PLAYING a two-month 48-date UK tour, Brendan Cole – BBC TV Strictly’s professional dancer – wowed a sold-out-for-weeks Poole Lighthouse.

Loosely based on some wonderful James Bond theme songs – The Man With The Golden Gun, Live And Let Die, View To A Kill, Diamonds Are Forever, and of course Licence To Kill – this show is a thrilling dance extravaganza.

Backed by a superb live band and five talented dancers (including Brendan’s brother Scott) this well-structured spectacular is a terrific mix of Latin and ballroom.

The lead female dancer is Aliona Vilani – also from Strictly – and she complements Cole’s energy and precision with delicacy and grace.

Their Viennese Waltz, danced to the powerful and moving ballad The Impossible Dream, is romantic and magical. A sensitively choreographed American Smooth, performed to The Way You Look Tonight, is dedicated to Cole’s wife and baby daughter, born on Christmas Day last year.

After an interesting Q & A segment – in which Strictly partners Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Kelly Brook were complimented (Lulu less so) – Cole leaped into the audience to give a woman a birthday kiss.

On enquiring “Any more birthdays?” hundreds of hopeful females shrieked “Yes please!”

The finale featured The Time Of My Life from Dirty Dancing with that iconic flying lift, and the driving dazzling frenetic footwork from the equally classic dance movie Footloose.

Onstage throughout, Brendan Cole has developed into an engaging raconteur, a brilliant dancer, and a mesmeric showman.