This was my favourite part of the whole final! It was brilliant! After years of unappreciating show dances, Louise gave me this gift.

In my Fantasy Strictly Reverie, she did this on purpose to be subversive.

I feel as though Louise became PoorLouise again in that final. She ought to have been the favourite at that point, no? The one finalist going into that final without hitting the bottom two after Ore had hit it twice (and was therefore assumed to have a problem with the vote) and Danny had done so just one week before. The momentum surely ought to have been with Louise for just one final push and then... well, then she danced nicely and everyone said what a nice person she was and she said she didn't really mind about winning anyway and the whole thing felt a bit like a giant shrug. She had fun, Kevin felt like a good person for improving her confidence, the judges were all very nice to her and Louise had a jolly good time. Oh, was there meant to be a competition in there somewhere? You'd never know.

Credit to Ore and Joanne, they put their best feet forward in that final and it paid off. He had an amazing evening and I thoroughly enjoyed his dances. I will unappreciate that if he hadn't danced the jive and the AS (and, effectively, another AS for his showdance), I don't know what else he could have picked that would have gone down as well. Ore and Joanne showcased perfectly what Ore did best over four months on Strictly. Louise I think was let down slightly by dance choice - she ought to have done at least one ballroom number if we were going to see her best points and I don't think the showdance was particularly well judged, though I can see what Kevin was going for. Danny... Danny did everything. Last night he danced classic, old-fashioned ballroom (quickstep), party Latin (samba) and his showdance was as dramatic as could be (AT and Paso, as well as contemporary). Showing off what Danny could do basically meant letting him do everything. And that's why I wanted him and Oti to win. Oh well.

Yes, and they helped Claudia move forward in the dance off against Greg. I suppose in the end, Young, Dedicated, Super-fit Gymnast didn't trump the other three stories, so she had to go in the semi-final

I just think for 2 years now they've been desperate for a NDB to win again, and this year reached almost Series 3 levels of desperation.

I guess when they are trying to attract celebs to take part it helps if the winners come from as large a pool as possible to attract as many as possible. Three perceived ringer wins on the trot had them twitchy. They needed a NDB to balance it up a bit. Now when they are pitching, they can say NDB's are not disadvantaged.

Have to say, listening to Danny talking on ITT about how he had been asked to take part for 4 years, but only now felt able to be himself, I thought he actually filled Louise's storyline better than she did!

Nooooooo! That was the biggest mistake last year. Why would we want to see their worst routines again? We want to see them at their best. And lowest score may be for more than one reason - often it's just a poorly choreographed dance or one that didn't suit them. That is not going to suddenly morph into a max scoring dance simply because they are better dancers by the time the final comes along. They might be better, but not brilliant. Better idea is what they did this year except for poor Louise - routines with small imperfections (or with none but which the judges marked lower because they were earlier in the series).

And Viewers choice is as ripe for manipulation as anything else. Besides, how and when would they organise it? Showdance is an awful concept, particularly the way it is done now (with most of the routines being in large part nothing to do with the ballroom or Latin skills they've learned to date)

Yeah, they were getting Ore to that final even if it meant literal murder if it came down to it. I just feel sorry for Danny really - any other year and I think he would've won it, but he came after two perceived ringers. The only good thing is I think he has a lot of good will on his side because a lot of people (and not just online) are saying it was fixed for Ore to win. I don't think there'd have been the same accusations if Louise had won instead of Ore. It does have a whiff of fix about it, doesn't it?

Can you tell how unappreciative I've been of the whole series that I haven't watched the final and instead decided to come here to see who won?

It's been an utter bust for me this year. Although I have enjoyed individual dances from individual competitors I didn't really have a favourite at all.


I still massively prefer Darren Gough though as a winner, even though I know everyone else hated him

For me, both. It's one of the reasons that I'm actually starting to look forward to the Irish DWTS - for all that I expect it to be very frequently cringey, at least it might not be so manipulated.


Voting for who is best in the final is valid, as is voting for the one you thought better over the series - or, if a comedy dancer were ever allowed near the final, the one you found most entertaining. What I disliked about last night was how Louise was so clearly dumped, and all the impetus put behind Ore to win over people who were only watching the final. My feeling is that she had the best/most consistent vote throughout the series, but the bus was reversed over her last night.


I like Danny. I expected some level of arrogance or self-awareness, but he turned out to be very nice, not a camera hog, and supportive of the other celebs. All round decent bloke - perhaps not the most engaging though.

Kevin was never more tolerable. I'm hoping for a week one exit next year - we've had 4 years with him in every single episode and it's just too much.

I'm hoping for someone completely new. Not Darcey, Craig or Bruno promoted, not Karen, not Brendan or Anton. Not Papa Clifton! But a fresh face would be nice.


Never again see another week one anything in the final! I don't care how much they get polished, they are week one for a reason.

Frankly, the floppy core has me wondering how hard she worked. It really should be better than that. Her equilibrium was awful in that AT.


... but most viewers wouldn't have picked her as the winner of the challenge. I thought there were glimpses of her enjoying it first time round, amidst the mortification. That was never going to change.

Jay, Caroline, and I think Louis. But contempowaft has to be heartfelt if it has any hope of winning.

Yes, Jwann made the right choice. Slightly unfair to have two showdances, but it appealed to viewers. Oti? QS was (like Ore's AS) a gift, but perhaps as mimi (I think) said last night, the samba looked to new viewers like just a bit of shaking about? Ditto the showdance.


