Strictly Come Dancing 2015: Jay McGuiness crowned champion thanks to public vote

The Wanted singer saw off competition from soap actresses Kellie Bright and Georgia May Foote

Contestants and professional dancers during an edition of Strictly Come Dancing. (BBC)

He may not have been the best known contestant among Strictly Come Dancing’s loyal fan base of Saturday night stay-ins.

But, after the BBC’s three-month competition, Jay McGuiness, the 25-year-old singer from boy band The Wanted, was this evening crowned the champion of its thirteenth series.

In a predictably drawn-out finale, in which viewers were given one series highlight package after another to digest before finding out who would finally take home the prize glitterball trophy, McGuiness and his professional dance partner Aliona Vilani saw off competition from soap actresses Kellie Bright and Georgia May Foote.

He had been third on the leaderboard – the order based on the views of the show’s resident panel of judges, a mix of acerbic and overexcited dance experts headed by Len Goodman and filled by Darcey Bussell, Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli.

His quickstep to The Who’s My Generation, they said, had included errors. Revel Horwood frowned and declared that he was “disappointed”.

But while the judges gave their big paddle scores to Bright and Foote, the public had other ideas about who should win.

When the phone lines opened McGuiness stormed the public vote and - after one more recap of clips from the series and some talking heads about the dance journeys all the competitors had been on over the last 12 weeks - was named the champion. It was the second series success for Vilani, who won with McFly’s Harry Judd in 2011.

“I feel spaced out,” said McGuiness afterwards. “Really weird. It’s been one of the most special things I’ve ever done.”

While McGuiness was making his quickstep mistakes, Bright, who plays Linda Carter in Eastenders, and Coronation Street’s Foote had both scored a perfect 40 - four ten out of ten marks from the judges – during the live final.

“I’m glad I got to see it through to the end,” said Bright, who had won a standing ovation for dancing the charleston with her hair in Princess Leia side-buns and waving a light sabre for a camp Star Wars inspired routine.

Foote was also just happy to have been there.

“All I wanted to do was get to the final,” she said.

Giovanni Pernice with Georgia May Foote, Aliona Vilani with Jay McGuiness, Katie Derham with Anton Du Beke, and Kellie Bright with Kevin Clifton with during the final of Strictly Come Dancing (BBC)

Earlier in the evening, newsreader and TV presenter Katie Derham was eliminated in the first section of the two-part final, departing with dance partner Anton Du Beke, the regular face on the show whose failure to win the competition is a running, jokey theme among fans. This was his first time he had even made the final.

The series has cemented the show as one of the BBC’s most popular programmes in it schedule, capable of taking on ITV’s Saturday night offering, the X-Factor, in the ratings as Christmas approaches each year.

While red button services and some sports coverage are expected to be part of a £150 million cuts package at the Corporation, Strictly, hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, is due to be protected.