Ah, the final. Shown over two nights originally in the US, the BBC chose to stick it together and I was glad because I couldn’t have stood the suspense. The first dance was chosen by the judges and then the contestants got to go Freestyle.

Laila Ali and her partner Maksim were out first dancing the Paso Doble. Laila said she was going to “dance her heart out” and she definitely did. It really did look like a bullfight and it was amazing. The judges loved it and they scored 29. But was that enough of a good start to put them in pole position?

Next up were Apolo Anton Ohno with his partner, Julianne, doing the Rumba. It’s the bedroom dance and Julianne was pretty much in underwear. I often don’t get the Rumba, but I thought it was wonderful. Bruno said they have so much chemistry together they’re a joy to watch, which I agree with. Carrie Ann and Len didn’t agree and it led to Len and Bruno rowing. “I can’t give my critique because big gob here–” said Len. Heh. They scored 28.

The judges chose the Cha-cha for Joey Fatone and his partner, Kym and … hmmm. Well it started brilliantly and gave me the shivers, but then it didn’t seem very Cha-cha-y to me, in fact it seemed more like the Freestyle. The judges actually agreed, saying there wasn’t enough content and it was “odd” and too theatrical. They scored 26, putting them bottom at the end of the first round.

Laila and Max were back with their Freestyle and it was cool and funny, but the dancing wasn’t quite as good as I expected. It seemed a little under-rehearsed and Laila wasn’t quite finishing her moves, but she finished the routine by ripping Maksim’s shirt off, which went down very well. Carrie Ann and Len thought it could have been more sophisticated and even Bruno wasn’t totally enthusiastic. They scored 26.

Even though Laila and Joey have been my favourites throughout, I do love Apolo’s and Julianne – their routines are always so inventive. Their Freestyle wasn’t my favourite, but it was certainly great fun. They were both wearing Apolo’s trademark bandana and at one point they pulled them down over their eyes and danced blindfolded, which seemed a bit cocky. The judges loved it, Carrie Ann didn’t even have anything to say, she just hugged them both. They scored 30.

The Freestyle I was most looking forward to was Joey’s and they danced to Last Dance (you know “Last dance, last chance for love”) which is just fabulous. It started slow and elegant until they ripped off their suits to reveal gold lame and from them it was totally freakin’ amazing. There were some incredible lifts and spins, Joey split-jumped over Kym’s head and Kym ended up in the air and upside down. It was incredible. Loved it. The judges loved it too, Len even said he wished he had more than a 10 to give, but they had to make do with 30.

For what was actually the second part when this was shown in the US, all the original contestants were trotted back out. It’s always when you see the celebs who went out early that you realise how long you’ve been watching the show. That’s me, marking the passage of time by going, “Ooh it seems ages since Paulina Porizkova went out!”

The finalists then had to reprise one of their performances for the judges (not the audience) to score.

Apolo and Julianne chose the Paso Doble and it wasn’t quite as good as the first time because the jumps were out of sync. It was still fantastic though. Len praised Apolo’s commitment and said there wasn’t one step there he could fault. And they scored 30 – giving them an 88 out of 90 from the judges over the three dances.

Joey and Kym picked their Star Wars Tango to reprise. I didn’t love it the first time and it scored 24 partly because, according to Kym, Joey had his “bum sticking out and your head looked like a turtle”. His posture was definitely better this time, and, although I still found the music distracting, I liked it a lot better than last time. “You’ve been trained, but you’ve never been tamed,” said Len and he’s so right. Joey’s personality has shone through every single routine and that is why I love him so. They got another perfect score, giving them 86 out of 90.

Laila and Maksim’s final dance is the Mambo. Laila looked amazing and like she was having fun. They were perfectly in sync. I love the way they dance together. Yes, of course, they also scored 30. I’m not sure what the point of having a final scored dance was when everyone was scored the same. It meant that, with 85 out of 90, Laila and Maksim were bottom with the judges, but of course there was still the public vote.

Except that Laila was obviously bottom with the public vote too and was therefore in third place. She wasn’t impressed, but I’m okay with it. Eventually the winner was revealed. It was Apolo and it was all over. Much as I love Joey, I think over the entire series Apolo has consistently been the best so that was cool. I would’ve been cool with any of the final three winning though.

I’ve loved this series so, so much that I’d be pretty gutted to see it end, if not for the fact that the new series of Dancing With the Stars starts on UKTV Gold ( http://www.tvscoop.tv/2007/09/coming_soon_dan.html) on Friday 28 September and the new series of Strictly Come Dancing (*squeal*) starts on Saturday 29 September.

You know, if I actually did some dancing instead of just sitting on my backside, I’d be a lot better off in many ways. But nuts to that. Bring on more celebrity dancing shows!

[by Keris Stainton]