Brilliant Bill wins Strictly and raises the bar for dad dancers everywhere

Mega congratulations to the extraordinary talent that is comedian Bill Bailey. Winning Strictly Come Dancing at the age of 55 and thereby becoming the oldest celebrity to ever lift the famed glitterball, has given hope to dad dancers everywhere. Though he had raised the bar to a terrifying height.
I mean a man who can do ballroom, Latin, street-dance and jive to the highest imaginable standards and still manages to make doing a tango to Metallica look like a logical move is such an inspiration.
Week after week he has turned in astounding performances alongside professional partner Oti Mabuse. And even though at semi final stage it looked as though his rivals Maisie Smith, HRVY and Jamie Lang might have the edge, Bill raised his game even further.
That he is 36-years-older than Maisie, 34 years older than HRVY and 23 years older than Jaimie just made it all the more remarkable. The fact that not one of them resented his victory spoke volumes.
And bear in mind that this is a man who had never danced before He is neither a trained athlete nor a sportsman. the physical achievement alone is astonishing.
What Bill Bailey does have is a deep love and understanding of music, great intelligence and an unerring work ethic.
The other thing he had, like so many of us, was an empty diary. Indeed it may be remembered that one of the very few positives to come out of the Covid pandemic was that comedian Bill Bailey had all his gigs cancelled and therefore found time to let Oti turn him into a dancer. As silver linings go that was a pretty good one