PDA

View Full Version : Iceman not n-ice: comment



Nwicker60
09-Feb-11, 10:17
This villain belongs in another show

Jason Gardner has done it this time. The acid-tongued Dancing on Ice judge triggered a snowstorm of viewer complaints when he made one of his all too familiar snide comments to coach Karen Barber when she complained he was being too harsh in giving Johnson Beharry, V.C. a low four score, in the latest of ITV’s popular series.
Snapped Gardner: “If your opinion mattered you’d still be on the panel”. On this occasion, however, Karen didn’t take the put down, lying down. She stomped over to the judges set and confronted the judge saying: “You know, Jason , you really are so offensive. You bring so little to this panel.” Got a point, there.
I thought Ms Barber was going to knock his trademark flat cap off his head. (I and I daresay, thousands of other viewers, would wish she had)
Of course it’s not the first time that Gardner has laced his opinion about the amateur dancers with gratuitous insults.
There’s really no need for it, is there? He is a professional dancer who tends to concentrate on what wrong with performances as opposed to what’s right about them. Fair enough, he is duty bound to advise them where they have gone wrong and what to do about it. But is there any need for him to be nasty about it. None of the other judges stoop so low.
Gardner gave a half-hearted apology for his bad behaviour and was later reprimanded by the producers for his conduct. Why, I wonder, has that not happened before. Is it, because, in a strange sort of way, Jason’s vitriolic barbs spice up the viewing figures, with some people tuning to see just how nasty he is is that he has been told to cool it and is paying no attention. Unlikely, though.
I take off my hat to the guys and girls who partner the professional dancers. They have very short time frames to get the hang of new choreography, week in week out and they do a bloomin’ good job, and a dangerous one, at that, as some of the contestants have discovered. Yes, Gardner, like the other judges is there to give an appraisal of the performances. But, he should be big enough to temper his criticism with a little tact and give the plucky amateurs who are trying their best, a little more encouragement. The other judges do.
If Gardner wants to play the villain, I suggest the abominable iceman should beat it in search of a skater’s pantomime and audition for the role of the villain. He’s bound to be first choice!