Oh noes......

Home from a weekend away with the folks (Bank Holiday weekend here in Ireland) and I had intended my first post to be about last week's Sea Patrol finale, which I still haven't blogged about!

However, courtesy of sea-patrol.com, it's been confirmed that 3 of the cast will not be returning to series 4. Jay Ryan (Spider), Saskia Burmester (Nav) and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (Buffer) all decided not to renew their contracts with the series (I believe they all inititally signed for 3 years, which fits in with David Lyons having to ask to be let out of his a year early; but I'm open to being proved wrong on that.)

Spider, I'm not bothered about one way or the other. I liked him, but he wasn't one of my faves. Nav, I will miss, because I think Saskia is awesome. But I guess it makes sense that Nikki would want to move on after ET's death.

And that brings us to Buffer. Oh God, do I even have to TELL you how gutted I am about this??? Seriously dude, he was my absolute favourite!!! I can't even be all eloquent and ranty because I seriously DO NOT HAVE THE WORDS FOR THIS!

That being said, I don't blame Jeremy for wanting to try other things as an actor; that's understandable. Sucks for me as a fan, but that's life. And we'll always have DVD's (and fanfics!!)

On happier news, Dublin were beaten off the park today by Kerry in the All_ireland Quarter-Final; beaten by 17 points. Oh happy, happy, joyous day......




 

And the bad news keeps on coming...

Digital Spy is reporting that the Beeb have dumped Karen Hardy from the upcoming season of Strictly: link

Article begins: "According to The Mirror, bosses have decided to drop the 39-year-old and other experienced stars in favour of younger faces. More departures are expected to be confirmed before the new series launches in the autumn."

All I can say is that I think this is a dumb, dumb thing to do. I love Karen (I know there's a lot that don't, but I do). I think she's a great choreographer, I think she's a great dancer and I love the fact that she's so open and honest in all her interviews and VT. I think TPTB are making a huge mistake in getting rid of her (although there is spec on some boards that it was her choice to go...), but what worries me even more is that they're considering getting rid of the more experienced dancers on the show in favour of younger / new faces.

Most people I know who watch Strictly don't watch JUST for the celebs, they watch for the pro dancers as well. I'm just as invested in how Darren, Lilia, Anton, Erin, Matt, Brendan and the other dancers are finding the competition as I am in watching the celebs learn. (In point of fact, I think 99% of the time I'm more invested in the pro dancers than the celebs.) I don't understand why the Beeb are tinkering with the stuff in the show that, for me, doesn't need changing and completing ignoring the things that do. (For example, the constant over-marking from some of the judges. Len and Bruno, I'm looking at you here!! Arlene has had her moments with it as well, though I don't agree that they were right to get rid of her in favour of Alesha.)

Obviously the Beeb are doing this to chase ratings, trying to beat the X-Factor. (Last time they tried that, we wound up with the god-awful dance off and look how well that turned out!!) But the problem is that if they keep tinkering like this, they're going to strip Strictly of what makes it special and kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

I'm nearly scared to check any more websites now.....