[Kaz]

Wasn't Ashley the first to be voted out of the Academy?

I remember thinking at the time how unfair it was to make the students sing on a live show on BBC1 after so little time in the Academy - they'd only been in a week or so and had very little in the way of voice coaching and stage presence.

Ashley was clearly petrified - I don't think he'd had much performing experience before, and it showed. He looked like a deer caught in car headlights! Who knows how he might have progressed, given the chance . . . . . . .

It may be a point to take on board for the next series of Fame Academy - if there is one - and that is not to have the students performing on a live show before they are ready to do so. I think this was one of the reasons the show got off to a bad start, with the press calling it 'Lame Academy'. As the series went on, the students got better and better. Give them 3 or 4 weeks in the Academy before the first Singing for Survival!