Harry Judd's disastrous Strictly rehearsal

Harry Judd feared he would not win 'Strictly Come Dancing' after a ''disastrous'' pre-final dress rehearsal, which left him on the ''verge of crying all day''.

Harry Judd feared he would not win 'Strictly Come Dancing' after a "disastrous" dress rehearsal.

The McFly drummer - who beat off competition from Chelsee Healey and Jason Donovan, who finished second and third respectively, to win the Glitter Ball trophy on Saturday night (17.12.11) - nearly dropped his professional partner Aliona Vilani during the dress run and was on the "verge of crying all day" because he was so nervous.

He explained to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I forgot some moves. The dress run was pretty disastrous. I almost dropped Aliona. And then in the Argentine tango I tripped her up and we had to miss a whole section. Everyone was reassuring us, 'Don't worry, bad dress run, good show.' It has been very emotional and I was on the verge of crying all day.

"The night before the final I was with my girlfriend Izzy in a hotel room and I started to work myself up a bit. I was feeling pretty anxious. Thankfully I passed out and next thing I knew the alarm was going off."

The 25-year-old star has put part of his success down to giving up drinking alcohol, which helped him fully concentrate on rehearsals without a hangover.

He added: "I don't drink any more. I stopped last year and it's been a good thing for me on 'Strictly' - I've had no hangovers and been able to focus.

"The tough thing is there is an amazing crew on 'Strictly' and the guys have been saying, 'We'll have a drink tonight, Harry'. How am I going to explain that one?"