RANDOM JOTTINGS

Well Christmas wouldn't be Christmas  without the Strictly Come Dancing final.  I have posted about this earlier, here, and how the series got off to a bit of a rocky start with Arlene being sacked and the grammatically challenged Alesha Dixon, a former winner of the show, replacing her on the judging panel.  Then half the Celebs were definitely from the Z list with the usual collection of soap stars, present and ex, most of whom were unknown to me, but I did not complain about that as I am not totally au fait with soapdom.  However, it turns out that hardly anybody else had heard of them as either which made me feel better.

Not the best of starts, with the highest profile name, Martina Hingis, falling at the first fence (no actually that simile should apply to ex-jockey Richard Dunwoody), or perhaps incurring too many foot faults (yes, that's better) which was sad, mainly because she was partnering the utterly gorgeous Matthew Cutler and that meant that his appearances for the rest of the series were limited. But the pleasure of Strictly is that we, the viewers, get to know all those taking part and after a few weeks it really didn't matter who the various Celebs were, they gradually became our friends and we took an interest in how they were getting on.  

We had the usual shock horror exits in the early weeks when dancers who were really promising ended up in the dance off while the usual cack handed footed got through.  We then had to endure watching Craig Kelly, who I gather is from Coronation Street (thank goodness I gave up watching it years ago) who had the delusion he could dance when in fact he was total crap, but was determined to get to BLACKPOOL as this was where he came from blah blah. Have written about this in the earlier post.  Well he got there and was then booted out thank goodness.

Anyway, in the end, after tears tantrums, injuries, key hole surgery, Brucie suffering with the flu and his replacement Ronnie Corbett nearly falling down the stairs, we reached the semi-final and at this stage, because the gorgeous Jade and my fave Ian Waite, had had to withdraw after a very nasty injury, there were only three instead of four couples left.  The dance off was then abandoned as this gave far too much power to the judges and then the forums were awash with weeping and waililng and gnashing of teeth and complaints that this meant that Chris and Ola, one of the three couples, had an advantage as they were popular with the Great British Public.   The judges who are regularly accused of favoritism and bias, a charge I usually dismiss but not this year, had over marked two couples on a regular basis – this meant they were always top of the leader board and could not be voted out after the public had had their say.  These two couples, Ali and Brian and Ricky and Natalie were the best dancers in the competition and, after Jade and Ian had gone, there was very little competition and so it was clear that Craig, Len, Alesha and Bruno were determined to get them through.  Got to the stage when blatant mistakes were ignored, a group Viennese Waltz when Brian and Ali crashed into the other couples still garnered them a perfect mark, and it was obvious that even if they fell flat on their faces they would still be marked highly.   So the retention of the dance off at this stage would have favoured these couples.  Reaction for and against the dropping of the dance off largely depended on who you supported.

However, the judges did not take into account the John Sargant Factor and the GBP who will not be told what to do by any high falutin' judges and week after week Chris Hollins and his parter Ola Jordan were voted through, after regularly being insulted by the judges and cheap cracks such as 'you looked constipated' were the norm.  I watched this every week and thought 'Will they (the judges) ever learn?'

Chris Hollins was one of my favourites right from the start though I hadn't the faintest idea who he ws, but I just liked his personality. I found out later that he was the son of John Hollins, an ex-footballer who used to play for Chelsea and who I used to see when I watched matches at Stamford Bridge.  Well, even if I had not liked Chris I would have supported him after that!

We ended up with the two faves and Chris and Ola in the semis and lo and behold Ali and Brian were booted out and we had a final the judges did not want, but we did.  Well, those of us who loved Chris and Ola, team Cola as they were called, were delighted,  everyone else was incadascent and once more the forums were awash with accusations of a fix, a conspiracy blah blah blah.   So we had the final last week, the Judges Favourite against the Public's Favourite and I will admit I was slightly worried about the imbalance as Ricky and Natalie were frighteningly good.

But in the end we had a great evening.  Chris and Ola raised their game, danced well and their Charleston reprise which had been a showstopper a few weeks earlier brought the house down and they did an excellent show dance and turned in a great performance.  It all came down to the showdance in the end, it always does and if I were advising any couple who was dancing in the final, I would tell them to sit down with tapes of the show dances of previous series to watch and learn. It is always the dance with the WOW factor, the one that makes the audience rise to its feet, cheer, yell and most importantly of all, laugh and enjoy that will win or lose the title.  It is never the technically perfect intense dance that pulls in the votes.  Ricky and Natalie danced superbly on Saturday night and turned in some stunning routines, but they have always been hampered by the fact that the audience perceives them as lacking personality and that perhaps Ricky is a bit 'too cool for school' in his utter gorgeousness.  I watched Chris and Ola's show dance and then waited with bated breath for Ricky and Natalie and within ten seconds of their start, I thought 'they've blown it'….full of lifts and show off bits, but the entertainment factor was missing and I knew then that Chris and Ola would win.

And they did and it was all tremendous fun and Strictly pulled it out of the bag again despite all the sturm and drang which has continued throughout this series and a great time was had by all.  A lesson to the BBC to show that you can never keep a good show down even if they persist in mucking about with it, and hope that they might now stop doing so.  Fat chance…..

Great stuff and I am now suffering my usual withdrawal symptoms.  Still we have the Christmas Special and then in the New Year we have Dancing on Ice to keep us enthralled though I have to say, much though I enjoy it, it lacks a certain something, not quite sure what.  The running promenades and botofogas give way to salkos and axles and it is great fun, but the real reason I tune into this show is to watch the sublime Torvill and Dean skating each week.  Both in their fifties now but watching them skim around the rink, it could be Sarajevo in 1984 and the perfect score for Bolero. 

Happy Days..