Strictly Come Dancing--am I on my own here?

Yeah, the Sunday thing is just stupid. I presume it has to be done this way, though, because of new phone voting regulations. Assuming this show was always on the level, it must be extremely frustrating for everyone involved to have to do all this extra work.

Ailsa and Trish both totally OTM about everything. Especially the Sunday thing, which is just nuts, and full of horrible filler like the professionals dancing and Westlife and other bollocks.

The blokes competition is dire this year. Not only are they all crap, but I don't care about any of them. I really really hope the wretched Dominic Littlewood's cheeky chappy act will disappear early on, but sadly he does show some aptitude. Kenny Logan will go fairly soon, maybe next week. Gethin gets the vote from the womenfolk in my house, and they also kept the phone away from me to stop me voting for the lovely Kelly, favouring instead Gabby. I was disappointed that the shrewish Kate didn't go out - she's obviously no good, ankle injury or not. And she's married to the tool Derek Draper! I was hoping that Letitia would stay in, but I fear that she will go after Kate and before Gabby.

womenfolk in Dr.C's house OTM re Gethin.

He doesn't quite do it for me. I'm a Matt Di Angelo woman, myself.

he's young enough to be your son (possibly), also is the worst actor in EastEnders apart from Phil Daniels.

womenfolk in Dr.C's house OTM re Gethin

And menfolk (well, me) OTM re: Kelly.

I like her, but to be honest I can see everyone's slavering over her getting real old real fast. It's one thing to say that someone looks lovely or is beautiful, it's another thing to excuse her dance partner openly drooling over her arse during rehearsals.

That could just be the sour grapes of a non-attractive and bitter older person, though.

No, I can see it getting really tedious too (if you are old and non-attractive and bitter, then I'm right there with you, and I don't think that either of us are anything other than FULL OF COMMON SENSE). Putting her with Brendan was designed just for the pervy antics and to ramp up the "drama" - this is getting too much like the X Factor :-/

Yeah, you're both OTM (this is turning into the thread that agrees with itself!), but I think the ultra-creepy Brendan is the problem, rather than Kel. He should be more gentlemanly, like Len Goodman.

You're not non-attractive and bitter anyway - neither of you!!

Right, so this judges decide via danceoff to avoid another Spoony incident has kind of backfired since Kate appears to be inexplicably popular with the public and the judges can't get rid of her. I felt sorry for Willie Thorne, but he's had calm ballroom dances thus far and think his attempt at any faster dances would see him off right away.

The judges' lame attempts to be scathing to everyone are getting ridiculous now. They slagged Kenny Logan off for having big hands, ffs, I'm not sure how that's constructive or how he can rectify it for next week. Also madly inconsistent - marking Deano down for missing a step, but telling Kelly that it didn't matter she'd got a step wrong and giving her all nines (except Len).

Calling Alesha for the win now, btw. Fuck a crying Penny Lancaster and an over-competitive Gabby. Alesha is ENJOYING it and is actually really really good.

straight up and down, this is the weirdest shit ever.

So, anyone in this year?

Me. I hate Gary Rhodes and am hoping he's off this week. I also hate Austin Healey but will grudgingly admit it's looking like a two-horse race between him and Tom from the blokes (haven't seen Tom doing ballroom yet, but I can't see him being bad at it). John Sergeant is lovely but will fail horribly when asked to do a jive/cha-cha/salsa. The rest of them are varying shades of meh.

Of the girls, Jessie looks like she's having loads of fun, Rachel and maybe Christine look like potential winners. Had high hopes for Lisa, but I don't think she'll win many popularity contests.

