That's hilarious. The judges were biased against Tom and Austin and in favour of Rachel and Lisa. Maybe Brendan has forgotten the 10s doled out to the limp cha cha he did with Lisa that year?

... So Brendan's not on the show next year, and he has no agenda here (I'm being sarcastic) and is being completely unbiased . Ha ha.

Meg

I actually thought it was a well written column, voicing his own opinions without actually insulting anybody. Not taking a leaf out of JJ's book at all who only comes across as a bitter has been in all his tweets and vents.

Fair call!

I quite like Kevin but he's seriously grated on me this year and Louise has reached the point where I never want to see her on my TV again after next week. I think it would do Kevin a LOT of good to have a very low profile year or two after this so we can kind of forget about him for a bit and then hopefully view him more impartially.

Brendan is on the show, the FM was talking about Lens replacement, so that throws your theory out the window

Is Brendan's column solely based on what he sees with his own eyes on Saturday night?
If so then they are highly valid, JJ's and others who are commenting from what they see on screen from the poor direction are less so.
Brendan makes good points, Louise has plateaued, unfortunately, love it when the celebs actually noticeably get better.

His last paragraph sums up why I enjoyed last night's show.
It wasn't so great for Claudia but it's left everyone confused and thrown the final wide open. It needed a bit of excitement.

Plus it's made James Jordan stop watching.
Bah who am I kidding, he'll be back next week.

he really does need to detach himself from SCD now. I understand his sheep, sorry followers, trust his opinion but its smacking of sour grapes, sprinkled with a huge dose of desperation.

If Brendan is writing negative critiques in newspapers about the show, I would be surprised if he was on it next year.

Meg

I thought right from the start that the judges favoured Louise, and I don't know why I have found her dancing very boring, robotic and lacking any feeling or passion. Her receiving high scores didn't make any sense


Yes I think they need four new judges. I am glad Len Goodman is going. He said that he had received so many letters begging him to stay on as a judge. I fast forwarded thru the judges' comments, as I don't think they are worth watching.

Getting rid of an original pro for telling the truth? Hardly

MtoM

I don't think he has but he doesn't really a specific axe to grind anymore. I mean what does he gain but critising the judges unless he's angling to replace Len. The only comment I'd take issue with is his one about the rhumba being hard for a bloke - he's never trained a bloke what the chuff would he know about it.

It's a difficult diliemna as to if you someone should go through on form or current performance but do think the judges should mark what's in front of them and let the public decide how much form counts with them or not.

The DO is much more of a grey area. I'm actually not particularly a Claudia fan and I do acknowledge the point but as a Greg fan we can't claim that he wasn't bailed out during a bad week but the difference was his fans did it for him (including me) and not the judges and I've done it before for other people I've liked including Matt DA. It's also worth noting that Claudia has been the most affected this series by the dart throwing music monkeys giving her choices that work against her producing good dances rather than helping her and AJ. Although Ore certainly hasn't escaped that nor this week did Louise - I agree with this http://www.dancing-times.co.uk/stric...aking-week-12/ saying that some of the reason why her tango was crap was do with the music - not all of it but it was certainly a factor we know that Lou can produce a good moody argentine version given the right music to do so.

I agree, he won't be able to help himself!

Why? Who gains? And what do they gain?


Len is technically knowledgeable- how much peace and harmony has that led to?

I think Brendan has a canny understanding of what makes a click-worthy article; a certain amount of controversy makes for more interesting reading than the many other pleasant but bland articles. If he stuck to being diplomatic and "professional" then it would be the equivalent of a Hello magazine article. And as controversial statements go, it's still well within the bounds of acceptability.
But the best insider gossip came -I felt- from Tristan's Q&A articles.

Probably up for the chop like the chicken, what goes around
comes around.

He says "For one thing, everybody's top line was a bit funny"

What is that supposed to mean . If you're going to criticize please make it clear .

Then again "I think it was Louise who messed up a couple of times during her tango, obviously went wrong, and didn't have the right position, didn't have the footwork, and yet she's getting a 10."

He thinks , either it was or was not, please make it clear .

I actually feel like I watched a different show from everyone on Saturday.

Louise got the death slot, a samba, terrible music, and joint last on the leaderboard. I really really don't think any producers or judges were really doing her any favours.

Despite being joint last, she still wasn't in the bottom two so she outpolled Danny and Claudia, and potentially Ore (but you can't say).

If anyone is rigging it for Louise, it is the GBP as she has yet to land in the dance off.

I don't understand why people take their dislike of Kevin, Len, producers, life, brexit, rain, etc out on her. Her dancing doesn't exactly light my world on fire but she seems to be loving life when she dances and I think she has earned her place in the final.

I'll be mourning Claudias showdance though, that would have been great!

Nobody seems willing or able to answer that. However the one theory I read on one thread is that the producers fixed the outcome to ensure the person that was most popular with the puplic was eliminated rather than the person least popular with the public to improve ratings. Not sure how that works but make what you will of it.

I agree with every single thing you say.

BIB - I wonder which family is sending those letters??

I don't know where you're getting that the link between a dislike of Brexit and her from dude. I despise Brexit and am very not keen on her as a contestant - she seems like a nice person but she and Kevin are not responsible for Brexit. Has she earned her place in the final - well yes enough people like her to vote for her and she hasn't 'earned' her fans through appealing to the lowest common denonimator of people laughing at her and she's a good technician so yes she does deserve her final place. She not my cup of tea and there's no denying that she's been badly over-marked at least in the semis and IMO she doesn't deserve to win SCD - it shouldn't be won be a technican it should be won by a star or at a push in a bad year I'll take a character actor.

yup Ian Waite Karen Hardy Artem James Jordan, LLOL id love to watch the x pros judging !!! would have far more respect when they do the job day in day out

Of course he has.

He may be retiring from strictly, but throughout the year, there's nice little earners, the BBC can give him, presenting programmes on subjects with which he has but a tenuous connection, like the one on the building of the Titanic, as he'd been a "failed apprentice welder," at Harland & Wolff in Woolwich.