The final of Strictly Come Dancing screened in South Africa on Saturday evening
and it’s one of those shows I try never to miss. If I am out on Saturday evening I catch the repeat on Wednesday but last Saturday night the tape was quickly set to auto tune before we went out. I wasn’t about to wait an extra four days to get the news of who had won.
The standard of the competing couples, Erin and Colin, Darren and Lilia and Zoe and Ian was astonishingly high. It was clear that huge effort had gone into their last performance and although my favourites Zoe Ball and Ian Waite, who did a sizzling Tango that inspired the judges to dish out a couple of perfect 10’s, were voted out first, I was delighted that English Cricket star Darren Gough danced his way to victory to become the first male winner of BBC Prime's Strictly Come Dancing.
Although he may not have been the best dancer of the series, in my opinion, he deserved to win. Out of all the finalists, he had to work the hardest to get what he achieved in the end. Throughout the series he was brimming with energy, enthusiasm and determination.
Darren always referred to himself as “A big geyser, who had never danced
before,” and he was constantly getting criticized for his big bowling hands by the judges although they did admit that for such a big guy he was surprisingly light on his feet. But as Len Goodman, Head Judge often said in his praise of Darren, “He dances like a bloke.” Darren often referred to himself as “A lad’s lad,” but that didn’t stop him from always putting his heart and soul into his training and his dancing. He even got his two young sons involved and they were seen from time to time during the series, looking as serious as heart attacks as they watched Dad go through his moves. So who cares about his dodgy hands? I didn’t and it seems millions of British viewers didn’t either.
It’s interesting how public opinion can swing things. Zoe and Ian had the highest
scores, closely followed by Colin and Erin with Darren and Lilia trailing in third position. When they announced that Zoe and Ian were the first to be voted off, I started to think that maybe, just maybe, Darren could swing it. He must have been an inspiration to all regular down to earth British guys and girls who don’t have perfect bodies and twinkle toes, and they must have dialed their fingers off to vote for him.
I have to say that I thought Colin Jackson, the Hurdle’s champion was a great dancer and had equal doses of enthusiasm, but he looked and moved like a dancer from day one, with his lithe athletic body. What I didn’t like about Colin was his partner Erin Boag. She’s an exceptional dancer, no doubt about that, and obviously a good teacher. But when she blatantly criticized Zoe and Ian for getting their first 10 score earlier in the series and said they were not perfect and 10’s should only be given for perfection. I thought she was pathetically jealous and anything but professional.
Firstly, this is an amateur competition and as a mentor and coach she should not
be so publicly negative about other competitors, and secondly the judges are all highly experienced in both dancing and judging and it was their decision to make. So who is Erin Boag to make a comment like that? Clearly nothing more than a jealous competitor and sore loser.
It gave me great satisfaction to see Zoe and Ian get two more 10’s on Saturday for their Tango which put them in the lead over Colin and Erin who had only managed top scores of 9’s on the final evening.
The three finalists also had the opportunity to do a free style dance as their final dance. Zoe and Ian were breathtakingly spectacular with lots of sexy energy and passion. Darren and Lilia were outstandingly dazzling with Darren doing all kinds of complicated lifts, and Erin and Colin were ridiculously embarrassing with a pantomime dance in which they were both dressed as men and waltzed about with dummies that were supposed to be a tribute to Arlene, the female judge and Tess, the female co-presenter. It was appalling and what made it even worse was that before the dance they had a clip of Erin saying “she wanted to bring the house down.”
Well, she definitely brought the mood down. The judges were all unimpressed and in fact it was really sad for Colin who had a last chance to do something really memorable and spectacular, which he is more than capable of. Instead we were forced to watch them dragging these ugly nose-less dolls around the floor.
Erin said she had staged it to show Colin could dance on his own. What rubbish! We know he can dance but I doubt anyone was even looking at his feet as we were all trying to look elsewhere in embarrassment. Did it lose them the finals? I don’t know, because it seems the voting might have been before that, but I reckon it really didn’t do Colin any justice whatsoever. I know I’m biased now about Erin, but it seemed a desperate attempt at grabbing some attention. I didn’t like it one bit.
A delighted Darren Gough, 35, said: “I thought I would be saying this 10 weeks ago but it has been an amazing journey for a guy who has never danced.” It’s an amazing feat considering that Darren told the programme’s official website that he never dances in clubs because he feels really embarrassed and doesn’t like people watching him.
I think the lad from Barnsley can dance his way into any club now with pride, don’t you?
Interestingly for Lilia Kopylova it is a case of the two Darrens. She partnered and trained Darren Gough whilst her husband and dance partner is Darren Bennet who won the last Strictly Come Dancing series with Jill Halfpenny from Eastenders. In this series he didn’t feature much as his partner, the older TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, was voted out early.
Lilia and Darren (Bennett that is, not Gough!) are the leading Latin American dance couple in Britain.
Lilia Kopylova was born on June 18, 1978 in Moscow and 1991 she and her young partner Mikhail Botashev were the first dance pair of their age from the Soviet Union to compete abroad. Lilia began dancing aged nine, but had already been trained to a high level in ballet, qymnastics and ice-skating. She excelled at figure skating and won a Moscow championship.
Lilia's next dance partner would also be her first husband - Dennis Thomsen. Later on he would be sentenced to a prison term for having sex with under-age girls. Not long, after her split from Thomsen, Lilia partnered Darren Bennett and they married on January 23, 1999.
I think Lilia has an absolutely drop dead gorgeous body and is a fantastic dancer. I am thrilled that she won this series with Darren Gough as she obviously put in loads of effort and was always so encouraging and supportive of him. She deserves as many accolades as Darren does.
And for some final gossip on the Stars of Strictly come Dancing:
Celebrity chef James Martin and Camilla Dallerup did become an item. So they
didn’t make it to the finals but did have lots of spark between them and made it to Strictly Come Loving.
It seems that Camilla Dallerup was formerly Brendan Cole’s partner and fiancee until he humiliated her publicly after the first Strictly Come Dancing Series which he won with Natasha Kaplinsky. He dumped her for Natasha, but evidently soon after came to regret it when Natasha moved on to greener pastures. She has subsequently got married.
It’s poetic justice isn’t it that Camilla found chemistry on this show with her partner while during the last two series Brenden Cole has had such mediocre partners.
In this last show he partnered Fiona Phillips and she really lacked confidence
and style. – Of course Brenden who likes to own the floor and describes himself as “Emotional and someone who wears his heart on his sleeve,” is not one for diplomacy or tact. The News of the World reported that after being voted out he pushed one of the guys filming him and at some stage during the show screamed at Fiona Phillips saying, “You’d be a crap shag.”
I think he should go shag himself. He’s certainly in love with himself enough to do so.
The last I read he’s on some TV show called "Love Island," trying to find love.
Camilla’s better off without him and James doesn't only dance, he can cook as well.
And of course, now we know, Darren doesn't only bowl mean balls, he dances away with trophies too.
Well done Darren!