Rhodes is behaving like an unbelievably spoiled petulant brat. It's like he's channelling the young John McEnroe or something.
John Sergeant is a true gentleman, but anything more physical than standing there while his partner dances around him is going to see him come unstuck. It's like watching the father of the bride dancing with his daughter at a wedding reception. Also the same to some extent with Don Warrington. Which is a shame, because both of their partners seem to be among the best out of the professional dancers.
It's probably going to be either Austin or Tom, despite both of them having the "smug Jane Austin suitor" look down pat.
I can't decide out of the female contestants - but the idea of Jodie Kidd winning does appeal. Someone winning who falls into the "really tall therefore ungainly dancer" category.

I think Christine's going to be your best bet for a tall dancer doing well, much as I love Jodie.

I find John Sergeant's partner terrifying yet intriguing at the same time.

PS I love this show.

I want to pop Austin's arms with a pin. He looks like that Ram Man from He-Man without his helmet on.

Please let this be where Gary goes. Please.

Goodbye Gary and your smug grinning face

Thank goodness for that.

yay! yay! yay!

Still feel we could lose a few more of the guys (hi dere Andrew) before any of the girls disappear. The girls' group dance was great this week.

I think my favourite couples so far are Don/Lilia and Heather/Brian - most actual chemistry between the pairings on either side. Saturday was a real reminder that Don is an ac-TORRR and Tom is in Holby City. Unfortunately, Heather's feet in the group dance were crazymad flat, and I think that upping the pace might see Don's composure go a bit - but I'm hoping this week gives the dude some momentum, makes the men's side less of a two-horse race (though I'd not be one bit surprised to see John making the final - if it's half-judges, half-public, I'd think the public can carry him past a fair amount of the competition).

Christine will win, though. Cherie's Latin won't hold up, I don't think, and Rachel Stevens is a gigantic charisma vacuum; Christine is just radiant like all the goddamn time, and her balance and weighting last week just seemed perfect, somehow.

I should add I am blogging all this at Rocktimists, btw.

My favourite so far is Cherie Lunghi. Oh and Jodie Kidd. Neither will last too long though :(

Dislike : Andrew Castle, Tom Eastenders, the truly horrifyingly twattish A. Healey in the men, and and Lisa Snowdon.

John S's partner is surely a trans-sexual.

Rachel should be making more records, not wasting her time in this.

Also Bruce doesn't do his dance at the beginning any more IS THIS THE END?

I think it's more for reasons of time rather than Brucie getting old. As the number of contestants whittles down, he'll do more of that and the "I AM NOT OLD DO YOU SEE?" thing.

Tom is not EastEnders, he is Holby City, and he is lovely. I like all of the girls, and hate Austin Healy, though I will grudgingly admit he's not a bad dancer. I like Lisa for reasons of hating Brendan and therefore having sympathy for her being partnered with such a twat.

Oh yeah Holby, not EE obv.

Note that the only rugby player who they could who has a good word to say about Healey is the ever-reasonable Will Greenwood. Although obv no-one (esp Brucie) had a clue who he was.

Tom Chambers grew up in our village, still comes back a lot, and his dad has been indefatigable in drumming up local support. This BBC News clip was shot in our village pub on Saturday night; I'm briefly visible in the final frame, top right hand corner.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7655058.stm

I kinda want Cherie to go.

I think I want Lisa Snowdon to win.

lol Mark Foster. I love John Sergeant.

The professionals are dancing to "I predict a riot"

That was comedy.

Don was robbed, I am sad that he has gone and terrible Mark Foster is still there.

That was horrible. Wrong two couples in the dance-off, wrong one went. It won't be the same without Don & Lilia - they had chemistry, dammit, more than maybe any couple in the competition.

I am somewhat worried by any audience that can prefer Andrew Castle to them two, really.

People who watch GMTV should have their phones taken off them.

Comedy = paso to the Kaiser Chiefs. Agree that wrong two couples were in the dance-off, cannot see any redeeming features at all in the Mark/Hayley partnership and Andrew's just rubbish.

The house band really excelled themselves this week. I think I lasted through maybe three seconds of their take on "Spice Up Your Life".

