The acting is very important in this role and last night's scenes showing which girls could hack it and those that couldnt should have been in the main show.

Only Rachel, Sarah, Franchesca and Ashley proved they could act last night. But a lot of viewers wouldnt have seen that.

I agree, the little blonde one was v.good(sorry, can't recall her name). She has actress eyes, very expressive. I think she is the best all rounder, as she also has a very good singing voice.

I think it also showed well and truly that Jodie cannot act and although she appears to be popular with the public, she shouldn't win for that reason.

I think a lot of people are forgetting that this is just important as the singing in this competition. Jessie appears to be the favourite but she proved in this task that she is just not up to the acting.

She seems very sweet and is a good singer but in my eyes she just does not have the tough, gritty, streetwise personality that Nancy should have. ALW has said that his ideal Nancy would be Amy Winehouse - take a look at fresh-faced Jessie - do you think of Amy Winehouse?!?!

Ashley impressed me this week. She wasn't really shown much in the early shows but I think, especially based on her acting skills, she could prove to be a dark horse.

In the main programme Jessie and Fran stood out for me - unfortunately Jessie wasn't up to the acting which imo made Fran a front runner and I began to see something that I'd been missing in Sarah.

Of course Jessie could 'grow,' but could she grow enough in the time available - I'd be very surprised.

Sarah, Rachel and Ashley were the best actors inthe clips shown. The younger girls werent any good at all so the show is very misleading. They should focus more on the acting each week.

I'd like Sarah to win. Great all rounder.

So you'd judge her only on the week she had the flu, that sounds fair. Lets just forget that she decided to soldier on rather than wimp out like other people would of.

I like Jodie but you could see she isnt in the same league acting wise as Sarah and Rachel.

Whilst Jessie was described as being "all over the place" and clearly didnt impress Denise as much as some of the other girls, you have to remember this is her first opportunity of formal training so it stands to reason that she would be weaker then some of the others who have more experience.
All those whom Denise picked out as being impressive have had 100s of hours of acting classes under their belts. Rachel and Franchesca are both professionals who have acted in major productions and Ashley and Sarah have both attended high profile drama schools so it stands to reason that they should be the strongest ones - in fact I would have been disappointed, if at this early stage in the show, that they werent head and shoulders above the rest as it would have shown they had no ability to learn!!!!
However if you look at how much Jessie has improved and grown between week 1 and 2, it shows that shes obviously very quick to learn and really focuses on whatever constructive criticism she receives in order to improve her performance. No doubt she has taken this weeks critic on her acting and is working her ass off to improve on it. I dont think her lack of experience should necessarily be held against her especially so early on in the competition

I'm not sure we've seen enough in one highly edited acting challenge to really see who is capable of what.

It's not surprising that Rachel, Sarah and Fran seemed to do quite well as they all have professional experience. I'm sure that the others all have talent as well to have got into the last 12. They may well shine in the next task.

I thought that short girl was fabulous. I know the judges say she has the wrong physicallity etc but imo she was the best actress and a great singer. I also thought the scottish girl with the red hair was fantastic

i seem to remember that neither Lee nor Connie did well in the acting challenge and in fact most of the Josephs failed several of the tests and it has done them no harm-- I think clever editing as usual and not much of an indicator for me I am afraid

Lee was barely shown in the acting task with JB last year but more than proved his acting credentials particularly with Bad Day and Paint it Black. I think the only task he was shown as failing was the DVO seduction one .

*not biased *

We see only what they want us to see !

You can't draw any conclusions, not all the contestants were shown and at the most we saw about 20 seconds of anyone, we're totally reliant on Denise's highly edited comments. The show has to be careful about promoting its own editorial on the girls and telling us who is good and who is not, we are to make up our own minds based on fair competition with each girl given an equal chance. I feel we had Cleo thrust down our throats too much at the start of the series in the editorial and the result is she was not ready for it yet and got kicked off the show.

Lee's acting was second to none and he proved that with every single song he performed on the show. Bad Day, Don't wanna talk about it and especially Paint it Black were masterclasses in how to act a song.

Connie was a good performer and could put across a song but she wasn't much of an actress and her limitations were revealed in the role of Maria. If only they had focused more on the acting element, it would have become obvious that someone like Aoife was much better all round performer for the role. I still haven't gotten over the fact that she wasn't even in the final. Total travesty.

I have my reservations about these 'tasks' but in this case, it didn't surprise me that Francesca, Rachel and Sarah shone. It's clear from their performances that their acting abilities are strong. I'm beginning to suspect that these three are the best all round choices for the part.

As for singling out Jessie, I think that the producers are always trying to create an interesting narrative. They're trying to keep things lively. So Jessie puts in the best performance on Saturday, is overwhelmed by praise from the panel, but nobody wants the audience to get complacent and lose interest, so Denise expresses concerns about her acting and so we're back to square one again.

I actually believe that the Nancys are, in general, superior actresses to the Marias. Which is a good job, because the part requires strong acting skills.

Yes, I agree with this. And Andrew only takes these 'tasks 'into consideration when it suits him. Classic example from last year was the 'singing in a loin cloth in front of your mother' task (which disturbed me greatly, for many reasons ).

Plenty of the Josephs messed that up, including golden boy Lewis, but it was only Seamus that Andrew decided to hold it against and decide 'he's not my Joseph' on the back of it. He went out that week, despite three very good performances.

Its no surprise that the best actresses are the experienced performers Rachel, Sarah and Fran. These three really should be in the final if any justice is done.

I thought Rachel and Sarahs acting was very good but I'm not sure about Fran. She looked like a dodgy actor from East Enders to me. A bit Dick Van Dyke if anything

Very good point. Totally agree!
I had Jessie and Jodie as possible Nancy's but then the acting task showed Sarah and Ashley to be in the running too - in my opinion!

Ashley is a fantastic actress- she trained as an actress for three years before her musical theatre training.

I was also impressed with Fran, Sarah and Rachel.

Such short clips though, its so hard to tell out of context- I'd love to see more acting in the show, its so important!

I totally agree. The whole task VT was heavily edited. Not all the girls were seen either in the rat part or the acting part.

As you say, it was hardly a surprise as to who was singled out as 'the best'. To be fair, though, Denise did question whether Rachel would be able to pull off such an emotional performance 8 times a week. Also, as my mum pointed out, she was already in an emotional state after the whole rat phobia thing.

Of the three who were highlighted as not so good, I think Jodie and Jessie came off worse. Samantha forgot her line but that's hardly indicative of not being able to act - everyone does that at some point.

Also, considering Tara is a professional actress in whatever Welsh soap it is, she wasn't shown at all for some reason.

conspiracy theory

they show someone as weak - then shock horror they get through on an automatic place - keeps the tongues wagging and the forums busy

I think we have to remember some of the girls have never had experiences like this before, and that they're going to learn and progress as the weeks go on.

As for Jodie, she had flu so we can't be sure she wouldn't have been better otherwise. I'm still pretty convinced she's got the potential.

But since watching that acting task, Sarah has become one of my favourites. I was blown away!

Woo Woo