Jodie and Ian undermarked for the 3rd week in a row

- the judges definitely have their favourites and are determined they go nowhere near the bottom 2

But their favouritism has a habit of coming back to bite them; remember Zoe Ball and Emma Bunton?

I am a Cherie fan and I think she would agree with you- as would James- they were clearly not expecting the marks they received at all!

The problem is that people associate the overmarking with the celeb and blame them!

Most overmarked for me tonight were Tom and Camilla with a routine that had me rolling on the floor in tears of laughter at his paso face and the most camp routine of the series- how on earth did it get those marks!

Closely followed by Rachel again and possibly Christine- unusually boring poor choreography from Matt IMO.

Undermarked? I think Jodie

The notable ones were: Jodie and Ian who were undermarked (although perhaps not by as much as some people saying if Len's comments about the heel leads were true). Both Tom and Camilla (dodgy cape work and laughable acting) and Rachel and Vincent (your supposed to flick from the knee love!) were overmarked (especially T&C).

Not sure if Austin deserved a 10 although he didn't make any obvious mistake from what I could see and it did balance out Craig's 8 so I'm not too bothered. And if the likes of Jodie, Heather, Andrew or John had given a performance like Cherie did they would have got about 10 marks less.

I completely disagree, I think the only dance that Austin was overmarked on was possible the Samba, the rest of his dances have been fantastic and incredibly challenging. Ok we can argue about the 10 but at the most he was overmarked by 1 mark tonight, hardly a capital crime. I also think Lisa is not that criminally overmarked either.

Jodie, I agree, looks undermarked, but her performance was brilliant but the judges thought her footwork was terrible. We don't know, we couldn't see it.

I think Rachel has been way overmarked and there are others that would put her in your first group, I thought her jive was very poor tonight and it was the dance that I thought would be amazing, as I think did everyone else as she got to go out last.

That's the interesting thing about Strictly, we all have our favourites and we all have those we can't warm to, as do the judges and so we all start shouting whenever we see an injustice. I don't think the judges are doing it on purpose, they're marking as fairly as they can on what they're all individually looking for, we don't always agree!

I can't say that Austin was overmarked on the whole, as it was technically very good, but it didn't strike me as a dance that deserved a ten. It was just missing something for me. I can't put my finger on what. I loved the fact that there were no frills, it was just a proper QS, but I didn't enjoy the choreography for some reason.

As for the others - Cherie as overmarked again and I hope this doesn't continue as it will work against her. I also thought Rachel was a little overmarked as it wasn't bouncey enough for me and her flicks weren't strong enough.

I can't make my mind up about Tom. There were moments where he was great and looked very authentic for a male celeb, but then others where he lost me completely. I didn't look at his face at all and so can't comment on that - I want to watch it again after reading some comments on here! I agree with Len about the cape.

I thought everyone else was pretty close to what they deserved. (I missed Jodie's dance though) I really enjoyed Lisa's Tango.

Jodie was shockingly undermarked.

Cherie was overmarked imo. I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw the scores... she was shocking.

Its funny I was comparing Heather with Cherie and there was no comparison.. Heather was much better. i thought the marking tonight was dreadful and showed complete bias.

I know what you mean. He didn't make any mistakes from what I could see, and as you say technically good, but generally one knows when something is a '10' dance and this just wasn't one. I think he was just a little bit stiff and didn't quite sell it enough for me, just comparing to Colin's QS in series 3 which seemed a bit more relaxed and had more sway to it (and Colin's lovely smile of course!).

Exactly! It was ridiculous! I couldn't take it seriously. Camilla's paso face is bad enough but Tom's put me in mind of someone....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/china/learninge...16848_hill.jpg

Jodie and Ian were under marked

Jodie has improved so much since the start; also I think her height shows up mistakes more than some of the others.

I thought their Waltz was very beautiful, and I loved the story behind the dance (I love Pride and prejudice anyway, and thought they carried off the story really well)

Jodie shouldn't let this knock her confidence at all, she is great and improving so much. I think Jodie and Ian have such a great partnership, and I would really like them to stay in the competition for as long as possible.

