How ridiculous. How could the 'wrong' person have won?
Was it not up to the public to decide who won? Are you calling millions of people 'wrong'? Surely the whole point of voting is that everyone is allowed their own opinion. Just because the Judges say something does not neccesarily mean that it is right - it is merely their own opinion. Well, last night, the public showed that in THEIR opinion, they wanted Darren and Lilia to win.

Erin completely cocked up with that last dance - it wasn't a dance for a final. Creative? In my opinion it was rubbish and Darren and Lilia's final show dance was much better.

You may disagree with me, but the votes last night showed that millions of people actually held the same opinion as myself.

Isn't the whole point of Strictly Come Dancing to teach people how to dance? Lilia was an amazing teacher and her choreography was fantastic - She created an amazing show dance whilst Erin tried to pull off a stunt.

Darren is a lovely person with a great personality, he has improved vastly and performed so well last night that the studio audience repeatedly gave him a standing ovation.

Are these the traits of an unworthy winner? I think not.

Best is defined in the dictionary as Surpassing all others in excellence, achievement, or quality; most excellent:

There is no way that Darren was the best dancer. He might have been more extrovert and blokey than Colin, but his technical ability whilst dancing was nowhere near the standard of Colin.

It's just a plain and simple fact

I`ve just been reading an article on SCD.

Unfortunately I didn`t watch the 1st series

Sorry to be a nuisance but anyone give me a quick summary on Natasha winning?

i.e. was she popular, best dancer, etc etc

Darren won purely and simply because more people voted for him to win than the others! I know the others were technically better, as a dance teacher, but most of the viewing public would not be technical experts, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have a view. If the competition is only about the technical, then the voting should be limited to people with dance expertise. But it is an entertainment show, with voting open to the public, and this year the most popular celebrity won. I see nothing wrong with this, in my view dance is the winner, the charity is the winner and everyone has had a great 10 weeks entertainment and viewing. Now that we have a winner, should we not all just congratulate Darren and Lilia on their achievement, It couldn't have happened to a nicer person than Lilia, and its great that both her and hubby have now won. No adverse comments are going to change the result now. I for one reallly enjoyed the final (apart from one of the show dances!) and was delighted with the result, but I would have congratulated the winner, no matter who won, because that was the majority decision, and they were all good in their own way.

Seems to sum up Darren very well.... He wasn't perfect - but neither was Colin. Colin's agility masked the fact that his performance was deficient in other ways.

No amount of inquests can change the result anyway...
Last edited by Helbrown : 19-12-2005 at 12:17

Darren replies: 'We never had a dictionary when I were a lad. We didn't even 'ave words. Me nan's mam had a silent 's' but that were t'sum of it. All t'family had to communicate with hand gestures. That's why me hands are so big now, and why Arlene really hurt me with all of her moanin' about me hands. I can't 'elp it. I didn't even 'ave any legs until I were nine, yet now I've gone and won a flippin' dancing thingamejig! I'm well pleased, me!'

The right person won in my opinion - Darren had the furthest journey and struggled the most - he won by public vote, fair & square - both on his dancing ability and his personality It's only a TV programme afterall

I don't think it was because Darren was more popular, I think it was just on the night people realised that he deserved it, Colin has been great all the way through, Darren showed improvement, and thank god he was in the final else they would never have had and talked to kevin Pieterson!!!!

I think in the last dance Darren was better, I don't care what the point of Colin's was I wanted to see something like the proffesionals did when they did their showdance and Lilla and Darren reminded me of Karen and Brendan whilst I had to leave the room when Colin and Erin came on.

Darren deserved it and I think it was the fact that he improved so much that made him the RIGHT dancer.

I've just read this thread with interest and one thing is clear.

It is a controversial victory for Darren, nothing will change that.

The right person was whoever won. Whether that was the right person for me personnally or not is immaterial. I'd have preferred another, but vox populi.

That's right, you know. I 'ave 'ad t'furthest journey. All right, so Colin had to travel down from Cardiff, but I live in Yorkshire, me, and that's quite a way away, and I DO struggle with travelling and that - I'm used to just sittin' on t'team bus, me - so fair do's!

Oh come now – in the eyes of the public it’s not always about who has the technical ability or made the biggest improvement. Personality accounts for quite a lot.

Remember the first series, when it came down to Natasha Kaplinsky and Christopher Parker? Who on earth would have believed that he would make the final?

Every week the judges panned him, yet every week the public supported him. And while I agreed with his partner Hannah, that his enthusiasm and commitment in the face of such vitriol was admirable, if it had been all about the dancing, then he would have gone out in week 2! Kudos to the guy for sticking with it all.

