The roof threatened to lift off the Utilita Arena on Wednesday night when Helen Skelton made up for not winning the Strictly title in December by being Newcastle’s champion, as her proud family looked on from the audience.
After a very tentitibe start to the biggest show on TV, ex Blue Peter presenter Helen came into her own alongside pro partner Gorka Marquez to make it all the way to to the final, before missing out on the trophy to Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal.
Gorka might have been missing from the arena on Wednesday, after turning down the invite to do the tour in order to spend quality time with his family, but Helen did him immensely proud with a stellar performance in front of crowd that included her son Louis, who she gave a special shout out after her first routine alongside new partner Kai Widdrington.
READ MORE: Strictly's Helen Skelton has emotional arrival as live tour comes to Newcastle
The newly formed duo scored a near perfect a row of 29 out of 30 from judges Anton du Beke, Shirley Ballas and notoriously hard to please Craig Revel-Horwood for their Quickstep to Valerie, a breakthrough moment for Helen and Gorka back in Blackpool, before getting a perfect 40 out of 40 for the Couples Choice that is without any shadow of a doubt, one of the most memorable routines to ever grace the Strictly dancefloor.
And after the audience votes were counted up, it was Helen and Kai who triumphed on night one in Newcastle, nudging out Will Mellor and Nancy Xu for the Glitterball on night one in Tyneside.
The reaction in the arena said it all, as cheers and whoops echoed around the venue, on a night there was not a spare seat to be had. She may not have won Strictly last year, but Helen clearly has a wealth of support out there.
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