16 December 2023 , 23:15
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Strictly Come Dancing came to an epic end on Saturday night as Coronation Street star Ellie Leach was crowned the winner of this year's series.
The star, who is known for her role as Faye Windass in the soap, and her dance partner Vito Coppola were up against Layton Williams and Bobby Brazier. During the finale, the trio performed three spectacular routines - a favourite dance, show dance and judges' pick in a bid to lift the Glitterball trophy.
Judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and Shirley Ballas gave their final scores but the winner was down to the viewers' vote. In the tense episode, Ellie and Vito were over the moon as they were announced the winners. Following her win, her family and friends took to social media to congratulate her.
Her cousin Brooke Vincent took to her social media to celebrate her win with a sweet photo. In the snap, Brooke, Ellie's former Corrie co-star Colson Smith and more friends wore matching masks of Ellie's face as they posed for a group selfie.
Ellie's cousin Brooke shared a sweet post on social media (brookelevivincent/Instagram)
Catherine Tyldesley also celebrated Ellie's victory (auntiecath17/Instagram)"Come on Ellie," she captioned the post. Fellow soap star Catherine Tyldesley took to her page to repost a Strictly video of Ellie and Vito's incredible win. "Yessssss @ellielouiseleach and @vitocoppola!!! So deserved! Phenomenal," she captioned the post for her 641,000 followers.
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It comes several months after it was reported that her Coronation Street co-stars vowed to get Ellie into the final after she was 'unfairly' axed from the soap. She played Faye Windass on the show for over a decade before she was supposedly forced to leave by producers.
A source told The Sun: "Everyone has vowed to do all they can to get Ellie to the final of Strictly as a "f*** you" to bosses. It was made clear to her earlier this year they didn’t see a future for her character so she was left with no choice. At the time she said she had quit but it was always seen as an axe. It caused major upset behind the scenes because co-stars felt she was treated really badly. So they want her to become a big BBC star and stick two fingers up to the powers that be."
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Although Ellie won the competition, there was a moment that could have ended in disaster. At one point, it looked like the trophy would have been a distant dream when a daring lift almost ended in disaster. While performing their show dance during the final, Vito flipped Ellie up onto his shoulders as part of a daring lift.
But while she was standing on his shoulders, Ellie faltered and fell - with Vito catching her milliseconds before she could smash her face on the floor. The horrifying near-accident rattled Ellie’s confidence, and saw them gain their lowest scores of the night - but the viewing public overlooked the slip-up to crown them the 2023 champions.