Do we expect too much from the amateurs, and is the fun aspect being lost. Listening and reading the comments are we now expecting the amateurs to be as good as the pros.

I enjoyed people like Gloria, Hunniford, Dermot Gavin, Nicolas Owen and who could forget the bloke with the swept back hair off the motoring programme.

The amateurs coming forward have been so good this year I hope it does not scare away the fun dancers like those mentioned.

There's quite a bit of difference this year, those whom you've mentioned I thought "just went through the motions" Gloria Honeyford was more interested in promoting her book and the "bloke off the motoring programme " (Quentin Wilson) and Diarmuid Gavin treated it all as a bit of the joke.
Nicholas Owen is a newsreader and they're pretty self opinionated almost to the point of arrogance and I think he was surprised he went out.
Those left in now seem very committed and I think the BBC did a better job this time of selecting the "core" amateurs who are very competitive. The rest were a bit "fluffy" in my opinion.

Whether the "seriousness" detracts from the entertainment value is a matter of personal perception.

But boy! does it cause some ructions on here!

I agree about Gloria but I think Dermot and Quentin really tried their best. I remember poor Dermot was in tears, when he could not master it.
I hope there is room in the competition for people like Dermot as well as the Jill halfpenny and Emma Bunting.

I should hope the seriousness doensn't detract the entertainment, for me personally it doesn't. I'm glad they're committed since it shows that they are willing to step out of their comfort zone, and try something different. If they're good try to be better, if not at least say I had a go and even though I wasn't good enough I enjoyed it. It may persuade them to try new different things not just dancing

I do miss having a bit of comedy value, someone like Julian Clary who just did his best and had a laugh but was always entertaining in doing it. There doesn't really seem to be that token comic this series.

I agree Julian was great. I think Jimmy Tarbuck was the token no hoper but poor Jimmy had to pull out.