Apart from series 1,when Natasha and Brendan won, to date I think they've all been worthy winners,may not be the best technically but they have danced and performed,and entertained and the way some of them have progressed has been phenomenal,the final has always been exciting.......Can't say that about this series though

Ellie

I can understand why people think Colin or Zoe should have won instead of Darren, but I think Darren's physique distracted some people from how well he danced. I've always thought Colin was the best dancer not to win SCD, but I wouldn't change the result that year even if it were possible.

My problem is generally that my favourite dancer ever, and the one I most wanted to win at the time, was up against one of the best Strictly contestants of all time, who undoubtedly deserved to be a winner, so my fave tends to get forgotten.

But I love Denise anyway. I wouldn't go so far as to say she was robbed, but she definitely deserved a win, if not this particular win.

Didn't he dance the final with a mannequin ( I was going to say dummy) which was ridiculous.

Yes he was very embarrassing.

Generally I think all the contestants who have won Strictly have been worthy winners except Darren Gough. I just didn't get why everyone thought he was such a good dancer. This year will be interesting, there'll be contraversy for whoever picks up the glitterball this year because the series has been such a shambles in so many ways.

I'm not sure about the last statement as one thing I loved about last year's final is they were both pretty evenly matched and great to watch because of it. Alesha deserved it on the grounds of consistency (I'm afriad I don't have truck with the give it to the dancer who improved lot - i.e the Dawes, Geth and Lisa supporters - who should someone who was good from the start be less worthy than someone who got good later) - and unlike this year both public and judges liked her as did many of the other dancers and contestants - from that POV she was indeed the complete package.

A lot of people liked Darren (including me), and although he had virtually won the competition as soon as the final started (I don't think Colin was going to catch up in votes even if he had done a good showdance), muppetgate killed off a lot of the goodwill towards Colin and people (including the judges I think) were just grateful to Darren (& Lilia) for doing a decent showdance.

And I think Darren did dance very well for someone of his build/size too, although it should be hardly be surprising that a world class cricket bowler is light on their feet.

I think Alesha deserved to win last year too, but I'm eternally grateful for Matt for overcoming whatever cause him to fold earlier and making Alesha work for her win. The standard of dancing in that final was very high, and I though both showdances were great (making me forget about the crap/unimaginative ones in SCD 2007).

I don't think that's true if it were then how come he survived his quarter-final meltdown. I think more people actively dislike him then they do Alesha and Gethin - whose detractors tend to be more meh about but that's not the same thing - (in the favourite last four contestant he came in exactly in the middle and was righly described as the Marmite contestant - whcih I'd second because I like Marmite). I'm not convinced by the Gethinite arguement that of course Geth would have got the public vote and gone to the ball (i.e final) if it wasn't for the pesky dance-off - I think a lot of Matt fans might well have had other ideas on that one.

My mother who was apparently according to my brother pretty annoyed Matt got through the quarter-final said that actually she thought it was a better final than him in it then it would have been without him.

I think people loved Darren because he wasn't someone you'd obviously think was a good dancer and in fairness to him he encouraged a large amount of blokes to give dancing a go who wouldn't otherwise especially in his native Yorkshire. You can't say that about many people.

I'd say it would probably only be mainly die hard Matt Di fans who think he was robbed of the trophy, but I do agree the final was probably better for his being in it instead of Gethin (sorry Gethin fans, but then again I'd say far more people than just Gethin fans would say Gethin was robbed of a place in the final.)

I'd say Gethin was maybe robbed of place in the final, both Matt & Alesha danced better in the semi's, but a dance off with only three couples is ridiculously unfair.

I think this thread just proves that even in a small devoted group of people you can get a consistent answer to 'who was the best dancer'. It's a 'who can get people to pick up the phone' competition, so the winner has always deserved to win. I think it collapses if it stops being about that, even though I don't agree with the public vote - my favourite has only made it to the final in one year, and hasn't again this year. If winning is in the gift of four inconsistent, biased attention-seeking judges, then the show is just a vanity project.

