X Factor's Sam Bailey 'romping' to Christmas No 1

X Factor winner Sam Bailey looks to be romping home to the Christmas No 1 after her single shifted more than double her nearest rival.

She sold more than 67,000 copies of her track Skyscraper during its first two days on sale - although it is less than a quarter of the total achieved by last year's winner James Arthur in the equivalent time period.

However, the figures from the Official Charts Company show she is on top of the midweek chart which will mean if sales continue she will be the first X Factor winner to get a Christmas No 1 for three years.

It has outsold Pharrell Williams's Happy - which is on course to be number two - by two and a half times.

Sam's track is still one of the slowest sellers ever generated by the ITV show and the lack of a strong contender to outpace her means that the usual boost for the Christmas singles market hasn't occurred.

Last year's X Factor winner James had shifted 255,000 copies of his single Impossible after two days of sales.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.