Nick Knowles of DIY SOS fame and former footballer Paul Merson were notably absent from the glamourous live final of Strictly Come Dancing.
Both Nick and Paul missed the opportunity to join the rest of the 2024 contestants for the final group dance on December 14th. Instead, their presence was humorously represented by stand-ins who danced while holding up photographs of the two stars.
Nick had previously been eliminated as the third celebrity in the series following a dance-off with Shayne Ward, best known as the former X Factor winner, with partner Nancy Xu.
Paul was the first to leave the competition and had to unfortunately inform the production team of his illness, which prevented him from participating. A Strictly spokesperson conveyed his situation to The Sun: "Paul is unwell today unfortunately. He will be very much missed and is sad he couldn't make it."
In an interaction on BBC Radio Wales with fellow Strictly contestant Wynne Evans, Nick reflected on his experience: "I was trying to play it down, because I was determined to go out dancing rather than sort of go out with the injury... I had the operation four weeks ago and that's all recovering quite nicely.", reports the Mirror.
Nick has revealed that he will be missing the upcoming final of Strictly due to a knee surgery scheduled in the same timeframe. Going into specifics, he commented: "I've got the operation on my knee, but it means, mate, that I'm not going to see you for the final. My operation's on the 12th, and the final's on the 14th."
During an appearance on BBC's Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two, Nick opened up about his exit from the show, reflecting: "I had a week off, you can see actually everybody had progressed a lot in that week and I just didn't have time to be able to catch up and do well enough to stay in the competition."
He also remarked realistically, "I think it was the right result in the end and it means that I can now get the various bits of me that are falling off sorted out. I might have an operation on the arm this week and then another operation on the knee in three weeks' time so I can get myself sorted."
The finale saw Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell take home the glitterball, beating JB Gill, Tasha Ghouri and Sarah Hadland. Comedian Chris is the first ever blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and easily won over the hearts of the nation.
After being announced as the winner, McCausland said: “This is for her (Dianne) and it’s for everyone out there that thought and got told they couldn’t do something.
“It just shows with opportunity and support and determination, anything can happen.”
He also thanked Buswell, saying: “She deserves this so much. She’s just honestly one of the easiest people to be funny with – and unless she changes her number, she’s stuck with me.” Ahead of being announced winner Chris felt 'overhwhelmed', Craig Revel Horwood gave his 100th 10 of his Strictly career and Vito Coppola suffered a wardrobe malfunction!
Tasha Ghouri also had a huge surprise as Claudia Winkleman halted the show to confess she had a special visitor, more on that, here
