Straight from the red carpet...

As I said in my previous post, I was lucky enough recently to get the opportunity to interview most of the Dancing on Ice stars, their professional partners and the king and queen of skating themselves, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean following the opening night of this year's Dancing on Ice live tour.

As both a journalist and a skater, it was a fantastic evening for me overall, and to get to meet the great Torvill and Dean was absolutely the icing on the cake.

Me and a friend with the legends themselves

But it was also inspirational to meet some of the stars as well as the professional skaters - because when you think about it, they're a bit like us "adult skaters" really, aren't they? They've come into this tough sport
as adults (and fair enough, they're getting paid for it, and more coaching than we could dream of, but still....) - they're doing their best while facing The Fear, no doubt, and also having to do it in front of thousands of people too.

Absolutely everyone we met was genuinely lovely, but if I had to pick my favourites it would have to be Matt Evers and Suzanne Shaw, who were both very chatty, down-to-earth and friendly, and Beth Tweddle, who's possibly the nicest person I've ever met. My friend and I both came away from the interview/chat with her saying "I want her as my friend", haha!

Oh yeah, I talk with my hands...and so does Beth, apparently :-)

So here it is, all the gossip from behind the scenes, following the opening show - I hope you enjoy the little insight:

Bonnie Langford and Andrei Lipanov:

Bonnie: Tonight was great! Andrei's great. We have quite a laugh - I'm very lucky to skate with him.

The tour's different in some ways to the show I guess. I prefer the tour. The tour is great because at least you know what you're doing every night. On the show there's a lot of pressure and you're constantly, if you're not skating, you're having to talk about why you're doing it, and that gets a bit tiresome after a while. It's really nice to just 'get on with the job'.

You also get to see people watching you and that's always nice, to have a live audience, because you actually feel it coming back.

Andrei: We enjoying the bigger ice as well.
Bonnie: Yeah, the ice in the studio is tiny.
Andrei: For the last few years we've seen so many people actually improving their skating on the tour rather than on the show for that reason.

I'm looking forward to being in Newcastle next week, close to home.
Maybe I'll have a week off after the tour, then I'll be back coaching in Billingham.

Gareth Gates and Brianne Delcourt:

(Q: How did you think you did tonight?)
Gareth: It was the first show so a bit nervy, but we were all right!
Brianne: We enjoyed it. We had a couple of run-throughs yesterday and a few things were off, but tonight it was clean, a perfect show, so we couldn't have asked for better.

(On the end of DOI:)
Brianne: It's going to be bittersweet for sure. My plans next are shows, shows back in America, back at home.
Gareth: I have lots of things coming up. I've got my album out at the minute.

Suzanne Shaw and Matt Evers:

Suzanne: Tonight was great. We started with a cracking first performance, really hit the road going.
Matt: The crowd tonight was perfect for the first show opening up; everybody was a little bit nervous, it was a bit jittery backstage, but we loved it.

It's ice skating, you know, and even for us as the pros, we never really know what's going to happen, and then especially for these guys (the celebs) who've only been doing it a couple of years...
Suzanne: And also in rehearsals, I was struggling to land the headbanger, so landing it tonight I was like "whew! I got through that!"

(On audience numbers)
Matt: Yeah, we go from 200 people in the studio to, tonight I think there were eight or nine thousand people, so...but the good thing is, when you're under spotlights you actually can't really see past the fog, but then when the house lights go up, then you're like "woah!"

I have never done any real big shows actually before Dancing on Ice. I competed as a kid in ice skating and obviously pair skating, but then I had quit skating, got into TV and done a bunch of acting, and was out of work in LA when I got the phone call asking would I come over and do this show. So this was really -  this is my first big ice show, yeah.

She (Suzanne) really had to teach me how to deal with the crowds.

(Q: Is it quite sad for you that it's the last one?)
Suzanne: Oh absolutely! Even more so for Matt. For me being a part of it, it was heartbreaking to see it come to an end and it's going to be heartbreaking to see the tour come to an end but nothing compared to what it must feel for Matt who's been with the show for nine years.

Next, I've got a few campaigns coming up, I'm working with Kingsmill which is quite exciting, and I'm writing a musical at the moment - 80s/comic book/sci-fi musical, so it's really exciting. But, first and foremost, I need to go on holiday!

Matt: It's the end of an era. But I'm excited about the future, I have some good things coming up, and all good things must come to an end, and I think this is a perfect time to do it.

Hayley Tamaddon:

(Q: What's been the highlight of the show for you?)

