Dancing on Ice Finale - Cole's Final Verdict

Having kept a running commentary on the early weeks of this series of Dancing on Ice, I've fallen behind in recent weeks but wanted to conclude with one final post to cover tonight's final.

As I blogged about in those earlier stages, it was no surprise to me that Sam and Laura reached the final. They have been the two outstanding competitors so far and were joined in the final by Chloe Madeley who has also showed a great ability as ther series has progressed.

The Final 3
Sam's opening performance tonight was sensational and he well deserved the first 10 scores of the series. Laura and Chloe gave good but not spectacular initial performances which for me gave Sam the upper hand.

Then came their favourite routines re-visted. Alyson and I were delighted that Sam chose his Riverdance performance and again, he gave another great routine. Laura then upped the ante and did what we've been waiting for all series - a perfect score of 10, 10 ,10. Chloe then gave an excellent straight 9.5's performance to keep herself in the hunt.

But for me, the two that deserved to be in the final to dance the Bolero were Sam and Laura. I was pleased that the viewing public felt the same way.

The Bolero
Sam gave an excellent rendition of Torvill and Dean's famous Bolero whilst Laura's version I felt lacked a bit passion in comparison.

So on the basis of their final performance tonight but also on their performances throughout the series, I felt that the 2011 series winner deserved to be Sam.

I'm delighted that that proved to be the case!

A Deserved Champion
For me, my favourite performance of the series was the Riverdance epic mentioned above. So to close my Dancing on Ice 2011 commentary, here is Sam's performance of that routine in its original guise back in week 7.

Well done Sam! A deserved winner!