. And he won a Kristina, which started off THAT whole rigmarole.
. Mark Benton, who's one of the few (possibly the only) comedy contestants who was quite low-key and charming, and could be earnest and grounded when he needed to be. His partnership with Iveta was magic, he had to endure some of the worst costuming ever pushed onto a contestant (Blofeld bald cap rumba! Cheap lion onesie samba! Shiny disco spaceman paso!), he had blown out his knees by the end but barely mentioned it and certainly never milked it.
. Ashley Taylor Dawson for his life-threatening work schedule and winning the cute-child wars forever with a friggin newborn, born in week 2.
. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, my third favourite contestant of all time (behind Alesha and Chelsee), who was a joyous jolly hockey sticks head girl type, was clearly a huge dork (researching the Charleston and presenting her findings to Brendan for extra credit, the nerd). One of my favourites because I can watch anything she danced and find something to enjoy about it (barring party latin showdances and vampire crab jives). This series was full of people who were there for the experience of dancing and consequently really enjoyed themselves, rather than being there for cynical careerist reasons, which I think really makes it a worthwhile watch.
. Natalie Gumede, who I appreciated but couldn't really love for most of it, until she stepped it right up towards the end and started waffling about the divinity or somesuch (see, another one who was there for the LURVE of the DAHNCE, it's foolproof). I'm still mourning how we never saw her Proud Mary jive because she fainted, but if anything that's proof that it was too awesome to have even existed. (Yes, I know she did it on tour)
. Susanna Reid, who could give Dr Pamela a run for her money on sheer overacting alone. Her Amazing Pivot-a-thon Waltz followed by the Flaming Blackpool Carmen Paso Doble is probably one of the best sets of back-to-back dances done on Strictly. Fiona had a point: her arc was all PR, all military precision, but pulled off almost seamlessly to put her in the beloved public underdog position and presumptive winner. And this meant Kevin was the perfect match: of all the pros, beneath all the banter, he seems to approach the show with the most strategy, and so together they were a two-headed charm offensive.
. And finally Abbey Clancy, who I think in retrospective was a rather vanilla winner as compared to any of the other options, though I was pleased at the time. Nevertheless, I still rather liked her: I remember there being a rather horrid backlash here based on the WAG status when she was first announced, which is enough to get me to like anyone.

I can't list every dance I liked from this series, because this is long enough already, but this series produced some absolute top-drawer classics:
. Mark's MC Hammer Cha-Cha-Cha, Sophie's Charleston, Susanna's Waltz and Paso Doble, Abbey's Waltz and Natalie's American Smooth and Salsa. And Sophie's Foxtrot, which did what I thought was impossible and made me not just like, but love a foxtrot, of all dances.

A few great/(memorable, at least) moments off the top of my head:
. TOUCHING THE DIVINE.
. Natalie lip-syncing 'You're a vegetable!'
. Sophie: 'I'm 34, Brendan!'
. Ashley launching himself crotch-first at Ola's face that one time
. Ashley having to swim with whales to learn how to waltz because why even?
. Artem in a onesie, surrounded by Natalie's friends and looking embarrassed to be alive.
. Artem's head appearing in a microwave for a Halloween VT. I may be misremembering this. I hope I'm not?
. Aljaz's attempt at the Scouse accent, which sounded more like Derpy Doopy Deep Deep.
. Ola and Karen's feud that one week.
. That group dance at Blackpool where they all fought (well, some of them only pretended to fight) over the Glitterball to the sounds of the Ballroom Blitz.

Plus, this was the debut series for Iveta (ish), Kevin, Kevin Wearing Glasses, and Aljaz. And I'm sure Anya and Janette were great too, but I couldn't get a strong impression from them due to their partners being (respectively) overwhelmingly bland and all-around overwhelming.

