I am pleased for Ricky and Chris that they both made the final and sorry for Ali.

Reminds me now of the Colin and Darren final - personality vs ability.

Best of luck to both of them for next week

Odd that I disliked seeing Darren win over Colin and still think it was an injustice to this day but funnily enough I wouldn`t mind either Ricky or Chris winning.

Yes, I thought this too.
Ali AKA Zoe Ball.

True. And I think it will be a similar result.

similar.
darren gough was awful but chris just takes the biscuit. travesty if ricky doesn't win

Oh yes forgot about Zoe !

I'd say it's pretty similar which is why I find the posts decrying Chris being in the final as the death of strictly quite amusing

Whilst I don't think he's up to Goughie's standard in many respects, the situation is identical. Substitute Ricky for Colin, Ali for Zoe and Chris for Darren and you have a basic re-run of series three. Ultimately, the most popular fella (the one who connected with the public in general) romped home. No use mentioning the dreaded dummy dance as an excuse, because Darren was well ahead of Colin in the votes before the showdances were even performed!

And if the show is about entertaining folk, I don't see what's so wrong in that.

Yeah I agree it does have shades of Darren v Colin.

Darren was a better dancer than Chris and Ricky is a better dancer than Colin though so the votes will be even more polarised between votes for personality and votes for skill.

Ahmen to that! I still spit blood over that to this day.

Having said that compared to Chris, Darren was a whole lot better.

Chris Hollings in the final = Christopher Parker in the final.

Gough made his final on (dancing) merit...and was a better dancer than Hollins. Also his dancing was generally more competitive with that of the dancers ahead of him.

Arguably Whittle is on a level with Jackson...but much depends on how off-putting you find his bandy legs.

Zoe was my favourite that year too.

But at least she got to the final and we got to see her fabulous showdance.

ROFL! Hahahahaha


Same! I always like the people that don't win.
Zoe, Louisa, Rachel, Laila, Ali...

Zoe's Show Dance is one of my favourites. Amazing! If she had stayed in she may have won.

Rubbish.


I agree it is more like Darren = Chris and Colin = Ricky, and that Darren was better than Chris is and Ricky is better than Colin was. Zoe was a better dancer than Ali because she could do both ballroom and Latin.

I think it will be a good final next week - the celeb who has been the best dancer from week one versus the celeb who has learned to dance from scratch. Both now seem to have captured the hearts of the voters. I wouldn't like to predict the result.

He's not that bad! Mr Hollins can actually dance in time for a start!

As a dancer, I prefer Chris because I think he's a better dancer/entertainer. I don't enjoy Ricky's dancing. I wouldn't compare it to any other Strictly year.

My favourites list is the same as yours (with the exception of Laila - sorry!). Being my favourite is the kiss of death I'm afraid.

Haha. I know what you mean!
I was so devestated when Rachel didn't win, I was so in love with their partnership. More so than any other couple in SCD history. Roll on Christmas Special! Ali+Rachel

I too liken it to Darren vs Colin but, honestly and truly I'm so happy that he's there that I couldn't give a tinker's cuss about who he was competing against. The WWWs have taken so much flak on these boards from all sides that I honestly had resigned myself to Ricky going tonight. I could heard the fat lady clearing her throat, even when I saw that stunning waltz I didn't dare hope but, when I saw the audience's reaction to the AT was the same as mine, I thought maybe, just maybe he can do it.

I am so happy tonight, that he got through he was most definitely the best dancer on the night, and I can't wait to see what he does in the final.

Congratulations to Chris, and commiserations to Ali, but most of all:
WELL DONE RICKY.

Congrats to you *Laura* and all the WWWs. Ricky was the best dancer on the night. I think you may still have some flak to contend with this week but enjoy the final.

Thanks Daisy_M.

Do you know what? They can throw what they want at us now; it'll be like water off a duck's back. It really, really doesn't matter, because he did it, and he did it in style. I think the best thing that happened to him was being in the DO twice. From the moment he had to come out for that second RocknRoll performance, he hasn't put a foot wrong and showed us what he's really made of.

Tonight we also saw his humour, I loved him "flirting" with Darcey and his Vincent impression. It looked to me as if they had both decided that if they were going tonight then they were going to really enjoy themselves. Lovely.

I have to say Ricky really did impress me ever since he did that wow of a R&R in the dance-off (the R&R in the main show was dire).

Glad they went through to the final!

I see a slight similarity but Darren Gough, while not the best dancer in S3, was in the top three. Chris is not one of the top three dancers this year. I don't even see people pretending that he is. And Ricky is better than Colin. I also think Ali was better than Zoe.

I just hope that now Chris is through, however just or unjust people think it is, people at large will vote for the best dancer. Cola fans will not be denied any new dances, they won't miss Chris - as soon as the winner is announced, the show is over. I hope that will play a part in the way people vote now. I understand that when the show is ongoing, people want their favs to stay. I may not agree with it but I understand - they don't want to miss anything. But now that it's the final, the job is done Cola fans, surely. Now, if never before, it should be about the dancing.

That's when I started really liking him too.

Darren was much better than Chris (I don't recall his dancing being that bad as lots of forum regulars think it is; he was very light-footed for such a big bloke), but I'm not convinced about Ricky being better than Colin (possibly in a performance sense, but not technically).