Strictly Come Dancing: Chris McCausland has come so far from being the joker in the pack - Christa Ackroyd

But amidst all of the chaos and all of the noise, Strictly has been doing what Strictly does best and keeping those of us who love a glitterball distraction feeling warm and cosy on a Saturday night. And tonight it’s the final.

Blow the pre Christmas diet, which by the way is going particularly badly this year. Tonight I will have snacks of the chocolate variety at the ready, a cup of tea and a fully charged phone to text throughout to friends who will be doing exactly the same.

And yes I will vote. And yes I know who I want to win. And I can’t wait. If that appears shallow forgive me. But boy have we needed a little light relief this year. And maybe a valuable lesson or two along the way.

Of course this 20th anniversary series of Strictly didn’t get off to the best of starts with sackings and suspensions, allegations and inquiries to the point where I felt it may loose some of its sparkle. It hasn’t. In fact I would say it’s been the best yet, perhaps because we needed it more.

The talent this year has been outrageous. If you cast your mind back over the past two decades, many of this year’s bunch who have already left the show would have been considered worthy winners in the past.

And that includes Pete, whom I love by the way. I have no idea what he does but I have loved what he has done on the show. As for the four finalists who remain, they are simply incredible.

Tasha is as her scores suggests perfection, JB, the late bloomer who has now found his rhythm and Sarah as light as a feather, strutting her stuff for the older woman.

But for me there can only be one winner and in his own words he isn’t even the best dancer. Whatever the result tonight Chris McCausland gets my vote. And not because I feel sorry for him because he is blind.

What he has achieved goes far beyond a dance competition on the television.

What his partner Dianne Busswell has achieved is amazing. Every week I have said the same. I don’t know how he is doing this. And I certainly don’t know how Dianne is teaching him.

But what they have achieved together is nothing short of a miracle. What’s more I think Chris would agree.

If you cast your minds back to the first week you may remember he started out as the joker in the pack, understandably.

He was being hilarious but honest when he said ‘If anybody out there is thinking ‘how the hell is he going to do this ? then rest assured I am thinking exactly the same thing’.

And yet here he is in the final. And I suspect he can’t quite believe it too. But gone are the jokes, the self deprecating put downs, Chris McCausland has been through an incredible personal transformation and it has moved him to tears these past couple of weeks. As it has me.

It would be too trite to say that Chris’s time in Strictly is important because it is making his disability of blindness visible.

That does all he has achieved a disservice. He was never there to tick a box. No, what Chris and Dianne have done together is prove to us all that anything is possible, or as my dad was so fond of telling me ‘there is no such word as can’t.’

That the great British public has taken him to their hearts and kept him in right to the end shows we see that too. And reminds us all that perfection is not something we should be a slave to. And beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

To witness Chris’s friends, some of whom are blind, others sighted, come to visit him in the practice studio and sit in the audience was a humbling watch.

To see big tough men be moved to tears in support of their mate a reminder that it is okay to cry and that a true friendship circle is a vital part of all our lives.

But I suspect it is the transformation in Chris himself that we will remember the most.

It don’t know if he hid his fears and worries as he lost his sight in his twenties behind the jokes and the humour. Perhaps. I don’t know if he really went into Strictly to prove to us or to himself that no matter what everything is worth giving it a go in life. Which of course he has done.

I only know that with the best will in the world I genuinely believe he thought he wouldn’t be there long. Only he has been.

And as his partner reminded us he has done so without the ability to see others show him the moves, by watching his fellow competitors, or even examine his mistakes on video playbacks. But no matter.

His timing on the dance floor is as flawless as that in his comedy, his musicality as finely tuned as anyone else’s, perhaps more so because sound and touch play such an important part in his life.

That being said I still don’t know how he has done it. I only know that he has shown us the way, whatever we have to contend with in our lives.

When I was growing up I didn’t come across people with disabilities.

They were largely kept away from mainstream schooling in ‘special’ facilities. As one friend said the only blind person I came into contact with was the piano tuner who came into school.

I didn’t even know anyone in a wheelchair until I was in my twenties. That we now live in a more enlightened society bodes well for us.

That week after week we have voted for a man who didn’t offer perfection but offered us hope, and laughter and possibilities, shows us that we are, whatever we may feel, a society that is becoming more inclusive and therefore more capable of seeing not only the best in people, but putting ourselves in the shoes of others along the way.

In this year’s Strictly final a man who is blind will join a young woman who is deaf, an older woman who is a single mother and a member of a boy band who is black and has created a perfect family with a woman who is white.

And if that is not a microcosm of the best of British I don’t know what is. If you think about it, if a TV show about dancing has anything to demonstrate it is far beyond who is the best dancer. It casts a spotlight on what this country should be, non judgmental, all embracing and accepting of differences along the way. And it has.

In this world of division, where people are being taught to strive for the perfect ten, it has shown us we can all dance to our own tune.

But I still want Chris and Dianne to win.