This is what really annoys me.

If the judges dare to say anything negative then either Patrick or the contestant or Carrie, her husband and Kevin just get so aggressive and shout the judge down who dared to criticise.

What happened to one's right to an opinion? The judges are on there for a reason and they should be allowed to say whatever they like, however personal or professional it is. If the contestants don't like criticism they should not appear on these programmes. That simple.

I always tend to agree with what Craig has to say, he says it how we at home think. But he always gets cut off, quite often by David, who can come across as quite an agressive man. And Kevin must go down as the rudest man for shouting Craig down on more than one occasion.

I would love to hear Craig's view in full, without being interrupted.

I agree about Craig. His views have been the most consistant with my own.

I am getting a bit fed up with The Grants keep butting in. The judges are there to give an opinion. It in fact helps the students more often than not (ie they are kept in), when they are negative about them so I can't see the problem.
Last edited by cherry o : 14-03-2007 at 10:44

Ah come on, the judges opinions are part of the whole pantomime. Just like Richard Park suddenly becoming Mr Nasty for FA2 because they had to compete with Simon Cowell.

How much influence do they have? Well they managed to get Shaun into the bottom 3 on the one occasion that all three praised him to the skies, including words like "masterful" etc. ie, they can give the impression that someone is safe! Though the public finally are starting to catch on, thankfully and last night I think the votes were pretty much on merit. For about the first time!

I know, David and Carrie seem to think they're the only ones who have a right to an opinion. I think they have a grudging respect for Lesley, but assume every negative comment the other 2 make is a load of rubbish. I was so annoyed on one show when Craig was telling someone (I think Linda) that she was out of tune and needed to join the phrases up more and David said he must be deaf.

Carrie and david have lost the plot. You can say its bad in a positive way - saying its good all the time just confuses the students and the public. This series they have overinflated all their students with the result that the students have no clear idea who is good or how good .

Edith made sense challenging Richard but the reply he should have made was to point out that the judges job is to tell people who is bad, who is better and who is really good. its not to give everyone a "good" for singing 15% of the song in tune.

The problem is that the judges are woefully inconsistent. they don't decide on whether they prefer technique or emotion, whether they reward, effort, difficulty or improvement or whether they penalise lack of variety. They failed this series to decide if they wanted any comedy and failed to defend their two comics who could sing. Its clear they don't hear most of the songs because the backing music is battling with the studio noise and they seem not to get the final product in their ear. We know they have judged on rehearsals before and its otherwise inexplicable how often Richard claims the beginning is poor when its actually brilliant and how often in this series they have described the beautiful as problematic and the bland as very good.

Thats before you get to the nonsenses of building up silly stories, attacking some peopele rudely to get votes and trying to second guess the public which they do either poorly or get totally wrong.
Last edited by thenetworkbabe : 14-03-2007 at 23:17

The fact that Colin Murray and Richard Park get along very amicably when they are both on Radio 5's "Fighting Talk", yet appear to hate each other on FA just re-inforces the pantomime theory - the BBC obviously feel it would be boring telly if the judges were nice all the time and have encouraged all the arguing.

I agree that Craig's view is usually the most accurate - hard to know who the most annoying of the other two is. I have lost track of the number of programme's in a row Lesley has said Tricia has by far the best female voice in the competition. As for the judges against the tutors it really is pantomime - you just know sooner or later Kielty is going to call them in.

I too get annoyed when the studio audience are apparently too ignorant to realise that Craig often gives a very constructive opinion, but boo him without thinking just before he sometimes give praise to somebody.

I think Craig has been the much better judge this series. He's given strong criticism, but he's also given a lot of praise.
And although I don't always agree with him, I've found myself agreeing with him a lot this series.
He often gives a critique which isn't the easy and safe thing to say.
Take away the judges completely and let the studio audience be the judge and just watch what a crap show you'd get.

Richard has just been insane.

Lesley has just been a waste of time because her words never seem to have any honesty to them. She's been so overly complimentary for so often that I simply don't trust a word that comes out of her mouth.

Carrie and David work better in their new roles, although David looks so pompous and up himself wheh he argues with Richard. Sometimes they have a valid point, other times they just interfere too much.

Kevin needs an ASBO order slapped onto him.
Last edited by Alrightmate : 14-03-2007 at 23:51

Kielty should butt out.
He has to milk his part doesn't he.

Problem is its all they are doing. It may be SCD fallout - they tried there to sway the vote and keep their best dancers but just activated an anti-judge vote which made sure many of the better dancers left early . Perhaps they just give up now and decide to go with any old result but try and get some votes coming in by slating people randomly?

It may be the audience - this series has just over half the viewers of the last one so perhaps the assumption is that those people like pantomine and thats Richard v Patrick and Richard v anyone else.


It has the air of going through the motions though. Carrie and David don't look excited by anyone as they were by Edith and Kim and Debra. Mel was the only one who got praised much for " beautiful" singing by Carrie - that was the word reserved for Aex and Edith.. Lesley is treading very near to saying that she has people who are tunefull and different people who have emotional content. Craig doesn't like anyone left that much apart from Tara. Richard seems not to really like anyone since Mel and Tim left and he stopped laughing.

Shame really as they built good stories for Ray and Angellica which ended up going nowhere - unlike Reggie last time. When the show needed its comedians more because there were no great singers you would think they would have protected them from the vagaries of the public vote. As it is there is no one fulfilling Ade's role at all despite the show starting with two comedians who sang really well and ought to have made the last 5 to give a real choice.

Its now got no comics, no great singers and without Angellica and Ray on their journeys only really has Tara with any story or ability to raise a smile. They ought to have been able to do something to avert that mess surely?

You know what you talk a lot of sense maybe we should campaign to get you on there as a judge

The judges have a right to an opinion, but so do Carrie and David and they ALL have a right to express them