Zoe Ball fills Claudia Winkleman's eyeliner well

Strictly Come Dancing - It Takes Two

(BBC 2)

Zoe Ball had some very big stilettos to fill.

With her quirky sense of humour and oddball presenting style, Claudia Winkleman was a firm favourite among fans of Strictly Come Dancing It Takes Two.

Claudia was queen bee – the dancers loved her, the judges loved her and she made it almost impossible to picture anyone else at the helm.

But then she left to have baby Arthur and the die-hard Strictly army was grief-stricken.

Who could we rely on now for witty remarks, haphazard attempts at dancing and the world's most liberal applications of fake tan and eyeliner? (Winkleman really was a pro in that department, she made Jordan and Jodie Marsh look like slap dash amateurs)

So you can forgive the Strictly supporters for hardly jumping for joy when Zoe was announced as her replacement.

Ball hadn't been on TV for years and, when compared to loveable weirdo Winkleman, seemed so, well, vanilla.

The appeal of Winkleman was that she realised how ridiculous the whole show was. Sitting inside a studio resembling the inside of a disco ball, never once did she take it seriously, revelling instead in the camp absurdity of it all.

Could Zoe ever live up to her predecessor? Well, umm, yes actually.

Last night she bounded on to our screens all bouncing blonde curls, clever asides and confident opinions. Heck, I even liked her shoes.

Alright, she talked far too fast at times but that was the only quibble in 30 minutes of live TV.

She kept things moving, drew on her experience as a contestant on the show back in 2005 and was an all-round charming host.

Right in the family

Even Craig Revel Horwood, queen of mean, seemed to like her.

As he quipped and bitched his way through a recap of this weekend's action, never once did he give her the cold shoulder or hint at any backstage drama. Yes, it seems Mrs Fatboy Slim has fitted right in in the Strictly family. And, luckily for the fans, Claudia still make an appearance every Sunday night for the results show.

The rest of the show was as enjoyable and disposable as ever. Evictees Dan and Katya turned up to discuss what went wrong, which, according to Mr Lobb, was that he "concentrated too much on the dancing".

Err, yeah Dan, that'll be it.

Holly and Artem also made an appearance, looking a bit frosty with one another after Artem's girlfriend, and former champion, Kara Tointon apparently laid down the law.

Former foxtrotter Pamela Stephenson meanwhile put her professor's hat on and dissected each of the couple from a psychological point of view.

Apparently Harry and Aliona need to watch their flirting and frontrunners Jason and Kristina are competitive. Hmm, hardly the most earth-shattering of opinions but they'll do.

The light-hearted look at the couples behind the scenes wrapped up a fun-filled, throwaway 30 minutes of telly to eat your tea in front of.

By Elizabeth Joyce