They have got very good at engineering exits. Look at Ed, at JR. Samba to music that was so slow even Oksana looked placed etc. That's just one example, but we see it from early on, with bad music choices etc.

I've had a lot going on this year so didn't get into the show as much. I looked at the show more cynically (also following last year, which was just odd - very popular winner, extremely gifted dancer, and yet they threw their efforts behind a contestant many found deeply annoying?!) and it's a bit unpleasant at times.


Yup. Much like Chelsee having to do a disco number vs. Harry Latin and Jason Ballroom...


Nah, not Lowest Scoring. Week one crap. But Viewers' Choice wouldn't be too bad - would at least be popular routines. Or get them to do a dance that one of the others did, would be an interesting comparison.

I don't think he got there for those reasons. But they love the narrative of NDB...


Exactly this. They knew NDB is a narrative that if they are even a bit decent, will carry someone a long time. I think the big push next year will be female, but sportsperson could also be a big thing. Cloudier was a year too early!

Agreed. All options equally valid reasons. Can't understand why Louise was dumped like that. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. But perhaps Louise, unlike Danny and Ore, did not have particular crowd pleasing routines other than her AT? Just a general feeling that she was a nice dancer.

I'd be curious to know who wins most on Tour - Ore, Danny or Ed!

Yeah, if they wanted to thrash the racism accusations, they would've let Oti - a black woman who grew up in apartheid South Africa and is fluent in about four languages - to win over Ore, who went to a private school and walked straight into a job at the BBC after university...

Unappreciating Oti for choreographing a showdance that had NO still moments and no subtlety at all.

Frantic, odd mess, though dramatic. She should have done better there, she took 'showbiz to hide faults' too far, and it was a mess.

Misjudged.

If Jessica Ennis-Hill does sign on the dotted line, I would say that no one else need bother turning up

Personally I thought it was fabulous. I like contemporary dance though and I can see that to win the floating voters you probably need to do something more ballroom/traditional. I think TTF going all contempowaft is what lost them the glitterball. Basically, theirs was a Bonnie Tyler video circa 1986 with TTF lifting Louise around for 2 minutes.

I have a suspicion that Kevin did what Louise wanted and made her happy, and sod it.

And it seemed to make her happy, and she only really had votes to carry her.

I personally loved their Showdance (for all the Zoe's "we were all in tears" it's one of the few dances that actually gave me goosebumps) but I understand you wanting a few moments of quiet as a contrast.
Oti is a great choreographer, but she needs to show a bit more light and shade, rather throwing everything including kitchen sink PLUS food waste disposal unit at the dance.

On the other hand, Kevin showed plenty of quiet moments in their Showdance, but sadly very little else

You may well be right. I got the impression that Louise wasn't the slightest bit bothered about not winning - which is perhaps why she didn't?

I generally agree. I do think Kevin's lifts were generally good, and I do feel he CATERED to Louise, and her pleasure though.

And actually didn't think he'd win, nor worried about it.

I really don't think our OCD PTB would leave those kind of decisions to actual chance ...

See, I think Oti probably thought they had showed lots of light and shade over the weeks and especially last week - their American Smooth was lovely and graceful - and played to Danny's strengths which are passion, fire and drama. Sadly the floating voters didn't go for it but for me personally it'll go down in Strictly history as one of the best non-winning showdances.

For me, it showed that you can use a prop and have it be part of the dance, not something to disguise bad dancing or fill up some time. The mirror was integral and I love that they actually told a story in their showdance and not "Here's some dry ice and a bit of wafting!" or "Here's a bit of generic ballroom and a giant drumkit..."

I'm sitting here (admittedly after at least a bottle and a half of prosecco) thinking back on this series.
Strictly is ostensibly about zlebs "learning to dance"

But the three finalists, good as they were, had they REALLY progressed all that far?

Danny and Louise, stage school alumni. Started off adequate. Finished ever so slightly better.
Louise's big journey of self discovery turned out to be "here are my knees"

Never danced before Ore?
Well, Joanne must have worked bloody hard with him the the three weeks between launch show and first competitive show, because he was good from the get go.
But did he actually improve that much in 16 weeks??

Typical talented beginner. Good at some things, pants at others, inconsistency between and within dances, generally but patchily improving.

He wasn't always spot on tech wise until the final, and it was in dances he was natural at.

Don't see it as an issue myself. He improved massively overall. The jive was energetic and exciting the first time, the second he had the tech DOWN.

To be fair to Danny, everybody he graduated with from stage school said he was the worst dancer of the class by far and he only just scraped through because he wanted to focus on acting. So I do think Oti did do a lot of work with him.

He was a natural in the latin (as evidenced by his brilliant Week 1 Cha Cha Cha) but I feel like his biggest work was in the ballroom and he obviously really had to work on that. I think Danny actually had the biggest journey (along with Claudia) because as he was so good Week 1, they started to mark him as a pro and picked up on tiny little things.

Yeah I don't not care what the rest of the world thinks. As a fan who'd watched every one of their dances a gazillion times by the final and knew every move inside out their show dance was a perfect pick and mix of everything they'd done and it will stay one of my favourites.

Plus it was cool 😎

I agree Oti is fabulous and love her fierce choreography but do think she missed a trick with not showcasing any soft, still or particularly tender moments in their dances.

Everything was strength and power TBH and they did come across a bit one dimensional (power strength and ferocity).

Even the VW and Foxtrot were powerful battles between them. Very dramatic but I can see why people were left wanting.

It's a shame they swerved the Waltz as that could have given the still moments we never really had.