The Morning After …

And the best dances for me were Tom and Camilla’s foxtrot show dance, followed by Suzanne and Matt, then Zaraah and Fred, with Kyran and Melanie in close attendance. Craig pointed out any mistakes. Or was it Jason? He did too, quite rightly, in the face of overmarking. But at least the judges on Dancing on Ice stated quite clearly they overlooked any mistakes because it was Christmas! The SCD judges marked Tom and Camilla down because it wasn‘t a foxtrot as such, although it was perfectly OK for illegal lifts in other dances. I’ll say no more! Alesha and Matthew’s VW was eagerly awaited, but unfortunately the vocal arrangement spoilt the magic. I love Tommy and Lance, whichever it was, but it just didn’t suit a VW, they should have stuck to the Bing Crosby version. Lisa and Brendan tried to inject a bit of TomCam stylee into their quickstep, but they lacked the panache to carry it off and it was a very messy affair. I was expecting Great Things from Jill and Darren but again, very bitty, frantic - I was disappointed, expecting something a lot classier. Again the arrangement of Favourite Things was too much - for listening to, not for dancing an AS to (the original would have been better). So far, I’m not blown away. Rachel and Vincent did the rumba again, but the dress seemed more suited to a cha cha. And I wondered if everyone else knew they were allowed lifts. Kelly and Brian take the floor and I’m thinking, that’s a big dress for a jive - there’s going to be a Bucks Fizz moment. More illegal lifts and again, I found it too bitty and also Brian way out danced Kelly. Love the bloke, but he needs to learn from Camilla on how to show off your partner, like she totally did again with Tom. They knew no matter what they did, they weren’t going to top score with the judges in this and why should they care? So they served us up another treat in the shape of a fun, entertaining and humorous routine that had me smiling involuntarily all the way through and the audience clapping along. Although, to be fair, they clapped along with everything.

So there’s a four way tie at the top of the leader board - M&A, J+D, R&V and K&B with T&C in fifth, L&B in sixth. After deliberation the judges ranked them in that order for the scoreboard and the audience vote pitted Jill and Darren against Kelly and Brian with the glitter star going to Jill and Darren. Now call me old fashioned - the judges and producers must have known this would be a tight one - so why not leave it to the studio audience to vote for their favourite of the night? Kelly clearly must have been top or second to leap frog over Rachel and Alesha. And it would have been interesting to see whether Tom would have beaten the girls.

Dancing on Ice starts 11th January, a much less stressful affair of course, since we don’t get to know the celebrities like we do on Strictly. And I’m strangely in agreement most of the time with most of the judges, even Jason. Probably because I can see for myself who’s better on the ice (on account of the wobbling, falling over and panic stricken faces!) but no doubt there’ll still be less technically perfect performances I enjoy regardless. And I've yet to get the feeling that the judges are in any way biased for or against any of the contestants. I thought they put on a terrific show tonight - splitting them into boy/girl teams, five judges scoring so they all spaced out well, with the audience then voting for their individual favourite couple. Very close and what d'you know - Mrs Joe Public does it again, I thought Team Torvill would take it and I'm right! SCD, are you paying attention!