I think it's the alcohol. From where I came from, they say if you can't speak the other person's language, just have some vodka or something similarly strong, and very soon they will be getting on like a house on fire.

Because great minds think alike Yas

Lol. sense I don't drink, we assume that Sid is having more than his usual.

Observer has another idea.

I don't care about Observer's thoughts - I'm only interested in his body

I really liked Kelly the best tonight.

Time to knock the judges scoring counting on the head completely though!

I didn't rate Kelly's Jive that much, though it was entertaining and fun. I thought it a bit gimmicky and hysterical and not that technically brilliant to be honest and Brian outdanced her (as always).

I love Alesha but didn't like the sassy bit and really wished she'd played it beautiful and romanic - straight - that's what I liked about her ballroom last year.

It is really hard to tune out your perceptions of the people though. I thought Lisa's QS was pretty awful really, and Tom (whom I like) really annoyed me with his silly 'actor face' again. I was really willing him to live and feel the dance and do it well - but no.

The judges overmarked for England tonight! None of those dancers was a 10 IMO.

Just watched the Christmas Special again (after Wallace and Gromit). It was fun, fun, fun!

I don't drink either Y26, and obviously Sid do, because I don't understand what he's talking about?

*musing with a santa hat and a pair of Xmas boxers and nothing else*

Now, now, Sid. I normally go commando, but just to tease you, I am wearing the red boxer briefs I received as my Christmas Present (from a secret admirer!).

I think they need to invent an 11 paddle!

Alesha and Jill's came closest to a 10 for me.


I'm glad you got them

Very likely, yes. I thought they were robbed as they were the best tonight. I couldn't believe that the judges put them 4th

How did you know where I live?

*is genuinely frightened*

*shaking like a leaflet*

Seems like most of the judges decide whether a dance is a 10 or not rather than actually judging the dance

Yep - I was really cheesed with the scoring tonight. They've got 10 paddles, use 'em, raise the bar and give the lesser dances a seVERN FFS. They leave themselves nowhere to go.

That sums up the whole of last year's show to me :yawn:. As a card carrying Halfpenny fan I get extremely peeved when people get 40s for no reason, too . To my mind Jill's jive is the benchmark.

It's not that I haven't enjoyed other dancers since, because I have. But has also been posted, she was superb every week whether it was Ballroom or Latin, and just "sold" every dance that she did. It's amazing how she's just fallen back into in both the Winners' dance in the final and in the show tonight.

Brendan and Lisa - enjoyed it but a bit frenetic and sloppy

Rachel - I am fed up her doing the rumba all the time to disguise her lack of personality :yawn:

Tom - tried hard but I didn't like the routine. Sorry Camilla (still glad he won the series though )

Lisa and Brian - nice to see her back, but I agree that the exuberance of the dance disguised some technical issues.

I didn't understand why the judges had to put the top 4 in order though. Surely there couldn't have been a tie if the audience votes were combined??? Still it highlighted how much more popular Jill was.

disagree. I think the four dances at the top deserved a 10.
They were much better then half the dances that have got a 10 this year in the normal series!
I was suprised there was no 40s when you think of the five 40 thats we've had in the normal series this year.

Thoughts on the Xmas Special. Obviously due to the reported voting problems, clearly some series editing was going on !!!!

Loved the light hearted fun element to the Q.Step from Lisa & Brendan.
Like Kelly & Brian - Thought they did well.

But most of all I think HUGE credit to ALL the Pros/Celebs at the end for the "enthusiastic" dancing at the end of the show given all the reported problems, ie stopping filming, etc etc - IF a person had not read any of the reported problems or saw any of these problems reported on the news, you would never know anything had gone wrong!!!!!!!

I really do think the powers that be at SCD really need to cop on, & wake up & smell the coffee before they lose such a truly wonderful & brilliant show!!

Anyway, well done to ALL - Hope ALL Pros & Celebs alike have a good rest & good Christmas.

Santa told me

It's surprising how easy he is to bribe

May I ask why... erm... why the mistletoe in the present?