Does winning matter? It's only a glitter ball. None of the final three this year are going to dance once it's over. They all get to do all the dances, they all get the hype and the career boost. My favourites (Aled, Gethin, Colin and James) have done really well out of SCD, even though they didn't win. Looking at this year, I think Austin, John, Jodie and Christine will do as well from it as the three still in. In fact, all the celebs this year, apart from possibly Gary, have done well from it. There is no record deal or job at stake here. Does it really matter?

Nice to see some positive comments for Darren

Even I, as a huge fan of his, would not say he was the best dancer of series three! But he is still, for me, what Strictly is all about, so I count him as a worthy winner for other reasons.

For me my favourite has always won.

I agree with you but I think Brendan's behaviour this year has been sufficiently arrogant and Lisa sufficently over-rated for me to really really root for someone else to win. However in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal and I'll deal if it happens. It's not entirely true about the final three not dancing again - Rachel and Tom are both going on tour along with Jodie and other people who created interest from previous serieses including Gethin and high ranking contestants tend to come back for Christmas specials too.

Agreed! Colin was fab! Darren was brilliant too, altough not in the same league. Plus Darren had a 'j' word

Jill won deservedly

Darren was not even the third best dancer in the comp, I couldn't stand watching him stomp about!

I was never a fan of Ramps and no way Dawson should have been in the final. But my fave (Louisa) and Emma wouldn't have beaten him

Alesha won deservedly

I genuinely can't decide this year - Rachel is the best, Tom is the one I like the most and I do like Lisa too

so ask me again on Sunday!

I am astounded that there are people on this thread saying that Luisa was a better dancer than Mark in series 4. Up to and including week ten when she was eliminated Luisa had been top of the leader board once, as had Matt. At this point Mark and Emma had both been top of the leader board on four occasions.

When Emma was eliminated in week eleven she had been top of the leader board four times and Mark had been top five times. After the final the numbers were: Luisa 1, Matt1, Emma 4 and Mark 6

Mark was a worthy winner and apart from the facts I have quoted was on almost all occasions the most exciting dancer in the show.

As with most analyses of the judges' scores, I will point out that this is only a compelling argument if you have any respect for the judges' marking in the first place.

Another way of looking it, which is also skewed and also depends on your opinion of the judges' marking, is to look at who scored the highest mark in each dance... that gives:

Emma 5 (AS, Rumba, Paso, Tango, Samba)
= Mark 4 (AT, Salsa, Samba, VW)
= Matt 4 (AS, Quickstep, Waltz, Foxtrot)
Louisa 3 (Tango, Jive and Cha Cha)

Kind of seems a bit closer then! And from personal preference I would say Louisa in fact did the best Paso, which would leave them all with four highest marks...

I thought Emma's Latin was meh though. Without meaning to sound like a dirty old man (aka Len Goodman), I will appreciate any female celeb that has the level of fitness to excel at Latin (it's physically demanding in the way that the more technically difficult Ballroom isn't), which is why I adored Louisa and Jill (Jill must be incredibly fit in order to dance as well as she does).

If you compare Jill and Emma's Pasos (both danced with Darren, btw), you can see how Darren has had to the tone down the choreography for the relatively unfit and heavy footed Emma whereas Jill is a whirling dirvish with amazing spotting skills. If Emma attempted Louisa's Cha Cha or Jive, she would have had a heart attack.

Louisa better than Mark? Probably not. Better than Emma? Definitely.

Emma's Paso was shit whereas Louisa's was really good, so your score table should have Emma and Louisa with 4 'points' each

Emma's Paso scoring higher than Louisa's was the best example of the judges having lost their minds.

I seem to recall some of the pros complaining about Louisa's Paso score on ITT as well.

I would say that Louisa was miles better than Emma, but I don't really think it's fair for me to comment on Emma's dances, given as how I was asleep for most of them...

You can see how thinking about Emma's Paso makes me hopping mad; such coarse language etc... reminds me of the days when I used to let the sometimes bonkers nature of SCD affect my blood pressure and stuff...