Jayne Torvill has dismissed claims there is an unfair advantage for Dancing on Ice contestants who have previous dance experience. The 64-year-old ice dancer appeared on Friday’s Good Morning Britain alongside her skating partner, Christopher Dean, ahead of the ITV final this weekend.
There have been numerous calls from viewers on social media that the celebrity skating competition is “unfair” and “a fix” after all three finalists – Brendan Cole, Kimberly Wyatt and Regan Gascoigne – have dance backgrounds. GMB host Charlotte Hawkins asked the skating duo about the criticism.
“It will only help them once they’ve learnt to skate and everyone has to learn to skate,” Jayne explained: “You can’t just say you can dance and go off on the ice.” The pair then listed two former winners, who had no previous experience of dancing, Capital FM DJ Sonny J and rugby player Kyran Bracken.
“But having said that,” Dean added: “Once they can learn to skate then their dance abilities come into play because they know how to move, how to hold themselves, expression and all those things.”
The Dancing on Ice final is set to air on Sunday, March 27 from 7pm on ITV and ITV Hub. The final two parings will re-create Torvill and Dean’s iconic routine Bolero.
But both Torvill and Dean revealed they haven’t seen any of the Bolero performances. “They’ve been hiding them away from us, it will be the first time we see it [on Sunday]” Christopher added.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV from 6am.