Yes but they demonstrated the problem with 1-10 marks only. They can't give 38 easily now unless they rely on Craig to be mean and someone else. There's no way of knowing that so its safer to give a 10 and risk 39 than to risk giving a 36. Tonight they split 4 people between 39 and 37 which would need half marks at least (like dancing on ice) to produce in any vote.

Helbrown, Len had to rank the top four otherwise it would have been impossible for Tom or Lisa to win with the audience vote. This is similar to the situation which arose in the semi-final. Apparently, according to Karen Hardy on BBC Breakfast the other day, this is normal procedure in the dancing world. If only the powers that be had got Len to do this in the semi-final, there wouldn't have been all the controversy about Tom winning as after Len's ranking the leader board would have looked like this:

Lisa 3 (as she got 20/20 from Len)
Rachel 2 (as she got 18/20 from Len)
Tom 1

rather than the 3, 3, 1 it ended up being, meaning Tom couldn't be saved from the dance-off.

If you were looking carefully at leader board shown at the beginning of the final, it was obvious that Tom had had the most viewer votes, giving him a further 3 points, followed by Rachel and then Lisa. As this is an exact reversal of the judges’ points, they would have all ended up with 4 points. However, as the viewers’ votes take precedence, Tom would have gone through, leaving Rachel and Lisa in the dance-off.

So if Len had done this in the semi-final, Tom would have gone through to the final fair and square and there wouldn't have been all this backlash. Consequently, it was also right that he won the final as this was decided in exactly the same way as every other final. It is not the first time that the supposed “best” dancer has stumbled at the last hurdle (sorry Colin, no pun intended) and I doubt it will be the last.

That said, I was delighted that Jill won this evening. A young baby and only a couple of training sessions and she managed to put that energetic routine out of the bag!!

I enjoyed th show even thought I knew what had happened and the result. I am not looking for perfection in the xmas show to be honest just a bit of fun and pleasure to watch. For me that was Jill, Kelly and Lisa. I liked Lisa and Brendans routine even though it went a bit wrong. Alesha VW was pretty but not wow enough, and I didnt want to see a Christmas Rumba really. It was sadly lacking in Austin thought I thought.

Yes. I think Lisa has been overexposed in comparison with her talents recently and I think seeing Austin would have pleased a lot of people more. His chances of wowing the audience with his jive were excellent.
I noticed the judges were not overjoyed at the end. Very likely they had been worn down by the marking fiasco and the exceedingly long shooting time, knowing it had been their own fault.

I have to be honest. I was really disappointed with tonight's Christmas special. I know it's Christmas and everything, but it just felt rather pointless. Like, oh it's Christmas, let's give everyone 10s!!! And that's how I feel this series whole last series was.

Yes the standard of dancing has got higher over the different series, but still, the amount of 10s and even 9s being handed out, it's just not right. How many couples tonight did "illegal" lifts? What's the point of advertising the different dances if they just do what they want in them anyway?!? Those that did should have been docked ponts. Otherwise what is the point of having rules? Or have I just completely missed something?

As I said, I know it is Christmas, but surely if each dance was marked to the same criterea, it wouldn't matter if the top mark was 30 or 40, as long as the marking was fair. Some of those dances did not deserve 10s, and some even 9s, and it left both me and my family flat and disappointed. The BBC could have just saved themselves a lot of money and just gone straight to the public vote!

However, even with that, I think my main problem with the show was it lacked a Christmas spirit. Where was the group dance? Where were the other professionals? I'm sure they could have done something more. Flipping heck on Dancing on Ice they did two group dances and a lot more, and it just made the whole programme a lot more enjoyable from my point of view. And normally I much prefer strictly!!!

I just hope the next series is better.

I totally agree with you emma, the DOI Christmas Special was a much more enjoyable festive show, better produced and more entertaining. The Judges also took a backseat, which is a relief compared to Strictly nowadays.

How Len could rank Kelly & Brian 4th I don't know?

I presume they got the highest studio audience votes hence coming 2nd.