It was Strictly, and the
BBC, at its best: everyone welcome, and everything all the better for it
![A groundbreaking Strictly final in step with modern Britain](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/16c35c0576ce295edc42f5a8882f1ae96e60537e/0_117_3500_2102/master/3500.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=8504a39b175a7e3cd4872d684a4f3a6b)
As the 2021
Strictly Come Dancing Grand Final began, it was all about Representation Strictly. From the first flick to the final lift, serious points about changing modern
Britain – about inclusion, diversity and legitimacy – were being made amid the drama and the sequins.
In the show’s first-ever two-person (and thus shorter) final, here was a young deaf woman – EastEnders
Actor Rose Ayling-Ellis, 27 – dancing with professional partner, Giovanni Pernice, 31. Bookies favourite Ayling-Ellis was competing against John Whaite, 32 – chef and 2012 Great
British Bake Off winner – in a same-sex LGBTQ couple with Johannes Radebe, 34. They should have been joined in the final by a woman of colour – presenter, AJ Odudu, 33 – who was sadly unable to perform with her partner, Kai Widdrington, 26, due to a ligament injury.