Yeah, they were rubbish, also someone appeared to be strangling the singers all the way through. Also mega lols at Camilla's bizarre silk pyjamas thing.

Current standings

Like: Tom, Jodie, Christine
Dislike: Andrew, Mark
Want to adopt as my favourite uncle: John

Haha the Kaiser Chief's Paso (was it a Paso?) was funny!

I was hoping for the hideous Foster to get the chop this week, or the strangely humourless and characterless Heather Small, but I can't argue with the result as Heather's dance-off performance was pretty decent. Also I am reliably informed that Don Warrington is an absolute twat IRL, so no complaints really.

I like Jodie and Cherie, also Christine, although she wasn't great this week. Dislike - same as Ailsa. Oh, and Austin, obviously. The womenfolk in my house are right behind Tom, mainly due to this week's haircut as far as I can tell. He was pretty bloody good though - a really well acted American smooth. I think he may win.

I don't like Austin due to longstanding dislike of him outwith this show, but he is very good. Bored with Rachel and Lisa now, can't be doing with Cherie, even though she's doing a great job of dancing well with all the judges wedged so far up her arse.

Womenfolk OTM re Tom. They were OTM re Gethin last year as well.

I'm deeply saddened about Don Warrington being a twat. He seems lovely.

Well, Andrew Castle's entire television career has involved him being an absolute twat, so I'm still gutted. Castle doesn't even seem to want to be there, really, and his partner just seems massively irritated with him all the time (it was hard to tell, but I think the lift-bodging might partly have been her fault).

I think I'm kinda rooting for Cherie now, tbh. She does seem slightly too calculating, but she's also bloody good, and her pwning Rachel, Austin and Lisa... I would find this quite heartening. Ideally I'd like Christine to win, but I think she needs to stand out a bit more than she's done thus far - she's been good, but so have a lot of other people.

Cherie's couple of years at ballet school may have been useful for the dances she's done to date.. She's yet to do something energetic and latin-y yet, I think.

That "I Predict A Riot" - even Peter Kay couldn't have bettered that.

Two black contestants in the dance-off, News at Ten...

That new Alecia Dixon single is great!

Rachel looking as bored doing this as she was "promoting" her last album.

Otherwise, merit-wise I'm pretty much in agreement with Dr C.

Fearing for Christine this week, though I reckon Foster's surely gone...

Think Christine, like Andrew and John, will continue to be saved by the public as they are popular. Poor Mark is basically hampered by not being able to dance at all, but I don't think much of his partner. Nothing outstanding tonight, sadly, and Christine, who I really like, was very poor. Lisa probably best of an average bunch.

Dance-off will be Foster and Castle. Foster to go obv. John and Christine will be saved by Joe Public -the John thing is getting a little tired though.

SHOVELL! (Was it always spelt with two Ls?)

Just realised Heather is in a roughly comparable place to where Don was last week, so she's definitely not safe.

Rachel's bruvvers > Rachel's fyonsay.

Len sounds remarkably similar to Cotton Hill when he's angry.

First Madcon, now this. Poor Frankie Valli.

Oh, good spot, Doc!

Think we can now safely call next week's dance-off as being the survivor of this one vs. Heather, then.

And I think we can basically guarantee that Mark's going out now... can't we?

Yes we can.

Yes, good. He might have been better with a better partner, but he was still the worst there. Also, y'know, put them away. Ugh.

Even when stripping off and posing, and being lifted up by his fans, he is curiously emotionless.

reformed as in 'turned over a new leaf' ?

As in 'got back together to be as crap as before with even fewer people giving a toss'.

On at 6:50PM...

residents of Cleethorpes having an epi at being subsumed into Grimsby

Bill Bailey is one of the celebrities this year, which is a bit of a surprise. And his hair has receeded so much - and is pulled back in a ponytail - that I'll reminded of the episode of Black Books where the manager of the rival bookshop wants him to cut his hair.