Dancing on Ice
Contents |
Host
Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby
Co-hosts
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean
Announcer: Marc Silk (2006), Bob Lawrence (2007)
Commentator: Tony Gubba
Judges: Karen Barber, Robin Cousins, Jason Gardiner, Nicky Slater (all series), Karen Kresge (2006), Natalia Bestemianova (2007), Ruthie Henshall (2008)
"Defrosted" (ITV2 show): Stephen Mulhern
Synopsis
ITV's long-awaited answer to Strictly Come Dancing. A group of (fairly) famous people are tutored in ice dance by Torvill and Dean, and are whittled down week by week until a winner is found.
The number of callbacks to S.C.D. is quite breathtaking - almost as if the director's used the same shot list. There's five judges instead of four, and the scores (out of six, in half-point steps) are revealed in on-screen style like an ice dancing competition with only a few chats with the judges. The set appears to be a car crash of leftovers from You Bet! and Ice Warriors, although the glass roof is rather nice. One thing it did initially have over SCD was that the practice of only opening phone lines after everyone has performed was clearly fairer than Strictly's then practice of keeping them open all week.
Torvill, Dean, Schofield and Willoughby attempt to express an emotion through mime. If you can work out which one, please let us know at the usual address.The strange thing is that despite being just about the most derivative show we have ever seen, and despite the inherent limitations of the ice dance format, somehow (and believe us, we're scratching our heads over how on earth this happened) ITV have pretty much pulled it off. And not "pulled it off" as in "yanked it from the schedules after three weeks", either. It doesn't work as well as Strictly Come Dancing in any department (except perhaps in the choice of host), and it does seem to drag a bit over the course of a series, but nevertheless it works. Just about.
Participants
Series 1
Gaynor Faye (actress - winner)
Andi Peters (TV host)
David Seaman (former footballer and Strictly Ice Dancing champion)
Bonnie Langford (ask your mum)
Andrea McLean (TV presenter)
Tamara Beckwith (socialite/journalist)
Dame Kelly Holmes (last line of the nation's defences)
Sean Wilson (Corrie actor)
John Barrowman (actor)
Stefan Booth (The Bill actor)
Series 2
Kyran Bracken (rugby player - winner)
Ulrika Jonsson (TV presenter)
Stephen Gateley (ex-Boyzone singer)
Neil Fox (fake doctor and DJ)
Emily Symons (Emmerdale actress)
Lisa Scott-Lee (ex-Steps singer)
Lee Sharpe (ex-footballer)
Kay Burley (Sky News presenter)
Clare Buckfield (actress)
Phil Gayle (newsreader)
Duncan James (ex-Blue singer)
Series 3
Suzanne Shaw (ex-Hear'Say singer - winner)
Gareth Gates (sometime Pop Idol runner-up)
Samantha Mumba (ex-pop star and actor)
Tim Vincent (TV presenter)
Greg Rusedski (ex-tennis player)
Sarah Greene (TV presenter)
Chris Fountain (ex-Hollyoaks actor)
Linda Lusardi (ex-Emmerdale actress and model)
Aggie Mackenzie (How Clean is Your House? host)
Michael Underwood (TV presenter and game show veteran)
Zaraah Abrahams (ex-Coronation Street actress)
Natalie Pinkham (sports presenter)
Steve Backley (olympic pointy-stick-chucker)
Key Moments
Torvill and Dean's regular performance at the start of the Saturday night show. The old magic's still there, so much so that the duo starred in a performance, featuring contestants from the first two series, in October 2007.
Whenever anyone attempts "The Headbanger", a spectacular and scary move in which the male dancer spins around while holding the female dancer by her ankles and lowering her head to within really not enough distance at all from the ice. If that goes wrong, you're in trouble. Amazingly, there's only been one injury from this so far, when David Seaman's partner hit the ice during a camera rehearsal in the first series (she got away quite lightly with a couple of cuts) but we wonder how much of a delay there is on the live transmission, just in case.
Music
Theme by Paul Farrer.
