Strictly no dancing

Strictly Come Dancing is not really my bag and I must admit I am no fan of so called realty TV, particularly when it has the C word, celebrity, attached to it.

But I must admit it is rather sad that John Sergeant has felt obliged to pull-out after all the controversy and criticism. My wife is a fan of the show so I must admit I have seen a couple of his performances and all I can say about them is that he is a better dancer than I am - but as I dance like a three legged arthritic camel with gout that is not much of an endorsement.

That being said I thought that the whole object of this sort of show, apart from making as much cash as possible from the punters phoning in with their votes of course, is for the public to actually say who they want to stay in, the people they actually want to see again. To be forced out by somewhat cruel criticism of judges laying into him because he is not a blossoming ballroom dancer hardy seems fair.

Anyone with brain cells stretching into double figures knew he was not going to miraculously turn into John Travolta overnight when he was first approached to appear in the show which tends to indicate he was brought in as the joke contestant, the bit of a laugh couple to be the butt of a bit of friendly banter for a couple of weeks. When it turned out the public rather liked the joke somewhat more than the less likeable although more twinkle-toed contestants and wanted to see John week after week then it all got a bit nasty from the judges.

The lad was pretty dreadful as a dancer but so what. The show was supposed to be entertainment and he entertained.. The same hypocrisy could be seen with Daniel Evans' singing on the X-factor . He was a decent pub singer at best who should make a living for a few years in summer variety at the end of some pier or other.

In his case it was even worse as it was the judges who had first put him through to the final televised stages then had the audacity to slag him off at every opportunity despite the public voting for him week after week. He was never going to be a star but the same could equally be said of most of the winners of that show and its like.