Strictly Come Dancing super fan Jessica Long reflects on the 2017 series and praises the real stars of the show.

It's time to put your glitter, sequins and Cuban heels away as Strictly Come Dancing is over for another year.

After weeks of ballroom and Latin dancing it was Holby City star Joe McFadden and his partner Katya Jones who lifted the glitterball trophy and I could not be happier.

All four finalists were worthy of their place in the grand final but for me Joe was the perfect Strictly contestant.

He wasn't the front runner from the beginning, didn't have the dance experience of Debbie McGee and Alexandra Burke and kept getting better week on week.

But the biggest tool in his armoury was his partner Katya.

The Russian, who danced with Ed Balls last year, choreographed such unique routines which made him stand out from the competition and were full of moves shared on social media.

And she, as well as the other professional dancers, are the real stars of the show.

The passion, commitment and talent they have for dance projects into our living rooms week in week out and you can tell this is absorb by their celebrity partners.

Each week the thing I look forward to most are the pro-dances on a Sunday night and this year there have been some corkers. From the sass shown by Oti Mabuse in the catwalk themed number to the raw emotion portrayed by Karen Clifton in the Remembrance Sunday dance, it's no surprise that most of them have shows touring across the country.

But now, other then on Christmas Day, we have to wait until September 2018 to have the pure joy of Strictly in our lives again.

Like Kevin Clifton said; 'in a world where not everything going on at the moment is always nice, Strictly is the one thing that brings a lot of joy and happiness into the world through the wonderful thing that is dance.'