As we have seen over the weeks of Strictly Come Dancing, the final couples are ready to perform for the final time.
Four celebrities are vying to get their hands on the glitterball trophy, in the show’s 20th anniversary year: Chris McCausland, JB Gill, Sarah Hadland and Tasha Ghouri.
McCausland, who is the first blind contestant on Strictly, has become the bookmakers’ favourite to win after thrilling viewers and judges.
The grand final will be broadcast on Saturday from 18:00 GMT on BBC One and iPlayer, but it will also be available to view on the channel’s YouTube page.
When The Series Began There Were Fifteen Pairs. The Remaining Four Are:
- Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell
- JB Gill and Amy Dowden
- Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola
- Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec
The final three couples will dance three times each for a studio audience and the panel of Strictly judges before the viewers vote for the winner.
Other moments of the show will be the professional dancers dancing with singer Raye, and the entire cast of 2024 coming back to the dance floor for the final performance.
It Was The Scariest Thing I’ve Ever Done.
Before the final, McCausland stated that practice had been “unrelenting” but also discovered that he has “far more tenacity and perseverance than he ever realized he had.”
“It has been tiring and it has been the most frightening experience I have ever had, but it has also been the most rewarding I have ever had,” he said.
“And that’s probably the aspect that is going to impact me most in as much as my perception of the world and life and the opportunities available to me.”
The 47-year-old and her professional partner Buswell will be doing the routines which include the waltz to You’ll Never Walk Alone, Gerry and the Pacemakers in the final.
They will also dance the couple’s choice to Instant Karma by John Lennon, which they previously danced last month.
In the dance that became popular on social media, the comedian put his hands on Buswell’s eyes as the room was turned off. The lights went off and came back on after a couple of minutes to reveal him twirling Buswell on his shoulders while fire crackers exploded in the background.
The pair scored 33 out of 40 with the judges, Craig Revel Horwood said about the “poignant blackout moment” as “absolutely spectacular”.
McCausland on perception of people with disabilities
This is because Chris McCausland inspires students.
See Strictly’s ‘spectacular’ blackout dance moment
McCausland was registered blind due to retinitis pigmentosa which robbed him of his sight in his twenties and thirties.
He said his 11-year-old daughter was initially ‘scared’ when he began the show because she feared he would ‘stumble’ and ‘make a fool of himself’ in Strictly.
But now, she is backing him to win, he added.
’It doesn’t matter daddy if you go out because I think you’ve already won,’ she would tell him every Saturday, he said.
‘And then it was when we got to the semi-finals she said, ‘Daddy, do you know when I said it doesn’t matter?’ I’ve changed my mind. I think you can win this thing’.”
‘it’s An Incredible Feeling’
Gill has reached the final, but his professional partner Amy Dowden had to withdraw from the show last month due to a broken foot.
The professional announced on her Instagram page in November that she was devastated that she could no longer compete.
It was shortly after the Caerphilly born dancer had completed her chemotherapy.
Dowden eventually explained that the injury was not related to prior health concerns and that she had to take a break but wanted to come back.
Fellow professional Lauren Oakley stepped in to take her position, being partnered with the JLS singer.
The two will dance Show Dance to Motown Medley, Viennese Waltz to Let’s Go Fly A Kite from Mary Poppins.
Gill described it as an ‘honour’ to be partnered with Dowden and had nothing but good things to say about his new dance partner.
“It is very special,” Gill said. “To get here, to be here, with Lauren, is great.”
Gill, one of the members of a very popular band, came into the show with at least some dancing experience.
And, even though he has changed partners, he has remained on the high side of the leaderboard and enters the final in the top position.
But he said he was still being stretched every week and he is learning something new.
“There are good weeks and there are bad weeks,” he said. ‘Yes, the steps are one thing, but actually it is about feeling it and enjoying it’.
Can Vito Win Again?
The competition was won last year by professional dancer Vito Coppola and Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach.
He will be hoping to achieve the same feat on Saturday night with Hadland, the actress who featured in Miranda.
Hadland, 53, has been applauded during the series for her powerful messages on women embracing themselves.
When asked in the video before her performance last month, she responded that she had been receiving messages from women her age who had stopped dancing.
I am not having other people dictating to me what I should or should not be doing. I am,” she said to the camera.
Ellie Leach’s dad ‘put glitterball trophy in shed’
This caused a huge stir on social media.
“My favourite kind of couple’s choice is woman, who is talking about self development and searching, and give the hottest fosse number possible,” one of the X users.
‘Sarah Hadland is so lovely, she makes me melt,’ posted another.
The couple will dance on Saturday such numbers as Cha Cha to Like A Prayer by Madonna, and American Smooth to Proud by Heather Small.
Before the final, Hadland said she was expecting herself to be a very confident person and someone who understands what she is capable of doing.
But in the series, she has found out that she has restrictions that she sets for herself.
“Now I’ve realised it, you don’t know it’s happened to you and then you say, ‘Oh, how much in other parts of my life am I doing this?’” she said.
‘You should never get to a stage in your life for whatever reason and say that is it, this is the best I can do’. You shouldn’t do that, because you are cutting off all these possibilities.
‘Bedazzling My Cochlear Implant’.
Also in a good standing to make the final are Ghouri, 26, a former Love Island contestant, and her partner Aljaž Škorjanec.
The pair became the first to achieve 10 and 40 this series, with their stately American Smooth to Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi.
In the final on Saturday, they will perform that number again, along with a new show dance to Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman.
Ghouri is the second deaf contestant to appear on Strictly, three years after the show was won by Rose Ayling-Ellis.
Before the final, Ghouri said it has been a ‘dream’ to be part of Strictly especially ‘bedazzling my cochlear implant’.
She said that the costume team of the show had been putting diamantes on the implant every week to correspond with the outfits.
