DUE to circumstances out of my control, for the first time in five years I didn’t watch the Strictly final live.

A family celebration, which was obviously very enjoyable and more than worth leaving my sofa and the huge excitement of the culmination of 12 weeks of competition, necessitated viewing on catch-up.

I never had high hopes of managing to keep the result secret until I had watched it due to social media and an excitable ten-year-old for whom keeping a secret is an alien concept.

But I still think it is worth, in the interest of closure, ending the series by watching the result of three months of hard work on the part of the contestants.

All three were worthy finalists, of course, but I really hoped Ore would lift the trophy since his transformation into a dancer was the most remarkable.

Danny Mac had not made a secret of his work treading the boards but it surely gave him a slightly unfair advantage over sports presenter Ore who had never danced before.

Not even at his own wedding.

Even Louise was off to a good start with the dance work she notched up while one quarter of the girl group Eternal in the 1990s.

It might not have been latin or ballroom but it involved learning a routine, being choreographed and actually having a bit of rhythm.

That’s why, as I have said before, I will not be joining in any negative commentary on Ed Balls’ contribution to the show this year.

His development and progression was admirable and his determination to keep going and not give in despite calls for him to go only made me like him just a bit more. Not loads, just a bit.

The BBC had billed the weekend as the grand final of grand finals with Sports Personality of the Year and the Apprentice final also being screened. But the Sports Personality was a bit of a foregone conclusion and the Apprentice is just a bit old hat now.

Do we actually know how these big projects are going two or three years after Lord Sugar invested in them ? Not to my knowledge.

But back to Andy Murray’s victorious receipt of his, unprecedented third Sports Personality of the Year Award and the now legendary handing over of the prize by Lennox Lewis.

This year, in a surprise twist, the embarrassment was not Lewis’ inability to time said presentation right, or say anything, but the decision to do the handing over poolside, with bikini clad sunbathers in the background leaning in to have a look at what was going on.

Presumably this was quite an exclusive hotel, since Murray also travels by personal jet, so could they not at least have found a quiet conference room with which to conduct this bit of business ?

And let’s not get started on the myriad little clips they rolled out to introduce the other finalists.

They are just not funny.