(And I don't give a monkeys if it was rigged for a woman to win, we've beaten that horse to death now, let's move on)

Least favourite: series 10. When the personality highlights of a series are Michael Vaughan and Victoria Pendleton, you've got to cast your show better. There isn't a single dance from that series which I unabashedly love (even series 7, which was turgid, had Jade's samba to Independent Women), which is disappointing. Also, I remember a sea of obnoxious, overmarked Charlestons, which are my absolute least favourite kind.

I Really enjoyed reading this . I agree with it for the most part. Glad to see that Series 11 is among a lot of people BEST. I have to say that when the cast was announced, I certainly didn't think that it would be that memorable; but boy I was proven wrong
You also got the feeling that this cast genuinely liked each other ; it was just so lovely to see. Often times, you get " cliques" in some series but with this cast, with different personalities it was great to see their camaraderie.

As a James Martin fan without a doubt my favourite series was Series 3 (I was gutted when he just missed out on a place in the final, being pipped by Zoe Ball).

As far as worst series goes, none really spring to mind.

The Matt Baker season, and the Harry Judd season will never be bettered, for me. I was really invested in several of the featured pairings, it was an emotional time for me lmao.

I abhorred the Tom Chambers-John Sergeant season. What a clusterfudge. And the Ben Cohen season purely because of Ben Cohen, the muppet.

Series 2 to 5 represent my land of lost content, shining plain.

Julian Clary, Aled Jones, Quentin Wilson, Mark Ramprakash, Darren Gough (sorry!), Colin Jackson, Alesha Dixon, Zoe Ball, Jill Halfpenny, Gethin Jones, Kelly Brook to name but a few

BEST: I loved Series 8, 9, 10 and 11.
WORST: Series 13. If 14 is similar to 13, SCD's lost a viewer.

Deleted

To expand on why I chose Series 8.

The final 6

Ann and Anton.
Ann brought her own rules to Strictly, which excluded a lot of the Strictly 'necessities'. No-one could have done a better job than Anton did, to create weeks of entertainment.
This is actually an apt illustration for their partnership.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-viobgagnok

Scott and Natalie.
Some competition dance experience as a child and a great teacher in Natalie made Scott a strong contender from the start, but a heavy workload on Eastenders led to one of the strongest examples of burnout on the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYQv6cj3phM

Gavin and Katya.
The irresistible force meets the immovable object. Katya was one of the most motivating pros ever - I have no Idea why they didn't keep her for many more years.
IMO great pairing and great viewing.

Matt and Aliona.
I like Strictly as a test of mettle, and I think Matt and Aliona exemplified that, and took it to a new level. Matt doing one, then two jobs while travelling around Britain and Aliona making the most of what training they could get, where they could get it.

Katya, Gavin, Aliona and Matt - this gives an idea of the challenges they overcame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v508Hvr5kik


Pamela and James.
Another eclectic and strong-willed pairing. Pamela changed perceptions of older celebs to 'If you're good enough, you're young enough.' James showed many of his best qualities, and their partnership flourished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muqibGBXQqI

Kara and Artem.
Artem inspired to his best choreography by the celeb with the most natural dance ability. Kara's dyslexia made learning more difficult, and again there was a contrast where they inspired each other to adapt. Genuine romance to deal with too and it was a bit of a tear jerker at the end. Worthy winners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhzWhdXFz6E

Oh you hated series 13 that much mind telling me why you loathed it so much, I'm actually intrigued was it because there was a "run a way winner" oh and not forgetting everyone's favourite line "there wasn't any point in watching after week 3" yet people still did but I would love to know why thank you

Best - series 6 for Rachel and Vincent, until dreadful Tom and Camilla won
- series 8 for Kara and Gavin & Katya - ITT clips of G & K with Claudia - hilarious !
- series 13 for Jay & Aliona

Worst - series 7

Series 1 - The start. Not really quite sure what it wanted to be yet and I didn't stumble across it till mid-series. Dancing, even at the top end, wasn't brilliant.

Bottom end.