While those with a dance background can see the spurious heel turns and fleckerels that are merely shuffling in circles, Joe Public are watching from the waist up and basing their decision on whether they like the celebrity as a person. Darren came across better, I guess, than Colin.

technically Darren won.. ie more votes.. but imo his victory is tarnished as well.. i think maybe he'd already won by the show dance..! and even if the show dance would have made any difference.. the total contrast between colins and erins and his,, he had it handed it to him on a plate... a hollow victory imo.. as we will never know if he would have won if colin and erin had succumbed to the norm and not tried something different and so funnily p...sstaking imo!

I don't think the wrong dancer won. In my opinion the correct three were in the final and each brought something positive to it. I do agree that Zoe and Colin were better technically throughout the series however I think this perception carried into the final where I think all three couples did an excellent ballroom dance and Colin and Darren did a better Latin dance despite Zoe getting higher marks (this is all my own personal opinion).

When it was brought down to the final couples Darren and Lila pulled off their 'showdance' with flair and style whereas Colin's never seemed to kick in.

In that respect I think the best dancer on the night won and it was well deserved.

and imagine that travelling every day for practice

To be honest, personally I would have had no problems with whoever had come first out the 3 couples in the final.
For some reason both Zoe/Ian and Colin/Erin left me feeling a bit ho-hum (can’t explain why …..) and Darren/Lilia was always the one I looked forward to watching. I appreciate that technically Darren was not as good as the other 2, but they just had the spark that made me keep watching.
(just a quick question – during Zoe and Ian’s tango – was Ian talking to Zoe – it did look like he was mouthing something but I don’t know)
Having said that, Zoe and Ian’s flamenco show dance was fab and if she could have put that amount of oomph into the other dances then it could have been a different story.

Lovely first post Thess

She was the best dancer. In fact she was a natural dancer. She hated the show at the beginning, hated dancing, wanted to be voted out... but the public and judges and Brendan saw a talent in her... she did the 'foxtrot' a few weeks into the competition and she fell in love with dance and there was no stopping her. Then she presented the first half of the second series while Tess was having her baby. Plus her and Brendan had a magical connection

I don't that the the 'wrong person' won, but IMO the least talented dancer won, which marks this out from the first two series and made it very disappointing for me

Ah thanks Peachuk.

I was reading an article earlier which left me wondering
Quote:
In the last series Natasha Kaplinsky, I'm afraid, very quickly earned loud cries of 'yuck!'.

Oh Kitana, as a Colin fan myself, that`s what I`d love to know the answer to !!

Did the Showdance cost C & E the title?

I only hope it didnt, C & E will have no lasting regrets and Darren & Erin can fully enjoy their victory

I wonder if the BBC will ever reveal the public votes?

Oh thankyou! I wish I'd found this forum earlier in the series!!

Zoe came across better in the ballroom than the latin dances. Having said that, there were obvious faults, such as the frequent lack of body contact. But I always looked forward to seeing her and Ian dance, as they were so elegant. When Zoe got it right, their dancing was lovely and they definitely deserved to be in the final three.

It was a different story in the latin - she never grapsed the concept of dancing 'into the floor' and as a result, she looked a bit airy fairy. In particular, her volta's in the Samba were awful. And what was up with that crooked arm!

Colin was a very good performer and I think that he compensated in the top half to mask issues with his bottom half! Some of his footwork was wide of the mark, but he hit all the lines and danced with confidence, which went a long way.

Darren's size is a big factor in how he danced, not being as nimble or as fluid as Colin. To echo Arlene, yes his hands were often terrible gropey hams! While imperfect footwork can be hidden (sometimes by the lady’s frock!), poor hands are on show all the time. All of the dancers had faults (of course they did, they are not professional dancers!) but I think that Darren’s were the most visible of the final three.

Love, love, love SCD and have been lurking for ages on this forum but have had to come out of hiding to comment on this thread.

I'm not a trained dancer, though I love to dance, but it seemed to me that the main differences between Darren and Zoe/Colin were mostly down to physique rather than talent.

C and Z both have all the natural physical attributes necessary for a dancer - leanness, elegance, flexibility, long slim limbs - that make it comparatively easy to learn to dance and also sometimes make average looking dancing (as we saw occasionally with Zoe) look good.

Darren, on the other hand, is bigger in build, more muscle-bound, stiff and burly, with large 'ugly' hands and looks nothing like a dancer, which very often detracted from his excellent footwork and timing.

The judges, probably rightly, saved their highest marks for those who were more the 'complete' package - those who danced well AND looked like dancers. The public, however, saved their votes for someone who had - with enthusiasm and humour - very nearly reached the same standard as the other two, despite having nothing like their natural physical advantages,

I thought it was really interesting to see how well Darren did on Saturday when he was finally able to dance two dances - the paso and the showdance - which really did suit his physique. I wonder, personally, whether Erin made her bizarre choice of showdance because she knew that slight, elegant Colin would never be able to achieve the sort of spectacular audience-pleasing lifts that Darren pulled off with aplomb.

Problem with that theory is that Colin should have had no real problem with those lifts - none of them actually required that much strength.