Strictly Come Dancing 2015

Can't help feeling people are being hard on Iwan. The choreography was awful - especially the last desperate dance with the (very) cheap shirt ripping off tactics and all that bump and grind. Not a single cha in sight!

I think it might have been different if Natalie had been his partner..............

For me Iwan comes across as eager to please and easily hurt.

I got that impression to Anno - about Ola not being too bothered to be rid of him.

Carol was terrible and Jezza was truly awful. They could go along way though as the public vote for personalities not dancers.

seadragon, I too agree with your impressions of Iwan's character. There was nothing unpleasant, he had been a world beating athlete and that takes guts, drive and courage - something that stays with you. He was just out of his depth and Ola seemed to be going for some cheap tricks.

I wish Pasha would get rid of the gimmicks...that umbrella did nothing for the dance and just seemed to be a hindrance. Carol is finding it difficult enough and she needs simple classic moves, there is no need to make a Foxtrot gimmicky.

In case you don't know, one of Iwan's problems was his other commitments. He's been working for Sky the whole time and despite Ola following him all over the country, has struggled to find time to train for the show. He's even been over in Japan since the live shows began, but the BBC understandably didn't fly Ola there.

This means desperate times need desperate measures and the technical content suffers. Also, so of the worst moves like to break dancing and knee slide were Iwan's idea. On It Takes Two the videos of Iwan and Ola in the training room show Iwan finds it very hard to concentrate and talks non stop. He suffers from ADD, so maybe that goes along way explaining things.

Elsewhere the general agreement is Ola was a good choice for Iwan with his difficulties because she's very patient and a good example of her previous success is Kenny Logan. Kenny is dyslexic and when he started on the show admitted he could not hear musical beats. He has nothing but praise for her, especially as he now enjoys listening to music. The other pro who would have been good with Iwan is Kristina. Natalie is my favourite and she would have been great, but I get why Ola and Kristina are regarded as the best choice for less able celebs.

I do feel sorry for him, especially as he tried his best in the time he had and his self confidence will have taken a knock. But given his work commitments I don't think this was the best time for him to do Strictly and I wish his place had gone to another celeb.

Sorry for the mistakes in my post - recovering from migraine.

WilmaKnickersfit, thanks for all that, it shows that once again the more you know about someone the easier it is to make a balanced judgement.

Commiserations on the migraine from a fellow sufferer, they play havoc with vision and co-ordination.

HildaW thank you. I am so glad I hardly ever get a migraine these days.

Yes, you're right about how the couples are perceived. It doesn't help that we don't see the couples in the training room any more except on It Takes Two during the week. Now we get those daft videos which I don't find very funny. Mind you that might be because I miss the training room videos!

SO much has changed in the 10+ years the show has been on and most of it not for the better as far as I am concerned. It's still one of my favourite shows, but these days I will at least go out on a Saturday night when the series is on and watch it on catch up!

I agree with the last sentence of your last post but two wilmaknickers

PS is he a relative of yours?

I ask because we once had (briefly) on GN the mother or grandmother (? think the latter) of one of the contestants.

Susannah Reed's mother, a couple of years ago, Anya, lobbying for our support.

Anya sorry to sound stupid, but which post do you mean?

No, I don't know Iwan, I just pick up a lot of information from the other message board I'm on -

forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=100

Hope it's OK to post a link to another message board. You can lurk, but if anyone decides to join just be aware that the Digital Spy forums are a bit of a bear pit in comparison with Gransnet. The Strictly board is one of the nicer boards, but that's not saying much. There's T&Cs and forum etiquette, but some posters push their luck a lot. It's a great place though for discussion about the show and you learn a lot about the show, the people and dancing.

'But given his work commitments I don't think this was the best time for him to do Strictly and I wish his place had gone to another celeb.' That bit WK

Thank you.

Anya, I wouldn't call Susanna Read's mum's membership brief. It felt like flipping ages!

ain't that the truth!

I don't think I would have the nerve to drum up support for something like Strictly on a message board with such a large membership. On a small private forum maybe, but not on here or Mumsnet. What kind of reception did Susanna's Mum get?

It was a bit unnerving as no-one argued with her I just talked about the men I liked and other people hardly mentioned the females - she had quite a forceful personality. We are all too polite anyway- you must have noticed!! Might have been different on MN!

what was noticeable though was that she dropped us like a hot brick after the end of the show's run, and we never heard from her again!

I can just imagine!

I think Jay was miles better than anyone else tonight, obviously the panel did too, I'm betting he might be the overall winner.

Jeremy Vine was hilarious. I do hope he gets through for entertainment value alone.

I agree with you, Terri, Jay was fantastic. I love the jive anyway and he was just brilliant. He seemed quite shell shocked at the end, didn't he? I'm backing him to be in the final.

I thought Jeremy was miles better this week, pity Craig's always so horrible to him!

Felt sorry for Carol, she does come over as rather frumpy, I'm afraid...

Jeremy was very entertaining I agree Jay was amazing. He will go a long way.
I really enjoyed Rani too despite what the judges said.