Everyone loves a bit of Dancing on Ice

Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...

You only need the light when it's burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow...

Of course, I'm talking about Dancing on Ice.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when this show first started, back in the olden days (2006), I LOVED it. I wasn't a skater then, which may have had something to do with it, but I still feel there was something very, very watchable about people getting onto the ice for what was often the first time, falling over a lot, making clowns of themselves and then finally emerging from the cocoon a beautiful, gliding, crossover-ing butterfly.

But as the years went on, whilst I was still glued to the telly every Sunday evening, it lost a bit of its shine for me, and I think it was in part to do with
the inclusion of celebrities who were ever increasingly decent skaters - and that was before a single lesson with Torvill and Dean and the gang. Let's face it, it's just not as much fun when they're not face-planting the barrier every two minutes, right?

.....Then they announced that this series was to be the last. 

And, lo, we loved it once again.

And now the final series has finished, I'm sure it's not just me who's been wearing a black arm band and face veil all week in its memory. Right? 

Right?

Oh.

Ok, well, we all know the celebrities don't provide the best example of skating in the world. By and large, the women are carried/dragged around the rink by their professional partners - and we ALSO all know that we can ALL skate better with someone's hand to hold onto, correct?

But you can't deny there were some outstanding moments - plus a lot of things we all wish we could "have a go of" (who doesn't want to be thrown over the shoulders of some skating hunk, really? Or dress like a cheerleader for no good reason and get away with it? And fly?)

And what is good TV without some drama? DOI certainly had plenty of that. Let's take a look at some of the more memorable (and painful) moments over the nine series' of the show:

1) For me, the most  moment had to be poor, sweet Mark Hanretty dislocating his shoulder live on air when partner Oona King accidentally tripped him. Who didn't wince at the TV that night?

2) Weren't we all even just a little bit jealous that Jennifer Ellison was flexible enough to kick herself in the head? It sure did look painful though. Poor Jennifer.

3) And poor Cheggers :-( More than anything, it was sad that he had to leave the show when he seemed to be enjoying it so much.

4) Remember when Jorgie Porter was practising a neck spin and got a bit too close to partner Matt Evers' face? Ouch.

5) And proving you should be wary when putting yourself, literally, into the hands of a novice was pro skater Pam O'Connor, who needed stitches in her chin after this little episode with David Seaman:

We could go on all day thinking back on memorable moments in general, from Todd Carty's famous, literal, skate-off, to Sinitta splitting Andrei Lipanov's trousers with her blade. Not to mention some of the ever-so-honest Jason Gardiner's finer moments: comparing Sharron Davies to "faecal matter that won't flush", calling Kelly Holmes a "man in drag", and Lauren Goodger a "walrus on ice", and falling out with fellow judge Karen Barber A LOT.

So I don't know about you, but now that it's gone, I'm really going to miss it. Even though it wasn't "proper" skating, wasn't it lovely to have some skating of some kind back on TV screens?

Wonder what they'll replace it with on a Sunday night....

Anyway, for the time being, we can look forward to the DOI live tour, which starts in just a couple of weeks.

The line-up has been announced and it looks like this:  KyranBracken with Nina Ulanova,   Gareth Gates with Brianne Delcourt, Bonnie Langford with Andrei Lipanov, Joe Pasquale with Robin Johnstone,  dancing  Ray Quinn with Maria Filippov,  Suzanne Shaw with Matt Evers, Hayley Tamaddon with Dan Whiston and Beth Tweddle with Lukasz Rozycki.

Are you planning to go, and who are you most looking forward to watching?