One of the few remaining professionals to have taken part in all seven series of Strictly so far, Brendan was, as we all know, the first dancer to win the competition when he danced with Natasha Kaplinsky. In the stage show he has created, he brings to the stage some former Strictly professionals, Nicole Cutler, Hanna Haarala, Andrew Cuerden and Izabela Hannah, and his brother, Scott Cole.

The first half of the evening was dedicated mostly to latin, although the ballroom and Argentine tangos felt right to be included in this. There were also a couple of opportunities for Brendan to show us some of his original choreography with two separate routines enigmatically called Chairs and Silhouette. The flavour of the first half flowed from drama to passion, sensual to flirty, to fun!

It was over to the ballroom after the interval, but intermingled with a Q&A session with the boys (allowing the girls time for one of many, many costume changes) and the odd latin number. There was even time for Brendan to show off his singing skills!

The culmination of a fabulous evening was an amazing jive, probably my favourite dance of the night, before a standing ovation and a final cha cha cha.

The band providing the music for the night were great, and the two singers, Julie Maguire and Iain Mackenzie not only managed to get the right tone for each of the different styles of songs, but were even able to take centre stage during one of the required costume changes, rounding out the whole evening to make it a brilliant show.

MERRY CHRISMTAS!

None of the three returning celebrities have won a Strictly trophy yet, so will this be their year?

Just a quick reminder about another page you might be interested in ... The Perfect Score includes all the facts and figures about all the dances on Strictly to have ever scored a 10 from one or more of the judges, so with two 10s awarded last night, this page has been updated too.

Of course, there's also the quick at a glance weekly results page for last night (Week 11), for the details of the order the couples danced in, the dance they performed, their song choice, the judges scores, and the results of the dance off. Plus, the video of the new competitive group Viennese waltz as well.

I'd love to see either one of the professional dancers who've been knocked out already this year take on Tess's role backstage - James Jordan would be top of my list after his excellent showing on It Takes Two this week - or perhaps a someone like Karen Hardy or a former contestant could be drafted in - after all, there's always plenty of them in the audience!

I wish Bruce well, but I can't deny, there's quite a division between those who love Bruce and those who would like to see someone else take over the main presenters role, so this could be a very interesting time in the Strictly forums, websites, blogs and messageboards, and I can't wait to check out all the gossip and opinions this weekend!

The following table shows the couples ranked from the highest overall average to the lowest, with the couples who have left the competition in italics.

The pair will be competing in the first episode in the hope of winning the £10,000 prize for the children's charity Demelza House in East Sussex, which they are both representing.

No idea what Total Wipeout is all about? Check out this preview clip for the second series of the show:

James is extremely competitive and insists he would prefer to die than lose, while Ola's motivation is simply to beat James!

Source: BBC Press Office

The following table shows the couples ranked from the highest overall average to the lowest, with the couples who have left the competition in italics. All couples have danced three ballroom and three latin dances, except Ricky & Natalie, who have danced two ballroom and four latin dances.