Craig is being Craig and Rinder is used to dishing it out in his own arena so I can't imagine that he is the least bit bothered by Craig's comments.

"That would be an ecumenical matter"

Yes, Jan Ravens and it was far worse. Sadly, I've already searched the highs and lows of the interweb and never found their "interaction"

Did it work for her?

Did you feel the bad feeling was more real than pantomime too?

IIRC, she turned to him and said "Well, I hope you are happy now!" with a face like thunder after she was eliminated. According to the urban legend, her husband had to be restrained at the BBC bar after the show, he was going to give Craig a proper hiding.

So, answering your question no, it didn't work for her. 😝

ETA: I'm glad to be corrected, maybe Monkseal has a better memory of the events

Best thing about Strictly is when real feelings surface: whether joyous or uggerly.

It sounds wonderful. It scores five on the popcorn rating
🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

Yes, it was after she was cut - she yelled "HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY NOW!" at Craig and he did an "Am I Bovvered?" face at her.

The stuff about afterwards is mostly from Craig himself to be honest. He claims that Jan kept up at him backstage afterwards that it was his fault, until he just told her that it wasn't his fault the public didn't like her, at which point she got her husband involved, who started pushing him around physically trying to start a fight, then other people intervened. Again, that's just Craig's version of events.

Yes, you can never know the complete truth of what goes on backstage unless you have a mole there, so in this case we only have his word to "believe". However, what happened on camera was glorious, long were the days when this sort of thing happened. Like I said, everybody is too media trained nowadays, meh. We had some controversy with Jamelia and her "air quotes" last year but it doesn't compare, really.

Craig usually seems to
- separate out his scores by finding reasons to mark people down (often for silly reasons)
- mark his favourites up and everyone else down, repeatedly (for same silly reasons)

Rinder is just another case of that. If Craig has decided that Rinder isn't as good as Danny&co then he might just keep marking Rinder down until he's gone, basically.

After Rinder had his moment of backchat with Craig last night, did anyone else hear Craig mutter: "I haven't marked you yet", before the cameras cut away to Roberts and his coach going upstairs? Craig then scored Robert a 7 when none of the others gave lower than an 8.

Granted Craig often gives scores lower than the other judges, but in this case, was he docking Rinder a point for defying him?

Just an idea and I'm not sure I'm right but maybe he's ruder to Rinder because he knows he can take it?

No that's pretty much how I remember it and she was practically shouting at him. She would have killed to have been as ascerbic back as JR but then again she'd have killed for his scores and comments. I didn't like her - she survived Spoony and Georgina just as she was improving but the women wasn't ruddy grateful or had any self-awareness she had a better run than she deserved. It wasn't Craig's fault you were crap dear.

That said weirdly enough him and Widdy seemed to get on.

I think there is some animosity between Criag and JR. JR was pretty bitchy about Craig on an ITV morning show he was interviewed on.

That is possible actually and he knows that JR can give as good as he gets.

No he's been quite rude to people you wouldn't expect as well, if you go back through the years. He hasn't actually been that rude to Rinder yet by his own standards.

Yes I did, which confused me because I thought I'd heard or read that the judges entered their scores on their electronic pads when the dance finished. So, either Craig was telling a fib just to be bitchy or they don't mark till after they've spoken to the celeb.

I never really know with Craig. He's overstated things before to celebs in previous series, but then those celebs have said in interviews away from Strictly (like radio shows, mags) that they actually get on really well with Craig (after and in between live shows) and usually don't take what he says to heart even if on the show it looks like they had.

I do think it's getting a bit old now though (the facial expression comment) there are other aspects of the performance that Craig could concentrate on to help Rob improve things for next time.

It's a valid comment. His gurning is distracting and he takes criticism poorly.

Despite his ludicrous stuck on "posh" accent, Craig has absolutely no class and proves the saying about it being impossible to polish a turd.
His parents obviously taught him no manners.

Also, I've no idea who decides the - "you're safe" order of things after the voting, perhaps it's random, but for at least the last two weeks, I've felt sorry for Rob as they've made him sweat it out right to the end. He's looked petrified.

Unless he actually is in the bottom two next week I doubt they'll do it next time.

They like to announce the dead certs early and Ed (to make it look like he is uber popular with the public which he quite probably is) so we are left with some feasible maybes for a cliff hanger. As the number of couples has reduced there are fewer maybes to pick although as they say "no particular order" so Rob could be a heck of a lot more publicly popular than we know.

Well, when Greg leaves (next week?) Judge Rinder will get my votes.

I think he desperately wanted to stay in on Saturday because of his grandparents being there. It was interesting though that as soon as it was clear he was through he didn't looked instantly relieved but concerned for Daisy. I've noticed that with a few of them, that glad as they are to be through their next thought is for the one who isn't. Shows there are some genuine friendships between them.

It's all pantomime villainy to me, Rinder is a Barrister, he can take it!

And he does have a strange gurn when he dances, I bet he never does that when he's in court

There's nothing like a good old bit of misinterpretation is there? Honestly, there is so much of it in this thread that I gave up trying to quote it all and decided instead to just say it all here in the one post:

There is NO bitterness between Craig & Rinder. As soon as it was announced that the latter was taking part, the immediate angle the press took with him was "Catfight to end all Catfights - Craig vs Rinder". Hell, Craig was even asked on the Launch Show specifically about how much was he looking forward to judging Rinder (maybe even twice) at which point Craig drew first blood by made some bitchy pantomime-style response.

Why was Craig asked specifically about Rinder? Because they are both renowned for the sharp tongues and withering putdowns so to see how they would square up to each other was apparently "fascinating".

As for Craig saying "that's the first time I could look at your face, he wasn't personally slating Rinders's looks but the ridiculous gurns he adopts when dancing. Its not like we ALL can't see them so Craig is fully justified in his comments without being personal.

Then, regarding Craig's "that was stupid as I haven't marked you yet" comment, he did not call Rinder 'stupid' directly as someone alluded to here earlier, He was actually referring to Rinder's bitchy response to the face comment when he said: Let me know when that happens with your face Craig!".

Their whole relationship is very clearly based on pantomime which every viewer and his son expected and which the two drama queens are playing up to to the hilt. Theirs is nothing like Jan Ravens and Craig where she pointedly blamed him for her exit live on air.

So, enough with the conspiracy theories - just sit back and enjoy the bitchfest while it lasts!

I had a vague feeling Robert may even have started it in the first week when he made some comment about looking forward to hearing from "Three of" or "most of" the judges. I assumed there as some history between them but it was more "banter" than serious. Could be wrong though