I missed the first season of SCD so was unable to witness the pure comedy gold of Chris Parker week after week.

However thanks to all the bad vibes in this series I wonder

1 * What on earth the judges reactions were at the time?. I can imagine there must of been weeks when you could see the steam coming out of their ears. Surly this must have registered that the show was more light entertainment than a pure dance competition.

2 * What the forum's thoughts were (more in a general sense)

3 * This must have resulted in some fairly good/improving dancers being eliminated. Who really deserved to stay longer. Was anyone really bitter?.

I can well imaigne that these have been discussed before but for viewers like me who missed the first series I would love to know.

Best Wishes

J

I missed it too - but I would have found it infuriating because from what I've seen, he should have been out first week!

I can't warm to Natasha and Brendan at all - certainly compared to the later series contestants, they seem incredibly stiff and awkward

Does anyone know where you can find any of his dances - they aren't anywhere on youtube, and I want to see his paso fully!

From what Len used to show in his masterclasses of Chris I'm not surprised he got as far as he did.
It looked like he was having the best time of his life. He was awful but entertaining at the same time

Chris and Hanna ( the cat from saturday's free style)
were always heavily critesised by the judges, they were in despair that they came through every time.
And yes Natasha and Brendan seem a bit stiff compared to other series. The standard was not so high.

Thank God that particular 'era' is over!

The first series turned into a bit of a joke the further that Chris Parker progressed. There was no way he would have made the final if he had been in any of the other series, the standard is much higher now. Natasha and Brendan would have probably struggled as well.

Arlene was REALLY harsh to him, but he was an truly terrible dancer and always got terrible scores.But to be fair to him he wasnt as bad as David dickinson, the memory of his 'jazz hands' will never be lost.Natasha and Brendan wouldnt have even got to the semis in this series,the highest score all series was 36.the judges didnt overscore in that series.

As you say it was pure comedy gold and a masterclass in how NOT to dance!

Yes he should have been out early on - but don't forget we also had the awfulness that was David "Jazz Hands" Dickinson in there too........

Why did he stay so long???? Well IMHO there were 2 reasons...

1. He was a VERY popular character (Spencer Moon) in a popular soap - so had a huge fanbase in what some have so kindly described as "the target audience" for SCD; and

2. The judges mauled him week after week - literally ripped him apart so he was assured of the sympathy vote.... every time. The public only woke up to what they were doing when we lost Lesley and Anton in favour of Chris.... I still maintain that Lesley and Anton could well have won if they'd actually got to the final.

You would think that Parkergate would have taught the judges to watch what they say and how they say it - but 3 series later with the same thing happening time after time they still seem so surprised that the voting public don't like nastiness and vote for the judges victims - in their droves.....

Does anyone know what his lowet and highest scores were. I wonder if he ever managed to get that elusive 1 that as far as I can remember has only been awarded to Fiona

I didn't give a toss how bad Chris was, as long as it meant that Hanna stayed in the competition, I kept on voting.

I loved the first series, it was just fun then. Just simple saturday night entertainment.

Sorry to go off-topic but I've read posts on this board where people claim Carol Vorderman didn't enjoy her SCD experience. Can someone please explain to me what happened? Thank you.

She did very badly (espeically the rumba ) and got slated by the judges. Carol particularly could not take the criticism from Arlene and turned into a slagging match after she was voted out.

Really? Did she ever answer back to the judges whilst still in the competition?

Hmm not sure but I read what she wrote in the newspaper later where she called Arlene a witch or something... Can comeone help to dig out the article? I am sure I read it on the forum somewhere but it was over a year ago now...

I read that Carol V called Arlene a "Sharon Osbourne wannabee but without the looks and brain".

Ouch!

Yeah that sounds about right!

I thought at the time Carol actually made it even worse for herself. She also refused to go on the final show if I remember correctly.

Hell yeah . . . she crushed Paul's chances in the competition, which was horrible for me to see.

Carol was partnered with Paul Killick (and they were one of the pre show favourites) and they did a fabulous waltz - complete the Killick trademark of illegal moves (eat your heart out Brendan).

The second week was an unmitigated disaster - they did a rumba and Carol was trying to be sexy and it just didn't work!They got slated by the judges (Even Esther Rantzen's "dance of Desperation" was way better) Carol was voted off but it apparently turned into a real catfight with Arlene which apparently had all started in the Make up room where Carol thinks Arlene thought she(C) was laughing at her getting the slap trowelled on.

Carol wrote a 2 page article in the Daily Mail about it - saying that Arlene had in in for her from that moment and that's where the Sharon Osbourne comment came from. Carol didn't come oout of it very well - Arlene maintained a dignified silence and Carol eventually realised the reason she got voted off was that she was so bad - in the rumba at least ..... shame really ' cos no-one apart from Colin has EVER nailed the rumba - and Carol's waltz was lovely (illegal moves and all)

LOL oh the joy that was Christopher Parker!

He simply could not dance a step and IIRC Bruno told him that he looked like he was stamping on cockroaches in the Paso. BUT the public like an underdog and Christopher had a huge fanbase on which to reply. He succeeded in getting the sympathy vote week after week and while it was fine up to a point, Anton and LEsley should have been dancing against Brendan and Natasha.

Anyway - the judges really ripped into him saying the most apalling things yet he just bounced back to do it all over again. He always seemed genuinely shocked at hearing the results!

Hannah was brilliant. She defended him to the hilt and never said he was anything less than wonderful. I applaud the guy for having the guts to do what he did every week. that took guts.

This is a good interview with both Chris and Hannah
http://www.christopherparker.biz/presscuts/now0704.htm

And I found this clip of him (and a few others) on 2004 Sport Relief. Just watch out for the flapping steps he does behind Hannah about three quarters of the way in. Classic Chris!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEvN_nxIcpU
Last edited by Thess : 18-12-2006 at 21:50

That's a good interview thanks Thess.

Wish I could have seen it I saw clips and it was pure entertainment!

Peter and his Samba was the closest we got to that this year!

I vaugely remember him saying to the judges " I don't understand what can i do to get better" after another mauling and the judges replying something like "stop dancing". Looking back its easy to see why he got the votes- I dont remember the judges holding back and he seemed quite young and vunerable (like Lousia).

Thank you so much for the link to that video - I'd never seen that performance before.

Bless Hanna, she looked so adorable.

Series one will always be my favourite.

You can see her talking to him all the way through. She just knew from the outset that he was not going to win on technical ability and so set out to make it an enjoyable experience for him. She went up in my estimation for being so supportive and encouraging.

Christopher Parker's scores were:

Cha Cha - 19. 4,7,4,4
Quickstep - 23. 5,6,6,6
Jive - 19. 5,4,5,5
Foxtrot - 28. 6,7,8,7
Samba - 15. 3,4,4,4
Waltz - 22. (Don't know the breakdown from here on)
Paso Doble - 15.
Tango - 21.
Rumba - 16.
Waltz (Final) - 24.
Jive (Final) - 17.
Paso Doble (Final) - Don't know the score.
Showdance (Final) - 22.