Strictly victor jay mcguinness was viewers’ most wanted

There were tears, there was endless, endless hyperbole and, in the end, the voting public disagreed with the judges.

It has been another spectacular series of Strictly Come Dancing, and the bosses never fail to impress us with the line-up, but this evening was all about Jay McGuiness, Georgia May Foote, Kellie Bright, and Katie Derham. And even something of a surprise that, despite scoring only third on the leader board last night, viewers’ long memories of the quality of McGuiness’s performances across the series got him the win.

McGuinness also addressed rumours of a relationship with his professional dance partner Aliona Vilani, and said although there was no romance between them, their friendship was “very firm and real”.

The singer said afterwards that he felt “spaced out” by his win – and told Aliona: ‘You deserve it so much, you really do’.

“My Strictly experience has been the scariest thing I’ve ever done and the most rewarding”, said Jay.

There’s such hyperbole associated with Strictly Come Dancing – the beloved family-friendly ratings jewel in the BBC Autumn schedule that Auntie herself likes to shout about to near-deafening degree – that I’m loathe to add to it here.

“Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!” cried Bruno Tonioli.

Wilmslow -raised BBC Proms presenter Katie Derham and Anton Du Beke were the first couple to leave the showdown between four couples – Anton’s first ever final. I’m glad I got to do as many dances as possible; that’s all I really wanted; thats what really important.

While McGuiness was making his quickstep mistakes, Bright, who plays Linda Carter in Eastenders, and Coronation Street’s Foote had both scored a flawless 40 – four ten out of ten marks from the judges – during the live final. “I’ll just say I love you to pieces”.

However, they made up for it with their paso doble to It’s My Life, which scored 39 points.

“You’re number one in my book”, said Darcey Bussell. “I would be very, very proud to put you into any of my West End shows”.

“I still want everyone here to do their best and feel happy with what they’ve done”.

After being announced victor the 25-year-old went into shock.

Last weekend, The X Factor came to a showstopping close, and this evening, Strictly Come Dancing will close its doors.