Just to be back. It's a dream show for me; I've learned to skate, and to skate with my best mate of, you know, 25 years, is just amazing. It's been a dream, so it's very sad to see it end.

Beth Tweddle:

The tour's very different to the show. This year the show was so intense and we were so up for it and wanted to improve every week, but now we can all kind of relax and we've got the same routines every night. Once everything's set we can just go out and have fun, and I think once the routines are set you can REALLY enjoy it, get the crowd involved.

As soon as the music started tonight the crowd was cheering, and for me and Luke, that means they're enjoying it, and we bounce off that. If they're enjoying it, you can feel that vibe and you want to give more to them. Everyone constantly supported me and Lukasz throughout the series so it's our way of saying thank you.

(Q: What was it like to change partners for this series, so soon after skating with Dan the year before?)

I think I was a little naive as to how difficult it was going to be to transfer. I mean, I'd only been skating 12 months; a lot of the other guys have been skating a longer time and they'd already skated with a couple of partners. Then suddenly I'm skating with Lukasz and I'm kind of like, who is this person? For the first couple of weeks it was a little bit strange; obviously his tricks are a bit different to Dan's, his timing's different, but actually now I think our partnership's great and he's shown a different side to me, to what I did last year. He's really helped with my performance level.

I do really enjoy the skating, it's a great way to keep fit, and I hope to carry on skating after the tour.


Karen Barber:

(Q: You've been here from day one haven't you, so how's that been?)

Actually, the year before the first series, all the talks, I was part of those. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work out but eight years later here we are.

I've absolutely loved tonight; I'm from Manchester and so coming home was really exciting. I've got a lot of my family here. You know, the first night is always quite nerve-wracking because, not only is there what you see on the ice happening, but there's backstage and all the people that link together to make the show smooth, and it just worked perfectly tonight. We're supported by a great crew, and a lot of the crew have been with us for most of the tours so they've all kind of slotted back in and they're all happy to be back - happy and sad.

We ended the series with a smile, and it was a good way to end it. Jason (Gardiner) is missed on the judging panel, but it's great to see Nicky (Slater) back.

It's been a big reunion for all of us, a brilliant experience.

(Q: What's been your highlight from the show tonight?)

I'm going to say all of it, from start to finish, because it's been a great piece of entertainment. The first half being the competitive side, and the second half being more exhibition and very diverse from one number to the next, and it kept the audience on their toes. I think it was a real tribute to Chris and Jayne and how they put the show together. They put it together with the audience in mind and I think the audience was left very satisfied.

And of course, the judges back on the ice, that was nice! I enjoyed that a bit too much actually. There were nearly three of us on our knees doing Bolero....

Ray Quinn:

The tour is a celebration of what Dancing on Ice has been for the last nine years, and of course Bolero for Chris and Jayne has been the last 30 years, so it's a real celebration and we owe it to the audience for the support they've given us. We had an instant reaction tonight when we all came out.

The pros get to come out and really skate some and show what ice skating's all about.

Tonight was great, and we're so excited to do another 30-odd shows. This is the last ever one, it's not going to happen again, especially with Chris and Jayne. They've inspired not only myself, but all the pros from when they were kids, you know, that's what started a lot of them off skating. It's their determination and their hard work that's inspired all of us.
It's unreal to be a part of the history that is Dancing on Ice; it's a great show, it's been on the telly for nine years so they must be doing something right. It will be sad at the end, but we're enjoying every single moment of this tour; I know I am.


Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean:

(Q: Do you still get that tingle doing Bolero, even after all this time?)

Chris: We did tonight!

(Q: Did you ever think, back in 1984, that people would still be talking about it now?)

Jayne: No, no. When we turned professional in '84 we were off to Australia to do a tour there, and of course we thought 'oh, we need new numbers, we need to do routines for the exhibition show' and they said 'you have to do Bolero' and we were like 'but we did that at the Olympics', and we didn't realise then, we were so naive and in our bubble of competition world, that we didn't realise what a big impact it had made on the rest of the world. It's endearing that people still want to see it.

(Q: Is it a sad time at the moment, seeing DOI coming to an end?)
Chris: It's a working time at the moment! There's still a lot to do, but I think as we get toward the end of the tour that will become a reflective time.

(Q: Do you ever actually get fed up of doing Bolero?)

Chris: Not now. There was a time when we thought 'How often can we keep doing this?' but I think now it's a part of our history and we understand that now. It's a piece that's so identifiable with us.

(Q: What are your plans after the tour's over?)

Jayne: A bit of a break first, but we have other projects that we've already started in motion, and we're looking forward to doing something different and challenging so..but we can't really talk about that yet!