I'm probably also biased but Heather & Brian's Salsa was generally well received and Heather did have hip action which Cherie did not. Also there was an awkward moment when C&J went wrong and just stood there holding hands. None of the judges commented on this. Also despite it being a 'fast' dance the tempo was somewhat slowed down. It looked as though H&B doing such a good dance so early on was not part of the script.

I see Rachel as one of the best dancers in this series and Len is the traditionalist who usually marks on technicalities. The only fault I could se in R&B's jive was that her kicks could have been sharper but then so could Lisa's head movements.

maybe Craigs got Lens 1-5 paddles under his desk as a back up

He has complained in previous series about using the cape, and on ITT as well last week I think. He says it is unnecessay as the woman is the cape. As soon as I saw Tom using one I knew what he was going to say!

The judges should only mark on the dance on the night and any comparisons to past dances by earlier contestants should not be in the equation.
It doesn't matter that Heather's Salsa was superior in week one, that's not the criteria for the current week. It's the dance on the night that counts - whether the steps were performed correctly. the dance was entertaining etc..

A judge doen't have to like a dance to know if it was good or not.

Well Heather's dance on the night was very good and should have been marked accordingly.

Cherie's dance on the night was poor and should have been marked accordingly.

Perhaps he has OCD!?

He managed to find it for Mark.

Exactly. And as for 'marking it on the night' ...that was Heathers first dance on the show. If its about performance on the night, she should have been way ahead of Cheries mark for last night.

I also have the feeling that for the dances last night, Heather was penalised for not living up to expectations - coming right after Austin and looking so good and confident, with Brian seeming pleased with her progress, they were expecting a lot. I appreciate it wasn't as good as I might have expected - but I'm sure if she had danced after Andrew, John and Cherie it would have been received and marked much better from the judges as they would have compared it more to their dances (which I feel were worse) rather than comparing to how good they thought it was going to be.

I get the feeling that as head judge he has to correct what he sees as 'wrongs' by the others - therefore if he feels Craig marks too low, he makes up for it by highering his score - so John was given a 3 by Craig, so Len tried to even things out by giving a 6.

Only when he feels the others have scored properly does he feel able to give his 'own' mark if you like - btw, he has complained on many occasions about capes - last year and the year before and I feel his comments to Rachel were fair - her jive was very dull and lack-lustre compared with say, Louisa Lytton's last year. (I've never been a Jill Halfpenny fan).

One thing I have to take issue with is his marking of Austin Healy - to give his shimmy-shammying a 10, thereby putting him on a par with the brilliant Mark Ramprakesh was almost sacriligious. Keep Austin at 8 till he dances from his heart.

[QUOTE
One thing I have to take issue with is his marking of Austin Healy - to give his shimmy-shammying a 10, thereby putting him on a par with the brilliant Mark Ramprakesh was almost sacriligious. Keep Austin at 8 till he dances from his heart.[/quote]

Yes, for me his facial expression isn't consistently 'in the dance' to be worthy of a ten yet even though his feet might be!

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. Craig's nicked them because he's worn his own 1-5 out already

P.S. I'm in the "Len's an irritating know-it-all" camp!

Len has lost the plot - the way he ripped into Rachel was awful! And I hear he didn't do DWTS and Michael Flatley stepped in. What is going on?

I think he's just a bit tired.

BUT.... just watched DWTS with Michael Flatley - we do not want him - I was wishing for Len to come back It's a strange day when Bruno is the voice of reason on the judging panel!

I think they all give their scores independently in those electronic keypads (or at least they should) so Len shouldn't know what Craig has scored them or vice versa. Although he'll have an idea from the comments. He is an absurd head judge giving mostly 7's for a range of performances. He should give his own mark in all cases. He doesn't have the right to compensate for others if he feels it's unjustified. He gets to give his score, the others give theirs. If he is balancing the others out he should be kicked out.

O/T but it didn't get his rant about Rachel this week. IMO it was far and away her best 'performance' yet. I actually thought the choreography let them down as it was a bit tricksy and kept breaking up the momentum and flow.

I've been thinking for a while this series that Bruno has been one of the fairest and most sensible judges! His critiques have been fairly spot on without any OTT gushing or too mean (not OTT for Bruno anyway!).

Actually - I agree, he's been very fair most of the time - no wild Kelly AS-type decisions.

I agree. You are right - Heather's Salsa is much better than Cherie's. Heather's seemed to me to contain more dancing -Cheries had too much ring a ring a roses arm bridges etc.

Heather also captured the body movements of the Salsa much better than Cherie did.

It doesn't make any difference which week they were dancing. Heather's superior dancing should have been reflected in her votes. Cheries inferior dancing: ditto.

Otherwise, why are they there proffering votes?

Let's be honest, the judges voting is often all over the place.

How can you really take it seriously when there can be swings of 100% from so called experts on a panel that are watching the same dance?

(eg) Craig awarding a 3, Len marks it as a 6.

It's a joke .... to such an extent that you can usually guess their respective marks before they are actually given.

Sometimes, I do think Len sometimes marks high to balance out Craig's low mark, as some of Craig's marks have been quite unfair. At the same time, the dance should be marked on merit, not on what Craig is giving it.

To be fair on Craig he uses the whole scale of the points from 1-10. Giving someone a 3 isn't really that unfair when you think Len could give the same couple (who probably were really bad) a 7 and then another couple a 8 and then there will be a couple vastly better then the couple he gave a 7 to but not as good as the 8 and he'll give them a 7 even though they are much better then the first couple.

I think one of the reasons peope think 1-5 marks are unfair is because Lan doesn't seem to have any of these paddles and Arlene and Bruno don't usually go lower then a 4 or a 5. I just think Len is really been grumpy the last couple seasons, and the misery at a cape in the Paso made me laugh at the same time as being totally amazed. He might not like the cape but he's never made such a big deal out of it as he has this year.

[quote=opal88;28500599]I get the feeling that as head judge he has to correct what he sees as 'wrongs' by the others - therefore if he feels Craig marks too low, he makes up for it by highering his score - so John was given a 3 by Craig, so Len tried to even things out by giving a 6.

Only when he feels the others have scored properly does he feel able to give his 'own' mark if you like - btw, he has complained on many occasions about capes - last year and the year before and I feel his comments to Rachel were fair - her jive was very dull and lack-lustre compared with say, Louisa Lytton's last year. (I've never been a Jill Halfpenny fan).

One thing I have to take issue with is his marking of Austin Healy - to give his shimmy-shammying a 10, thereby putting him on a par with the brilliant Mark Ramprakesh was almost sacriligious. Keep Austin at 8 till he dances from his heart.[/QUOTE]


much as I adore the Ramps, 2 things

1 Ramps never got a 10 for his QS

2 he actually only got 10s for 2 dances the AT and the salsa (in the final)

I thought the 10-was deserved and it's interesting watching Austin now copping the same backlash at about the same time that Ramps did in series 4

Len is losing the plot. Almost every dancer goit a 7 whihc means those that were far better on teh night (Rachel and Tom for example) only get an 8 because they were not Len's 'cup of tea'. WTF Len. Tom's paso was brilliant IMO. So what he used a cape so have many others before (forget Chris Parker though LOL).

As for Len's 10 - pathetic. Austin's dance was the best but he made a few errors so surely no more then a 9?

IMHO Len does NOT want Tom or Rachel to win. Hes picked his winner in Austin and Cherie as a finalist.