'Vincent has won something at last!': EastEnders star Charlie Brooks pokes fun at her partner as she wins the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special

By Marcus Barnes

Last updated at 10:12 PM on 25th December 2011

Charlie Brooks was the Christmas champion on this year's special edition of Strictly Come Dancing.

The 30-year-old took the title after winning the audience's share of the final vote after the judges tied her with fellow competitor Debra Stephenson.

But it was the EastEnders star's Jive, with partner Vincent Simone, that helped Charlie dance her way to victory in the end.

Champion: EastEnders star Charlie Brooks with her trophy after she triumphed in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special

Rocking around the Christmas tree: Charlie and partner Vincent Simone stole the show with their Jive

Blue's Simon Webbe kicked off the show with Katya Virshilas.

With the support of bandmates Anthony and Duncan in the audience he danced the Cha Cha Cha to Slade's Merry Xmas Everyone.

The singer worked his way through a raunchy routine as a man who comes home to his wife who's been preparing the dinner table.

Tea's up! Katya prepares the dinner table waiting for Simon's arrival

Honey, I'm home! Simon took to the dancefloor with supreme confidence oozing class throughout his routine

He powered through a confident display wearing a purple short-sleeved shirt with Kaya in matching purple dress.

The routine closed with the couple sat down with a newspaper and certainly impressed the judging panel. Struggled with lift close to the end.

Len Goodman commented: 'It was crisp like fresh snow, sharp like the air on Christmas morning, hot like a mulled wine. Tutty fruity what a booty!'

Hands-on: The Blue star's routine was sexy and commended by the judging panel

Read all about it! Simon and Katya pretend to read a fake newspaper with the headline 'Dancing the Christmas blues away'

While Alesha Dixon said: 'Strong, animalistic, totally in control, a very confident performance.'

An ever-enthusiastic Bruno Tonioli added: 'I know its Christmas, but all of a sudden it feels like midsummer. So much hot totty I feel dizzy.'

Craig Revel Horwood said: 'You were a powerhouse of strength, Amazonian.'

Fine and dandy: Debra Stephenson and Ian Waite get stuck in to their American Smooth routine which won them 37 points

Next up was comedian Debra Stephenson, who partnered Ian Waite for their take on American Smooth.

Dancing to Christmas classic Baby, It's Cold Outside Debra wore a sparkling silver dress with partner Ian in a grey tux.

They took to the dancefloor starting their routine on a chais longue and performing their routine with panache.

Up and at 'em: The duo worked their way through their routine with precision and grace

I won't take this sitting down: Ian Waite kicks off the routine on a chais longue

Finishing with a big lift and returning to the chais longue, it was an impressive turn which landed them with 37 points.

Alesha telling her: ' You look gorgeous, nice line, turns, in control. Fantastic.'

Whereas Len added: 'Like a fairy on top of the tree, you were light and fluffy. Baby it's cold outside, but you warmed me up.'

Past stars: This year's celebrity dancers were in the audience to watch the Christmas special - they closed the show with a huge routine

Hi-De-Hi actress Su Pollard provided the evening's light relief partnering Anton Du Beke for their own take on the Foxtrot

A snow covered Anton warmed his hands on a fake fire while Su arrived on a sleigh, Bing Crosby's White Christmas playing as they got stuck in.

The stars were both in white, that was until Anton stripped off Su's white dress to reveal a mint green number.

Slaying the Foxtrot: Su Pollard joins Anton Du Beke on the dancefloor for their comedic routine

Su pulled funny faces throughout and appeared awkward and stiff, Anton leading her around the dancefloor.

At the end he shoved her back into the sleigh, pushing her backside to get her back in.

Though host Bruce Forsyth saw the funny side, Craig was usual gloomy self telling Su: 'It did lack some fundamental points - elegance, grace, style... you also did go off on the wrong foot.

But Su butted in and told him: 'Once that happened I couldn't get on the right foot then!' and proceeded to pretend to stab him while he defended himself with chair.