Series 2 - Finding its feet. Much better both in standard of dancing and clientele. Very enjoyable.

Top end.

Series 3 - The year of the man. Very enjoyable until the narrative became totally predictable. So about week 2 then... (don't go there tabitha)

Middle (just for some of the dances)

Series 4 - More men. Not personally invested in any of the dances or the contestants. Apart, maybe, from Louisa Lytton but that's more in retrospect. Ramps, although pretty, was a tad vanilla and was dancing with Ms Hardy who has always rather got on my t*ts. Matt Dawson and Emma Bunton pee me off for completely different reasons. I've never really got the hype around Ramps' AT (don't shoot me) although I did rather like his salsa.

Middle(ish) towards bottom.

Series 5 - Gethinwuzrobbed. Very enjoyable until semi-final shenanigans. While in retrospect, the best two almost certainly got to the final, I didn't appreciate the amount of say the judges had in this one. Right winner though.

Top end.

Series 6 - Austinwuzrobbed. Again, enjoyable until the Sergeantgate. The cast were an interesting mix and I enjoyed a lot of the dances. Then John Sergeant decided he was Edward the frigging Eighth and everything descended into a pool of bile.

Bottom end. Partly because it seemed to herald...

Series 7 - The Cola Conquest. Awfulness. Ricky Whittle should obviously have won but there were issues. Ali Bastian managed to be bland and irritating in equal measure and the stuff with Fortuna was just... a bit bizarre. In the end, I wasn't even sorry that the Hobbit won. Thank God I was off my box on industrial strength analgesia.

Bottom. Firmly rooted.

Series 8 - The Renaissance. A phoenix rises from the ashes. Despite the blight upon the series which was La Widdecombe, this shone like a star in the strictly firmament (vomit). And it brought us Kara and Artem. And many memorable dances and moments.

Top.

Series 9 - The next one. Solid enough to keep Strictly on track, this was always a little bland as a series for me. I knew Harry would win (even more than I knew Jay would win last year) and he was... unobjectionable.

Middle.

Series 10 - The Olympians. Another one that was a bit meh. There were some decent moments (the Vaughan jive) and I rather liked Louis but I found the last few weeks somewhat interminable.

Middle

Series 11 - The year of the woman. Despite positive praise from many others, I wasn't thrilled with this one. Natalie and Artem apart, I found the rest to be... Actually that's probably not fair. It started well then descended into meh-ness. Apart from Natalie who (on her scale) did the opposite. I was pleased she made the final three and I was glad (at the time) that Abbey nudged out Susanna. And the divine was touched. And there was that charleston. And Mark Benton. Whom I bloody love. Maybe it's better than I thought.

Middle

Series 12 - Dance-off madness. This wasn't great. I was pleased with the winner but this wasn't great. Nothing really stood out and we had Mark bloody Wright to suffer through. Right to the last bloody week.

Bottom end.

Series 13 - The Holy Jive. I liked this one. Mainly because I really liked the winner (which always helps) but there were some other decent highlights along the way. Anita being Anita and Gleb being Gleb, Helen being beautifully bonkers, Jamelia and Tristan burning the script and being completely irreverant, the sad demise of Peter Andre after such high hopes. Oh and some of the dancing was rather good too. Honourable mention to Georgia's charleston.

Top end.

I apologise for the length of this post. I decided I couldn't answer the question properly without going through all series. So I did. Not that anybody cares.

I was going to put 13 as my least favourite and then deleted my post. I know you were/are a big fan of Jay. He just wasn't for me (either personally or as a dancer) although he seemed to be pleasant enough and in the end the general adoration and predictability of the result were too much. I did like his jive though.

(Ps, as an olive branch, like you I loved Harry's QS.)

