Changed my life insofar as..he was the one from the Wanted that I had always quite fancied into becoming a full on SCD obsession. Loved the way he danced and will really miss watching him and Aliona every Saturday.

They certainly changed my life - for the whole duration of the series!

'My names Rolo and I'm a Jaliona addict' (currently in rehab)

Get back in the corner.

So because Craig said that it must be true....it's just Craig speaking rubbish yet again .

Didnt change my life

I just thought he was the best dancer

Just because Craig thinks that's the criterion doesn't mean it transfers to all of us...but since he thinks so, the winner changes all our lives for a while at least, while we argue about the.m on here

Only contestant that changed my life was susanna reid as she and kevin made me want to start latin and ballroom, and starting that has genuinely been utterly life changing for me. i urge anybody who has watched scd and enjoyed it to try latin and ballroom for themselves.

I find joanne clifton quite inspiring too but that's got nothing to do with scott mills.

Craig is talking rubbish again. If he is going to never, ever, give male celebs a 10 for dances like the Paso and Rumba, while any decent female celeb can routinely bring in 9s and 10s for their Tangos, then he and the rest of the judges would hand the female celebs the trophy every year. The public, on the other hand, do like to reward the outstanding male celebs when they show up.

Craig imagining a light entertainment show will change viewers lives.
The man needs to get a grip.

disagree with Craig. I think it takes a lot more than the winner of an entertainment/dance show to change lives but it's lovely to know that the quiet man can win because of the backing of the public, and that the judges opinions are little more than words however much they try to push their personal favourites.

Power to the people!

Have to agree with you 100%. My hubby is a very quiet man, never has anything nasty to say about anyone.

Not that I agree with Craig's comments at all given that it was his backhanded way of saying he didn't think Jay should have won, I don't think Jay specifically has changed my life in the slightest, other than by bringing me immense joy when watching him and Aliona dance.

However, SCD as a TV show has brought me a whole bunch of friends since the old BBC official forum days who I still speak to regularly some nine years later.

I do also fundamentally disagree with Craig that the best dancer didn't win. Jay had more top scoring dances than any other competitor (from memory) and was equal on points with Kellie (or ahead if including the Quickathon iirc) throughout the whole series. He may not have been given the most points by the judges on the night but that's a whole different argument as to why not.

This. Not the same celebs, and in fact more the pro dancers, but I've made some great friends through supporting particular people on this forum who I've been to the tour and dance events with and still see nowadays. I was also inspired by the show to take up dancing.

Nothing to do with particular winners, more Strictly in general.

Craig is actually wrong in terms of the general public. Changes lives is far, far, too over dramatic except for a handful of cases - for example, where dance lessons are started or whatever. What is more likely to be true is that a winning couple appeal for a variety of reasons to their voting supporters, in addition to the dance.

In terms of Jay, of course he didn't change my life, but I enjoyed their dancing more than the others. He offered something different. His quiet manner appealed to me.

Even so, it was a difficult year to choose. They were all worthy winners and I think it a pity they didn't simply create three mini trophies and let them all win. However, if I think about who I would rewatch it will be J and A for many, many, of their dances.

I would concur with all of this!!!!

Too right!

No he didn't change my life, nor would I expect anyone on a TV dance show to do that - he did bring me plenty of entertainment though and I thank him for that!

I find it interesting that a few people have mentioned Jay's quietness as one of the reasons they like him. I like that about him too. He's always gracious, never has a bad word to say about anyone, never put his personal life under the microscope, never complained about illness, or injuries or used them as an excuse when he had a bad week. He's not perfect: he's a young lad, and he still makes mistakes and gaffes - but that's why I find him so endearing.

He hasn't changed my life, it's still the same as it ever was, but it has been enriched for a few weeks by watching him dance with Aliona and be interviewed on ITT and on SCD.

Craig thinks he's being profound - but he's really not. He just doesn't understand why the public warmed to Jay rather than Kellie, because Kellie was everything he liked in a dancer, and Jay wasn't.

I think Craig's still got his pantomime Dame head on in fantasy land. Jay was one of those dancers you couldn't wait to watch each Saturday, Aliona's choreography was seductive yet subtle. Darcy said his jive was sexy; that was one of the USPS of Jay - the ability to transform any dance into something more novel than run of the mill jazz hands productions proudly present. Their AT was out of this world, Imo

I believe that Craig is full of crap and I disagree with him on both points.

He was the best dancer, but he did not change my life.

Jay hasn't changed my life but has certainly enhanced it by leaving me 16 dances to view (which I hope will be available in perpetuity).

Not a life changer but Jay certainly made a particularly difficult part of my life a whole lot easier!

In the past, I have been a sporadic watcher of Strictly and more recently have only picked it up late in the series when the standard of dancing improved. This year, I read about the Jive, watched it on Youtube and then began to watch the series from Week 4. Was totally hooked by Jay's dancing and rather endearing personality and he, and the show and ITT, provided a welcome distraction from various trials and tribulations thereafter.

I doubt I will become so immersed again. One of the things that always put me off the show (and most other "reality" shows) was the unthinking, casual cattiness of some of the judges' remarks (towards a number of people). They have no idea what is really going on in the contestants' minds and lives and, whilst it should be a part of their role to make constructive criticism and highlight dancing faults, they really need to think about what they say and how they deliver it.

I had never heard of Jay before this series, and I wasn't over impressed when I first saw him. But after his first dance I was hooked, and he made this series one of the best for me.

I loved the way that he didn't change to please the judges, and carried on in his own quiet way. He didn't need to resort to gurning, it would not have looked right on him.

In fact Craig could learn something from him, a perfect example of less is more.

Another excuse for a bit of Craig-bashing, then.

I didn't realise we needed an excuse

We wouldn't be Craig bashing if what he said made sense.

It's over dramatic theatrical nonsense dahhhhling

Jay might have, by coincidence, changed a handful of lives but he didn't change so many that that was the reason for his win.