Here goes…
I got an email telling me I got tickets last week and went with a colleague who's a massive SCD fan. She was more excited than I was and spent the day squealing. When you get into TV centre the first thing they do is confiscate your phones. We were sat behind the judges (in the last row directly behind Len). We were told that the studio audience would vote on the dances and they'd add them to the judges scores to get the winner. The warm-up guy asked us to boo anything the judges say that we don't agree with especially Craig. And to cheer positive comments but also any lifts or spins in the dances. I didn't boo the judges though, it seemed a bit unnecessary.
Anyway, the first thing that was filmed was the musical guests (Only Men Allowed) doing Silent Night and another song which Kristina and Robin danced to (I think it was an American Smooth Waltz). Then they filmed the intro which was the 5 pros wearing pyjamas or nightshirts (except Anton who was in a velvet dressing gown) jiving to All I want for Christmas is you which ended with them all opening presents(huge boxes) with their celeb partner inside.
The first contestant was John Barrowman who danced a Quickstep American smooth, sorry I can't remember which song it was to, but all the songs were Xmas ones. In his VT I think Kristina may have said 2 or 3 words, the rest was all John. John being loud and laughing – a lot!
Their dance was really good, he was a little skippy but the lifts were good too. They received 37 (the 10 was from Bruno).
Next was Ronni Ancona doing a Viennese waltz. She looked like a Disney princess. All of the judges agreed that iin hold she was wonderful, but out of it she was unbalanced. She told them it was because she was doing a 'Vauxhall Waltz' not a Viennese one. The Vauxhall one was supposed to be jerky and off-balance. They scored 28.
Third, was Vince Cable dancing a foxtrot American smooth. In training Erin kept forcing him and barking at him to smile (he said he's naturally dour) and teaching him to act. Craig told him he was good, but had a tendency to lean to the right (little bit of political humour there). But they all loved him and he scored 36.
Fourth, was Fern Britton dancing the jive in a green leotard with fringing. She looked amazing. The dance was very bouncy and a lot of fun. Craig said some of the kicks were a bit lame but the rest of it was gorgeous. They scored 30
And finally June Brown did a tango to a song called Mr Eskimo man. The dance itself didn't have a lot of content but what it did have she did really well. She and Vincent did a lot of Eskimo nose rubbing, which everyone loved. They scored 28 as well.
The funniest thing about tonight's show was that Alesha was generally the lower-scoring judge with Craig. And all of the contestants got standing ovations.
Then there was a break while they were getting us to vote. Anton used the time to shamelessly go into the audience and beg for votes. He came over to where I was sitting and was hugging all of the women for their vote. My friend threw herself at him. Me, I'm a Cutler fan so I didn't bother.
They awarded John and Kristina with their trophy, (there was no 2nd place) then the remaining contestants from the current series (except for Ann who was at a WI event in Clacton) danced to finish the show. The blokes were all wearing ridiculously tight trousers. It was a mish-mash of several dances including jive and Kara and Artem kissed under the mistletoe, Matt did some more acrobatics including a bit where Gavin kicked him up the bum and he did a front somersault and it ended with the judges joining in.
The show was brilliant and I'm sorry this is a bit abrupt but I need to get to bed and am rushing it a bit. If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them
Last edited by youcandoit : 30-11-2010 at 00:17