Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special

The idea of the Christmas Specials was to get the top three couples from both series to perform their best/favourite dance to a Christmas track. As Christopher Parker, the runner up of Series One was ill (alleged suicide attempt), Martin Offiah, stepped in. Julian Clary was in panto, so Aled took his place.

It was Martin, and his Series One partner Erin who went up first and performed a jive to All I Want for Christmas is You, it was a lively jive, I am always impressed by how light on his feet a stocky man like Martin is. Although their jive was not a patch on anything Jill and Darren did in Series two, it was a good amateur dance. Erin had a fabulous skimpy costume and they danced well together.

Aled and Lilia samba'd to Aled's hit Walking in The Air, which was sung by a guest choirboy and given a samba beat. They did it very well, even if the music was a bit odd!

Lesley Garrett returned with Anton and they did a beautiful waltz to Silent Night.

Denise and Ian performed their marvelous quickstep, one of my favourite ballroom routines. Their tune was Sleigh Ride.

Last Series champions, Natasha Kaplinsky and Brendan Cole did a Foxtrot to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I am not a fan of the Foxtrot and no amount of judges' enthusiasm for their 'control' won me over.

Jill and Darren performed a new jive routine with rock 'n' roll lifts (technically illegal, but many couples used illegal lifts) to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, it was very good, but ultimately they came second in the judges' votes to Denise and Ian.

Natasha was third, Lesley fourth, Aled fifth and Martin brought up the rear.

As I am a muppet I forgot to video the last part of the show with added on the viewers' votes to decide the ultimate winner, which was Jill and Darren. Interestingly Jill has now accepted a lead role in the West End musical Chicago.