Helping hand: Anton led Su around the dancefloor during their performance

Going for gold: Su Pollard pretends to attack Craig Revel Horwood

Len on the other hand, embraced the Christmas spirit and told Su: 'You came out like the snow queen, white and gorgeous. Then there was a metamorphosis and you turned into this Christmas tree. I didn't see anything Craig did. You had Anton, like Rudolph the red nose reindeer, guiding you round the floor.'

Alesha said she wanted to give Su an extra point for attacking Craig.'It was done with affection,' Su replied.

Bruno also enjoyed the good humoured dance, telling the actress: 'You have such range. You were crackers on a sleigh and a smitten kitten on the dancefloor.'

It started with a kiss: Barry McGuigan and his partner Erin Boag

Barry McGuigan danced the Quickstep with Erin Boag and admitted in rehearsals that he was very scared of performing the dance, particularly given his height disadvantage.

Erin wore a red dress as they danced to a jazzed up version of classic carol Jingle Bells.

The former boxing champion appeared a little awkward - he lacked finesse and ambled along at times though the reaction was very positive from the judging panel.

Here we go! The boxer managed to pull off a respectable Quickstep though Craig Revel Horwood was quick to dismiss him

Jolly good show: Though he was a little awkward, Barry still clocked a good score

Bruno said: 'The bells are ringing, you were faster than Lewis Hamilton. Fantastic Quickstep, well done.'

Craig, as ever, laid in with the serious commentary, telling Barry: 'You could do with more length of bone, you lost your balance, your hands need shaping, you need spots on your turns. The end position left a lot to be desired. But you had great posture, I loved the Charleston section.'

Last up, and eventual winner, was actress Charlie Brooks AKA EastEnders' Janine Butcher who took to the floor with Vincent Simone.

Full of energy: Charlie Brooks and Vincent Simone snatched victory with a spritely take on the Jive

Dressed as Santa, Vincent gave out presents to female members of the audience before unveiling Charlie from a sack.

Charlie wore a Mrs Santa as the duo danced a very energetic and precise Jive to Santa Claus Is Coming To Town in front of a receptive audience.

Energetic from the outset, the routine was punctuated by a spectacular lift towards the end which saw Vincent swing Charlie round and step over her with each leg.

Plenty of swing: Vincent performed a spectacular lift, spinning Charlie around under his legs

They received a standing ovation and great feedback from the judges.

Len said: 'That was sharp and tasty like a pickled wlanut in a bit of cheese. Terrific Jive.'

Alesha commentted: 'Fast paced great energy kicks and flicks. Pure fun.

While an ecstatic Craig crowned Charlie's victorious dance by saying: 'One word, three syllables, starting with F... fab-u-lous.'

Though she was tied with Debra, Charlie eventually emerged as the winner thanks to the audience vote.

Also featured on the show was Shakin' Stevens and the entire cast of this year's run of Strictly, who performed a huge final dance to close the show - with the judging panel also joining in.

Are ex-lovers Vincent and Flavia keeping their relationship Strictly business on tour?

By Lisa Sewards
Last updated at 3:00 PM on 23rd April 2011

To dance the tango well,’ declares Vincent Simone with a flash of his dark eyes, ‘you need to have loved and suffered.’ His partner Flavia Cacace gives a sultry smile in agreement. ‘It’s all about passion, pain, jealousy — and betrayal,’ she adds.
And they should know. For the couple — who have wowed viewers with their sizzling-hot Argentine tango routines through five series of Strictly Come Dancing — have found their personal lives turned upside down by their tangled emotions.
They began on Strictly as a couple who had lived and danced together for 11 years, becoming world tango champions.