I think that Jodie represents the normal ability of most people learning to dance, and she has improved at a fantastic rate, which is what the programme should be all about, celebrities learning to dance, the Judge's should cut them some slack and take the difference in abilities into account, rather than reward the celebrities with some obvious dance training with constant high scores.

Sorry for the rant, I just wish the scoring was a bit fairer.

It all seems a bit 'form book' to me - no way did Austin deserve a 10, but he does seem to be the judges' favourite.

Jodie's waltz deserved better marks (and shoot me now, but that was yet another reason I'm liking Brendan more and more this series).

And I thought Heather was badly done to as well - her cha was worlds better than her samba (? - the thing she did in the silver dress) and took more skill than her Viennese last week.

Jodie & Ian seriously undermarked

Cherie seriously overmarked - at the end she completely mucked up the routine and stood there like a lemon not knowing what to do with her arms and bumping badly into James, don't get me wrong - i like the girl but c'mon judges lets not have favourites

Austin (whilst he's one of my favourites) didn't warrant a 10 in the end - despite my hoping he'd get one based on mid-week training. I think my expectations of his Quickstep were built up far too high.

Rachel - undermarked for the second week running. I felt she deserved an extra couple of points.

I think the rest of the marks were about right. I was mesmerised by Jodie's Waltz, but I have to trust Len when he said there were technical flaws for which she should be marked down.

I agree - just as I feel the difficulty of the routine should be taken into account: should an imperfect, though demanding, routine score higher than one with no difficulty at all, simply because the latter kept in time to the music? imo yes.

Me too - I liked that touch by Brendan - and agree Heather was undermarked.

I don't think it's possible to trust Len after tonight. His scoring was all over the place. He slated Christine for her "bottom half" - in other words all the footwork - but she still got an 8.

What did Len award Jodie?

How tom got as much as he did bewilderd me, I thought Jodie was miles better than him, same with christine

Craig = 7
Arlene = 8
Len = 8
Bruno = 8

31

The remarks from the Judges were really grumpy

I thought an 8 was adequate for Jodie - especially if her footwork was dodgey.

If the marks were based on performance alone, she deserved a 10!

I think I feel so grumpy that she didn't get a higher score because some of the others made more obvious mistakes and get scored as high or higher, like last week with Cherie (Who I think is great) she had a huge mistake at the start, and it really put a damper on her performance but she still scored 31 (The same scores actually as Jodie got for her Waltz) 7,8,8,8) It just doesn't seem fair.

I share your concerns.

Some of the celebrities seem to be scored more favourably based purely on their reputation to be good.

I think the more stringent marking that Jodie is subjected to will play in her favour. It gets the audience on side and the fact that her scores are slowly creeping up means she's an ideal candidate for the obligatory 'journey.'

Good post. I have been doing Waltz at my dance class recently, and personally I find it harder than a lot of the Latin dances. It's not as easy as one might think to follow, especially if one is not small. The footwork has to be precise, the turns correct and the elegance and performance are another aspect to be added. All that comes a bit more naturally with the exuberance of say, a Cha cha. Well that's my opinion. But that's why we love Strictly, and that's why the 'J' word crops up.

By the way, I think I've sussed what's up with Rachel. On paper she should be fantastic and should have blown us away with the Jive. However, there was a lack of punch, and it was a bit disappointing. I suspect she's not very fit or sporty. She doesn't seem to have much strenght in her legs. Vincent had put together a routine that involved some knee bends and a fair few of the trademark kicks and flicks, and neither were precise or quick enough. I think she's great, but not terribly fit with not much leg strength. Letitia Dean did as good a job last year. Louisa and Jill H spoiled us in previous years.

I think you are right The only worry I have is that it might knock Jodie's confidence, luckily she has a great Partner in Ian and hopefully he will carry on the great work with her and she will continue to do better and better I feel some of the others may have peeked too soon, and are still being rewarded with higher scores.

For me Strictly is all about seeing people learning to dance, improving and getting the bug to dance. They don't have to be foot perfect or hold perfect they just have to show the enjoyment of the dance and frankly make me want to do it I loved Alesha last year, she had such a passion for dance and the show and was a natural. But even if her footwork hadn't been great, she showed off the dances so well.

I was actually shocked at the marks Jodie and Ian received, compared with certain other couples. Seemed woefully low. Beautiful performance, in my view... loved every second.