Glitz and glamour as Strictly stars begin their Belfast odyssey

After promising Mark Ramprakash a win in Belfast when I interviewed him last week, I was on the edge of my seat all night but I am pleased to report that, on the Tuesday evening at least, Mark did indeed get his first win of the tour and lifted the glitterball trophy thanks to the support of the people of Belfast.

Mark's Argentine Tango and Salsa were breathtaking and he certainly deserved his win.

As the other dancers were knocked out of the running Mark faced ex-rugby player Austin Healey in the final two. It would be a tough call as Austin's performances were clearly crowd-pleasing and Mark admitted last week Austin had been on winning form throughout the tour. However, when Mark's name was called it was obvious the best man had won.

Having said that, all of the performances were something special - from the romance of Ali and Brian to the cheekiness of Chris and Ola, the high energy of Kelly and Matthew to the crowd pleasing humour of Ricky and Aliona - the whole evening was a whirl of sequins and light that thrilled the audience from start to finish.

The judges were, of course, on fine form. Len with his usual understated, gentlemanly humour, Bruno with his overwhelming enthusiasm, which boiled over until he couldn't even stay seated and Craig who veered between 'dis-as-ter' to 'fab-u-lous'. It was also good to see Arlene Foster return to her rightful place on the judging panel and everyone in the crowd seemed to agree that it was good to see her back with the show.

As you would expect from Strictly Come Dancing, the costumes sparkled and shone just as much as the dancers wearing them and one of the highlights of the evening was undoubtedly the spectacular, illuminated show dance by professional dancers Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe.

From start to finish, the Strictly Come Dancing Live show, was enthralling, entertaining, uplifting and magical and for anyone who missed out - make sure you get your tickets early if the show returns next year, you don't want to miss it again