Passion: Flavia Cacace and Vincent Simone wowed viewers with their sizzling-hot Argentine tango routines through five series of Strictly Come Dancing

Then they broke up and Flavia fell in love with her celebrity partner in the 2007 series, former EastEnders actor Matt di Angelo.
The distraught Vincent — who calls himself the Italian Stallion — found someone else, and he and his new girlfriend Susan Duddy have a baby son. However, there was a bit of a blip when it was revealed that Vincent had been having an affair with fellow Strictly professional dancer Kristina Rihanoff.
Meanwhile, he and Flavia continued to dance together professionally.
Now Flavia and Matt are no longer an item, but she and actor Jimi Mistry — with whom she was paired in Strictly’s 2010 series — are romantically involved, in spite of her resolve not to fall in love with another partner on the show.
Earlier this month Flavia and Vincent began a UK tango tour together, which every night puts them in each other’s arms, entwines their legs and throws them into passionate on-stage kisses.
Their on-stage chemistry sizzles, and, as word spreads, some theatres are reporting that Midnight Tango — which matches them with ten of the world’s finest dancers — is their fastest selling show of 2011.
So how does it work between them? Is it possible to divorce yourself from the steamy clinches, ignore your passionate history and remain detached while performing the world’s sexiest dance?

Heat: Flavia with former flame Matt di Angelo

Partners: Flavia gets close and personal with new beau Jimi Mistry after breaking up with old flame Matt di Angelo, right

Flavia, 32, says: ‘We love each other and care for each other more than anything, but we became more like brother and sister. We’d achieved all we’d set out to in competitive dancing, but there was something missing.
‘But I had tunnel vision. You would have had to hit me over the head with a hammer before I’d have seen anything was wrong with our relationship.’
Vincent, also 33, admits he had been jealous of who she might be partnered with when they signed up to Strictly in 2006. That first year, though, Flavia was paired with Jimmy Tarbuck, whom the Italian Stallion decided was no threat.
The following year, his great fear was the darkly brooding Welsh TV presenter Gethin Jones, so Vincent was relieved when she was paired with 20-year-old Matt di Angelo. ‘This one is a baby,’ Vincent reflected at the time. ‘He’s not Flavia’s type.’
But he was wrong. Flavia says: ‘Meeting Matt opened my eyes. For the 11 years Vincent and I had been together, we’d never even been to the cinema or out to dinner, because we were always rehearsing.
‘So when Matt took me out, I thought: “Wow, this is a proper boyfriend.”
‘It was a complete shock to feel that way about Matt. Vincent and I had been competition dancers since our teens and things had gone on from there.

Kicking off: Flavia and Matt become closer during one of the shows for the BBC series

Kicking off: Flavia and Matt became closer and then romantically involved during shows for the BBC series

‘Earlier that summer we’d broken up, but even though we were separated, we’d still gone on holiday with my family. He’d been my first boyfriend and I was sheltered and shy, because my life had been focused entirely on dance.

‘Matt was a bonus — I hadn’t expected to fall in love with him. It was hard explaining to Vincent how I was feeling.’
Vincent agrees. ‘It was an emotional time. We had spent so many intense years together, you can imagine how hard it was for us. Although our romance was on and off, I could never imagine us being apart. But I wasn’t angry with Matt; it was just sad for me and Flavia.
‘But it was always destined to end because we spent all day and night with each other dancing. Then we became lazy without realising it, and instead of practising, we’d say: “Let’s not bother.” ’
They knew that as a successful dance duo with a huge following, thanks to their smouldering performances on Strictly, it would be madness to simply waltz into the sunset separately. After all, they’d been an instant success from the moment they met when they were teenagers.
Flavia’s family moved from Naples and settled in Guildford when she was four years old. A year later she began lessons at the leading local Hurleys Dance School for ballroom and Latin. It was here she met Vincent, who was flitting between the UK and southern Italy.
‘The first time I saw Flavia I knew it was a match made in heaven,’ he recalls. ‘As dance partners, you have to become one. We are both Italian, share the same birth sign — Pisces — are both dark-haired and olive-skinned and our heights work together.

