No, I didn't agree with Brendan. I enjoyed all of their dances. The Quickstep was still good despite the mistakes.

I think that Danny just wasn't that popular for whatever reason so I believe that's why he didn't win.

Even if the polls had him leading I have a sneaky feeling he might not have as popular as people as thought he was . I wish BBC would release the voting figures.

Will you be going to the tour

I agree.

Yeah, I am. I'm going on the last date of the tour. You are going to one of the dates in Birmingham, isn't it?

Yes I will be going on Sunday 22nd January 6.30pm Birmingham I am really looking forward to seeing Danny and Oti in the flesh and will post a review on after

Looking forward to reading your review.

Thanks for the welcome Hannah!



I don't necessarily think it was a case of him not being popular. A lot of people I spoke to had him down as the best dancer or their favourite. I was at Gleb and Kristina's show a couple of weeks ago and they asked who people wanted to win- the loudest audience response was for Danny by a mile. I think it was simply he wasn't as well known as the others- people who don't watch Hollyoaks, which I am assuming may have been a large proportion of Strictly viewers/voters, wouldn't have known who he was or heard of him beforehand and people tend to back those they are familiar with which may well have contributed to it. Add to that the "ringer" label which I think was unfairly attributed to him at times. He was still learning the routines each week and Oti was pushing him further with her choreography all the time. Some of the lifts he was doing by the end were sensational!

Popping back in to share Danny's 5Live interview from Monday which is really lovely and far more in-depth than the Breakfast one. It starts at 1:49:00 and is just over 10 minutes long:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b085fz19

- He talks about how happy he was for Ore, and how glad he was that he was genuinely happy for him.
- He's fine that he didn't win a glitterball. The journey and the public support and the experience meant everything. He also talks about his dance experience, and lack thereof, quite a bit.
- He says a lot of lovely things about Oti (who he says has become a great mate and I genuinely believe they have become great friends who'll keep in touch). Apparently she'd tell him to go home and rest/sleep each night but she'd go home and watch their training tapes and be texting him ideas at 3am. She clearly worked so hard this year.
- He didn't want to have a Strictly hangover and be sat after the tour with the phone not ringing, dreaming of sequins and fake tans, so Sleepless is perfect because he can dive straight into something else that's creative and exciting.
- He learnt a lot about himself including to believe in himself and not apologise for himself. Oti pushed him to go out on a massive stage and show what he can do and you can tell how much that meant to him.

At one point, Danny said Oti had "created some masterpieces - things that I will have forever - and no one can take that away from us," which I thought was lovely and so true. I've been disappointed at times over the past few days that they didn't win but winning was a cherry on top of an amazing cake, and nothing can take away all their amazing routines and everything they achieved. We'll always be able to go back and watch their dances and it'll be difficult to have any "best of Strictly" list without them on there. They'll always be remembered fondly in Strictly history as one of the best couples there ever was and I feel very grateful that I got to support them and experience their journey.

Thanks for sharing the link. Great post.

Thank you for sharing the link. Danny's BBC Breakfast interview was short but sweet and he did still look tired.

I wondered which 5Live show he appeared on on Monday. Will take a listen later and *cough*can anyone extract it!*cough*

Thanks for sharing. Great post.

I'm listening to the interview now.

I cannot find the radio broadcast. Can anyone help please?

Will definitely look into that Gill..................

That was an excellent interview. I could feel Danny's frustration regarding the 'previous dancing' label that was stuck on him. Shame he didn't get the chance to do an interview like that during SCD as it would have put everybody to shame who kept sticking the boot in.

Every year now one celeb is picked on and sometimes it even borders on bullying, especially when the judges wade in with no actual facts at their finger tips....Len I'm looking at you!!

I hope Sleepless is a great success for Danny. He didn't sound too sure about the West End but I hope it will transfer after the tour as alluded to in the press release otherwise I'll not get to see it!

Ore was placed top of the leaderboard in the semi final as well, when he patently should not have been .THAT as much as anything gave him the extra support boost to get above Danny (and probably the others) that week too. The judges making the negative comments about claudia/danny and marking Ore crazily high was a disgrace. IT SUCH NEVER BE FORGOTTEN..
Danny was the best dancer overall by a distance. That much is obvious. Even the 'turncoats' who voted ore in the last two weeks would admit to that!

i don't agree with brendan...not this time! One mistake in the first dance, thats all, mate!
It sounds like he is 'toeing the party' line by saying danny made mistakes while 'perfect' ore deserved the win.
Ore's two dances were basically safe and the same. At least danny and oti went for it!

Agreed.

Agreed that's what I loved about Danny & Oti they never took the safe option they always went for the difficultly.

Yes Ore's American Smooth and Showdance were similar. I disagree with the claims from some people that Danny's Showdance and Samba were similar, his Showdance was passionate and dramatic with a mixture of Paso, Tango, Contemporary and showed his amazing connection with Oti and showed how he developed into to the fine dancer he is now. Whilst his Samba showed his fun side and showed how well he could do what is known to be hardest dance to do for male celebs.

Thanks so much for sharing! What a fantastic interview. Throughout the entirety of his time on Strictly Danny has never failed to impress me with just how grounded and down to earth he is. He comes across as a genuinely nice guy. I was lucky enough to meet him briefly in person earlier in the year when he was in Legally Blonde and I have to say he was just the same in real life as he has come across on telly over the last few months. He had time for everyone and was utterly charming and sincere. It's such a rarity to find "celebrities" like that in this day & age full of reality tv stars who are famous despite having very little talent.

Ahh so jealous you got to briefly meet Danny but its so nice to hear that he is a lovely as
he came across on Strictly.

I'm glad that he's as nice as he seems.

I generally find it difficult to give real weight to Brendan's opinions even when l agree with him (as l sometimes have in the past) because l sometimes feel he has particular agendas and much like James Jordan has a huge opinion of himself. Danny made mistakes in his quickstep but his showdance had only one clear mistake that he recovered quickly from. His Samba was very good as he managed to improve his technique in some areas the second time around, though if l'm honest l preferred it better the first time without the extra polish as it was a little more raw which l appreciated more as it suited the essence of the dance. However, both dances were worthy of the perfect scores they got as they were both high in execution and impact.

Even without the mistakes l don't think Danny would have won as Ore's 'no dance training' narrative was being pushed particularly strongly. Danny's mistakes just gave the judges an opportunity to further sing Ore's praises and the public a legitimate reason to vote for him particularly if they were a floating voter.

I also found it unprofessional of him to be criticising Oti's actually dancing as his focus should be on Danny. Brendan's dancing particularly this year has not been up to scratch in my opinion (particularly in that Jive with Anastasia), l'm sure he would be outraged if one of his fellow pros had pointed that out! Also l've found it particularly difficult to watch how up in Claudia's den he was there clapping along each celebrity and sometimes patting (or hugging as he did with Oti) his fellow pro on the back then writes a column that semi demolishes their achievements.


Great interview, thanks for sharing! It was particularly nice to hear that passion that Oti has been talking about and his genuine good wishes to Ore.

Has anyone been downstairs to the thread poling the best dances from this year? Danny has so far won the best American Smooth and the Argentine Tango.

Can you tell me what time Danny came on the broadcast on Monday. I managed to find something and tried to get the part where he was on but didn't want to listen to 3 hours plus! It seemed all to be about sport or employing ex-offenders.

It starts at 1:49:00.

Thank you!

To be blunt Brendan should be the last professional to criticise another pro's showdance choreography!