One More Sleep! (I know it's Friday already, but I haven't been to bed yet!)

Yay! It's nearly time..... Less than twenty-four hours until the best show of the year starts.  I mean Strictly Come Dancing of course.  I love it and have watched every single show since it started in May 2004.  There were only eight contestants in the first series which was won by newsreader Natasha Kaplinskey dancing with Brendan Cole who is one of only two of the original professionals (the other being Anton Du Beke) who are still in the show this year.

Series One Winners
Natasha Kaplinskey & Brendan Cole

Series Two was also in 2004 and featured ten celebrities including the eventual winner and one of the best contestants ever, actress Jill Halfpenny who danced with Darren Bennett. Denise Lewis OBE & Ian Waite came second and surprisingly Julian Clary came third with his dance partner Erin Boag.

Series Two Winners
Jill Halfpenny & Darren Bennett

Series Three and the number of couples was increased to twelve. First out were actress Siobhan Hayes & Matthew Cutler. The lovely Zoe Ball who now presents sister programme 'Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two' came third dancing with Ian Waite. Colin Jackson & Erin Boag came second and the winners were Darren Gough & Lilia Kopylova (wife of Series Two's winning professional dancer Darren Bennett).

Series Three Winners
Darren Gough & Lilia Kopylova

Series Four and good grief...we're up to fourteen celebrities and it's Nicole Cutler's turn to draw the short straw with Nick Owen and they are first out. Comedian Jimmy Tarbuck had to withdraw from the competition for health reasons so Flavia Cacace had to sit out the rest of the series apart from joining the other professionals for show dances. This was the series were James Jordan was paired with actress Georgina Bouzova, a match that was definitely not made in heaven!  The eventual winners were Mark Ramprakash & Karen Hardy.  Cricketer Mark blossomed as the series progressed after starting out as a very shy and series man.  In my opinion Karen Hardy is probably the best professional dancer to appear on Strictly and she fully deserved this win.

Series Four Winners
Mark Ramprakash & Karen Hardy

 

For poor Karen Hardy, winning Series Four got her the booby prize in Series Five...actor Brian Capron who seemed to have several left feet and they were first out. Anton Du Beke also got a duffer in Kate Garraway who's popularity (not her dancing) carried her through to eighth place out of fourteen. Matt Di Angelo & Flavia Cacace came in second but the deserved winners were Alesha Dixon & Matthew Cutler.

Series Five Winners
Alesha Dixon & Matthew Cutler

Series Six saw the introduction of my favourite male professional dancer Brian Fortuna who danced with Heather Small of M People and they came ninth out of a cast of sixteen couples. Brendan Cole managed third place with Lisa Snowden and second place went to singer Rachel Stevens with Vincent Simone. The very popular winners of this series were actor Tom Chambers & Camilla Dallerup.

Series Six Winners
Tom Chambers & Camilla Dallerup

Now we come to Series Seven which featured my favourite ever Strictly couple who also went on to have a real life relationship, Ali Bastian & Brian Fortuna, who in my opinion were robbed of the glitter ball when they came third.  However TV presenter Chris Hollins & Ola Jordan who did dance off with the glitter ball were a very entertaining couple. Brian and Ali did however go on to win the Christmas Special which was some compensation for the Fortuna fans.

My favourite Strictly couple
Ali Bastian & Brian Fortuna

Series Seven Winners
Chris Hollins & Ola Jordan

Disappointingly, Brian Fortuna didn't join us for a third series but we still had a good cast of characters for Series Eight including Jimi Mistry who was paired with Flavia Cacace and is still paired with her three years later. They are now engaged. Unfortunately they only managed tenth place in the competition. It was in this series that the wonderful Ann Widdecombe proved herself to be a great sport and a very popular contestant along with her long suffering dance partner Anton Du Beke. It was just a shame that she couldn't dance! Strangely this didn't seem to matter as she finished in a respectable sixth place. It has to be said that the top four in this series were all extremely good and I would have been happy if any of them had won, so I think we'll have photo's of all four couples.

4th
Scott Maslen & Natalie Lowe

3rd
Pamela Stephenson & James Jordan

2nd
Matt Baker & Aliona Vilani

Series Eight Winners
Kara Tointon & Artem Chigvintsev

Series Nine featured the shy and retiring (NOT) Russell Grant who together with Flavia Cacace provided this years comedy relief.  However nobody could deny his passion for the dancing and his fondness of Flavia and they came eighth out of fourteen. Once again Anton was stuck with a no hoper, although she was a no hoper with a very high opinion of herself. Nancy Dell'Olio seemed convinced from the start that she was God's gift to the art of dance although in her case it was more like the very bad crayon drawing of dance. Poor Anton! Harry Judd & Aliona Vilani won the series with Chelsee Healy & Pasha Kovalev in second place and third place for Kristina Rihanoff & Jason Donovan.

Series Nine Winners
Harry Judd & Aliona Vilani

Which brings us right up to last year and Series Ten. Sadly in last place was Johnny Ball (father of Zoe) swiftly followed by Jerry Hall and then actor Sid Owen. The surprise of this series was actress Lisa Riley who everyone thought would be the comedy turn as she is a larger lady.  She was paired with Robin Windsor and they developed a wonderful friendship and guess what? Lisa could dance and had more stamina and elasticity than many women half her size. She wowed the audience and judges with her Cha Cha Cha in week one and you can watch it by clicking the link under the picture. Lisa & Robin finished in a very creditable fifth place and every dance was a treat.

Lisa Riley & Robin Windsor Cha Cha Cha

Second place was shared by Denise Van Outen & James Jordan and Kimberly Walsh & Pasha Kovalev.

The winners and therefore reigning champions were Olympic Gymnast Louis Smith & Flavia Cacace.

Series Ten Winners
Louis Smith & Flavia Cacace

So, that's it. Roll on tomorrow and the proper start to Series Eleven. I wonder who this years winners will be...............   BBC 1, Friday 27th September, 9pm.

                                                                                                                          Tracey