Favourite : Series 5
Up until S5 I was a bit of a general viewer. Some weeks I watched, some weeks I didn't. I got really into Stricty about midway through the series. Matt & Flavia danced a salsa, Alesha & Matthew danced a Cha Cha Cha and both were brilliant! They then had the Dirty Dancing group dance on the results show of that same week if I remember right and from then on I was an avid viewer.
A week or two later and Vincent & Flavia danced their 'Kissing You' waltz and I was utterly hooked! Throughout it all I didn't even know DS existed and I only discovered this forum after I had gone to the live tour. I believe it was pretty nuts in here with fan wars during series 5.

I also enjoyed Series 10 as got to see Flav lift the glitterball and thought Louis/Kimberley/Denise all had some great routines.

Worst : Series 13

I can't say I really enjoyed last series. Other than Anita and Gleb it was all a bit meh. Can barely even think of many other celebs who took part other than Jay & Georgia now.
Jay had a great Jive which I still love but I don't really remember any of his other stuff. Loved Georgia's Charleston but again I can't recall much more other than that.

Series 6, despite the winner.

Worst was series 7 - because of the winner.

Best- Series 12 (seemed to go my way, apart from Judy leaving :P)
Worst- Series 10 (Denise didnt win!)
In the middle- Series 8 (Tina went out too early!)

Series 7 is my best and worst.

Best as i loved Ali and Brian and got totally obsessed from their week 1 rumba

Worst as it still pees me off that Chris and Ola won over either Ali or Ricky

Best: series 8 - great final 6 in entertainment terms and brilliant winner. Also loved series 4, 5 (great cast and even though I wanted Matt & Flavia to win I could see why Alesha did) and 6 (not for the winner, but for Rachel and Vincent).

Worst: series 11 and 12 - boring and didn't really care who won by the end. The winners were pretty poor dancers but the judges massively overmarked them and pretended they were better than they were. At least with Chris Hollins and Darren Gough they didn't pretend they were brilliant until they had to in the final because it was obvious they were going to win.

Overall, I haven't really been 'involved' in the sense that I really care who wins and would hate to miss an episode since series 8. The last few series have felt like they limped to an end rather than built to a nail-biting finale.

I never saw what all the fuss was with Jay either. He was a good dancer, and his jive was good, but I don't think it was as amazing as everyone made out. It was very overrated. The "best dance ever" comments I feel were over the top. I certainly don't think it was as good as Jill Halfpenny's jive. I also don't think his other dances were as memorable. I agree that that it got too much and that him winning was predictable. I've got nothing against him personally but he could probably have just stood on the dance floor not doing a single dance step and he would have won.

I hope this series is more open as that makes it more exciting.

There is a lot of people who don't like last year. It was my favourite so far but I think this year will easily be as good or better

Same here. Usually I have one strong favourite but last year I absolutely loved Jay, Helen and Anita and thought they all deserved to win. I'm still gutted that Helen went when she did

Maybe series 8 was the best for me. Series 3 maybe the worst as Darren Gough along with Chris Hollins were the two worst winners.
Cannot deny Caroline Flack's win despite despising her.

Best: series 5 - all the drama of withdrawals and early exits, plus the brilliant Alesha & Matthew, and a great final with Matt & Flavia. Also pretty much the last time the show did everything right in terms of sticking to no-nonsense dancing and having a properly challenging, two-couple final.

Worst: Last year was not a good year - Jay & Aliona were brilliant at times (and I loved how they just took the proverbial out of the producers and didn't care ) and I quite liked Helen & Alijaz, but there wasn't much else to recommend the last series at all. It's all getting far, far too gimmicky and I don't find that fun to watch.

I liked series 7 a lot more than most people do.

for me best series was Season 5 and Matt and Alesha

worst - only one I stopped viewing Season 8

Worst series for me was Series 7, and not just because Hollins won.

Best series : although I didn't think Jay should have necessarily won as his showdance was disappointing, and his ballroom not too great either, Series 13 was still my favourite. However, worst dancers won, among them: Daren Gough, Chris Hollins, neither who were very good at any of the dances, and Caroline Flack who failed miserably in the ballroom.