I've been thinking this for a while now and just wondered if anyone else thought that he might not actually be that worthy of his "evil" judge tag?

I personally think that he is always reasonably fair and isn't guilty of constantly over marking his favourites (although I do think his 3 for Jodie's Samba was too low).

I also like his constructive technical criticism and would much rather have heard and listened to some of his remarks if I got to the dance off and needed to do something to make my dance better, than some of the twaddle that comes out of Arlene's mouth for instance!

He also seems to be able to laugh at himself, and not take his position to seriously unlike some of the others.

Yes, agree with all of the above, and I'm an ex dancer so I should know - even if I can't do the splits any more

The rest of the judges are barking egotists!

Best judge by far,even when I don't agree with him

i think he's vile - pure poison.

He's also inconsistent. people seem to think because he marks lower and doesn't give out many tens that he marks fair, but if you look at last series he marked Alesha's jive, foxtrot, salsa, waltz, cha-cha, tango, samba, viennese waltz, paso, quickstep, AT, and her final cha-cha and jive. How could they all be of the same standard.

He appear not to appreciate simplicity in choreography as with Cherie's AS.

He also appears to write some contestants off early on and decide they are never going to be able to get good mark. A classic example of this is Peter Schmeichal's Tango, the best tango from a male celeb that series, Craig gave a six, and gave Ramps Tango an 8.

Scoring wise he's the best judge.

Personality wise my favourite is Bruno because he genuinely seems to enjoy it and take it all in a fairly light hearted manner.

I dont always agree with his scores, but he is the only one who uses the scores properly. You have got one to ten, so why not use them
Trying to seperate 12 contestants only using the 6 to 9's is a bit stupid.

Unfortunately anything below 5 is taken as an insult. The judges have themselves to blame for that. If they had started off using the scores correctly, there would be an understanding that they were just ranking the dancers.

The alternative is for them to wait until all the dances have finished, then rank the dancers and add all the rankings for each dancer together. That way there is less chance of dancers feeling insulted.

No...I'm the best judge.

Out of the 4 I definately vote for Craig as the most useful, and the most able to laugh at himself.

Given the other judges that might mean he's the best of a bad crop, but he gets my vote nevertheless.

Yes....a high mark from him means something.

Best judge by a mile!

He's the one I agree with most, also an ex-dancer....it's just the way he says it sometimes!

Craig is the best. He evaluates routines, not individual dancers (i.e. their physical appearance, their character, etc.). I don't remember him insulting the dancers, although his critique of their performance can be quite scathing. Besides, he always explains what he didn't like and often suggests improvements. This year other judges sometimes follow his example and offer their advice, too; yet they often are carried away and, in their attempt to elicit laughter, think more about uttering something entertaining or shocking than about giving professional advice to the contestant.

Der Chef says

Up until recently I would have said yes however his problem is he seems to flick between two modes.

Clearly he goes into SCD with a mindset of still being a West End choreographer and auditioning people. Clearly despite his protestations he has preconceived ideas as to who can be a dancer and who never really will.

Basically he can be excessively technically picky to people he regards in the latter and these seem to get forgotten about when he gets caught up in the overall performance of people in the former.


Ohh Yeah

I totally disagree he is about the best judge but he has preconceived ideas as to what a dancer looks like

In terms of scoring he's the most strict, (does that equate to best? I don't know) but in terms of comments he's the worst.

Does 'stick insect on acid' - directed at Mark Foster qualify as an insult?

I think he has the potential to be - i.e. , when he is constructive and informative about any faults with the dancing and how to correct them. I also like some of the positive comments he makes and he does take the stick he gets from Bruce in good humour. I do think he can be over-zealous about good performances sometimes though, although when he uses words like "fab-u-lous" and "rugbylicious", "daaahling" and "chaaa chaaa"chaaa, I can't help but smile.

I have my ideas about the ideal dancer's looks, too, and I think they are close to Craig's.
Having ideas is not a crime, as long as I don't criticize somebody's legs or neck ( hate short necks in women!) or body shape.

Did Craig say that about Mark's routine or about Mark as a person?
If the latter, it is a clear insult.
If the former, it is a much softer version of what I thought about Mark's dancing.

I like Craig, but some aspects of his comments are annoying.

He is excessively picky with some celebs, yet with others he just says things like 'It was a disaster' ' It was grotesque' ( I think that was aimed at Mark). How can anyone get areas to work on for next week when your dance is classed as 'grotesque'

Best judge by far he tells it like it is, if Dancer's are poor he tells them why and likewise he praise's their good point's.

Keep up the good work

Where is the constructive criticism in that?

I grind my teeth.

I like Craig, always have done however my one gripe with him is that sometimes he tends to forget that critisicism is fine, providing it's contructive.

Even if he said it about the routine the 'stick insect' part referred to Mark, i.e. Craig was saying Mark looked like a stick insect.

What was there in that for Mark to take away & improve on ? Look less like a stick insect next week ?