Slightly Strictly
As well as not talking much about the Doctor Who Christmas Special I've been noticeably not discussing Strictly Come Dancing this year, mostly because for various reasons I didn't see much of the early stages, and then was away for a lot of the final ones. However, in those early programmes I did see, it was screamingly obvious that Alesha Dixon deserved to win it, so I was pleased to be back in the UK and at home in time to see her do just that.
One thing that you have to worry about in these things is that the person who's actually best doesn't win, because everyone gets caught up with the person who's had the biggest 'journey'. The not-actually-about-reality Reality TV business these days is obsessed that every participant has to be on a journey towards something (or possibly away from something in the case of all those freaks on Big Brother), and sometimes that gets in the way of something that (as far as Strictly and others that are about actually learning a skill are concerned) is more important - talent.
Alesha Dixon had that aplenty, and as The Mrs and I also noted, she's warm, natural, likeable (unlike smarmy Mark Ramprakash last year) and humble. She's also stunningly beautiful, and when Bruce Forsyth embarked upon what I personally found a slightly startling discussion about how she could be the UK's biggest female star, it nevertheless rang quite reasonable - as a whole package, she makes quite the entertainer.
Anyway, best moment of the whole fiesta around the announcement of the winner was actually a shot of runner-up Matt Di Angelo's family. The man himself looked like he was being gracious in his defeat, but his brothers looked about as sour-faced and bitter as two human beings ever have. Now *that* was reality.