DANCING ON ICE FINAL

Drama, as ever, at Dancing on ice FINAL....

Three contestants - Hayley and Dan, Gary and Maria, Kieron and Brianne. Three routines...

FLYING - Gary managed to look lighter and graceful and had more content than Kieron - who did what he was given with arms that were stronger. Flying favours the girls and Hayley's presentation with Dan as the base worked brilliantly. I had a Hayley, Gary, Kieron placing.

FAVOURITE ROUTINES - Hayley with Bollywood superb, Kieron with Punk great energy but a trip, Gary managed to communicate and express his routine relating to Maria and skated well with lots of ice coverage. I had a Hayley 6.0, Gary, Kieron placing.

BOLERO - Hayley and Dan skated first. Presentation super as expected but hardly any skating from Hayley and slow over the ice, a door had been left open. Robin didn't mention this in his comments - the rest of us were given no time to comment! Gary skated out and covered 'miles' more ground with very good presentation and a flowing routine. Gary's was undoubtedly the best Bolero for me on the night.

RESULT - I sat watching and thought.... Hayley should have won because of her contribution to the entire series, Gary should have won because his Bolero was better - and that would have been what we, as judges, would have been expected to judge irrespective of what had gone before. So I sat in the space of each of our two final contestants could rightly lay claim to the title.

PUBLIC VOTE - Hayley won.... and, on Bollywood alone, she and Dan deserved it. Congratulations to them and to Gary as well - he and Maria did a great job.

CHRIS AND JAYNE - Awesome! Learning and performing a flying routine with ribbons that had danger, finesse and power for the final. I have heard it said as a show business mantra - start brilliantly, finish brilliantly and/or leave the best to last... This was their best performance of the series and a reminder that - an Olympic mentality says - Be The Best, keep pushing and improving. Golly they were great and the backing band wasn't ad either.

TUXEDO - It was the final, we should all have had Dinner Jackets on - the ladies had long gorgeous dresses - what happened to the guys? Well I wore mine because it was the final... Normally that's the form. Perhaps some of the other chaps got the tuxedo out of their system on movie week?

MY AWARD - I got an award from The Friday show for nearly causing the show to crash it's ending because I wouldn't shut up... Just one more thing. I'm quite proud of it in an anarchic type of way... I wasn't trying to crash the break - I just had more to add.....

PICTURES - pictures to come... wrap party was fun but a mix of 1 Guinness, 1 red wine and a tequila shot with Pavel along with bed at 3.30am have left me with a thick head so I'll take a break and do pictures later.

Love

Nicky