Couple: Flavia is now in a relationship with actor Jimi Mistry, with whom she was paired in the 2010 series of Strictly

‘We are like twins. We think the same way and come up with exactly the same choreography. Flavia will be there for me for ever and I will be there for her.’
Flavia agrees: ‘We’re like brother and sister. If I hear a song I like, I know Vincent will like it, too.
‘He came from a competitive background and I came from a more technical one, having done dance exams.
‘But we have rarely argued in all these years. At rehearsals, everywhere we looked there were professional couples screaming at each other and storming off. We used to giggle at our friends and say: “Oh, here they go again.”
‘We learnt that if we argued it meant we stopped practising, and that got us nowhere. Vincent and I became good friends first, and that’s always been the basis of our relationship.’
This has made their continuing friendship easier for Vincent’s girlfriend, Susan, 37, to cope with.
He met the private jet air stewardess in the Strictly after-show bar six months after his relationship with Flavia ended.
They fell in love instantly, but her trust in him was shaken after his fling with Rihanoff while Susan was pregnant with their son Luca, now 18 months old.
‘Whatever happened is in the past,’ he insists. ‘It seems so long ago because I was in a different state of mind then.
‘We’ve become a little family and I’m in love with two people now, not just one — Susan and Luca, my little Italian sausage. Being a father has changed me.’
Does Susan still get jealous of all the female attention? This is the man who, after all, went mouth-to-mouth with Felicity Kendal in Strictly last year for an erotic samba sensation.
‘Of course, Susan’s a woman,’ says Vincent with a flourish. ‘It’s only natural and I’d be the same. When you’re on television you get loads of attention from girls who don’t care who you are with when they approach you.
‘But I think she’s now got to the point where she understands what I do and knows there is a lot of acting in it.
‘I reassure Susan to make sure she’s part of it. She and Luca are touring with me as much as possible, and when she’s not there, we’re always on the phone. I make sure she’s part of my world.

'Our romance is well and truly over'

‘And I don’t think she worries about Flavia because she knows our romance is well and truly over.’
Which brings us to Flavia’s romance with 37-year-old Jimi Mistry, who had been single since his marriage to Meg Leonard ended nearly four years ago.
He and Meg, who wed in 2001, have a nine-year-old daughter, Elin. But Mistry said before the last Strictly series began that he hoped the show would revive his love life. ‘If I can keep shaking those hips, who knows what will happen?’ he laughed.
Flavia and Jimi’s relationship is the latest in a string of romantic entanglements to have developed on the Strictly dancefloor. At the start of the 2009 series, boxer Joe Calzaghe broke up with his long‑term girlfriend Jo-Emma Larvin to pursue a romance with Rihanoff, his blonde Russian dance partner.
In 2004, ballroom professional Camilla Dallerup ended her relationship with fellow Strictly dancer Brendan Cole amid rumours he was having an affair with his partner, newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky. Actress Ali Bastian also found passion on and off the dance floor with Strictly professional Brian Fortuna.
Flavia is only too well aware of the irony. ‘I didn’t want to meet anyone else on Strictly. I thought: “That’s enough.” Matt and I had ended our relationship just before Strictly 2010 started. It was mutual — he wanted to go to America for his career and I don’t have the right personality for a long-distance relationship to work.’
Matt and Flavia’s sizzling routines helped the couple get to the final, where they were pipped into second place by Alesha Dixon, now a judge on the show.
‘It was great to make the final, but the time came when it was right to end it,’ explains Flavia. ‘For me, it wasn’t about wanting to meet other people, but about not wanting to feel distant from him. The distance was a risk I wasn’t willing to take, because I didn’t think it was going to work.
‘At that point, I thought I was through with men and was ready to focus on my career. Starting a relationship with Jimi was the last thing I wanted. I kept resisting him, but we were talking for hours and hours — although, we managed to get through Strictly before we started a relationship. We’re very happy.’
Do they think dancing creates a world of dangerous liaisons, with couples spending their time chest-to-chest with a member of the opposite sex?
‘They’re aren’t many professions like ours, but as a professional, physical closeness isn’t an issue,’ says Flavia. ‘We’re focusing on technique and musicality not sex. It’s the same for most actors.’
Jimi will be there whenever he can to watch Flavia and Vincent tango their way around the UK. Flavia says he accepts their dance partnership for what it is — strictly business — and Vincent adds his own words of reassurance.
‘The boundaries are clear. Flavia and I turn up, do what we do and put all our emotions into the dance. As a result, our dancing is fresh and has a new edge and energy to it.
‘And that’s all there is to it.’

Midnight Tango is now touring. For details, visit midnighttango.co.uk.