Great family fun (Dancing on Ice)

Member Name: caz-3124

Product:	Dancing on Ice
Date:	02/03/09 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: vey enjoyable and entertaining

Disadvantages: none

I am writing this review after having watched tonight's show and thinking how much I love this programme so while fresh in my mind I thought why not write a review. Now I know a lot of people say reality tv is all trash and I'm not a huge fan in general, I steer well clear of Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity but I think this, like Strictly Come Dancing (though I don't watch that myself) are somewhat different as the contestants have to work really hard to master a talent that most have years to learn.

Dancing On Ice is now in its 4th series. The format has been sold to eight other countries too. It airs on ITV and normally runs January to February. It's on Sunday night at around 7pm and 9.30pm roughly though it varies slightly. The idea of the show is that celebrities are teamed up with professional skaters and taught to skate by the coaches and then do weekly routines with one person being eliminated until there is a winner. In the past there have been extra shows like Dancing On Ice Defrosted and Dancing On Ice Extra which Ben Shepard of GMTV used to host. These were used to interview the competitors after their performances, see how they were getting on with training, getting all the rinkside gossip and so on. However after getting bad viewing figures these were both cancelled after series two which was a shame for me because I quite liked them.

One of the main attractions of this programme is of course Olympic Champions Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean. Without them I am not sure this programme would have been commissioned and may not have got such good viewing figures to have kept it alive up to this point. They act as coaches to the competitors and mentors as well as getting involved in drawing up the choreograpy for the weekly routines. They also perform themselves. Once the celebrity competitors have been chosen then professional skaters are then chosen to skate with them. The pros also help to teach the celebrites. I have noticed that for the most part they tend to invite the same pro skaters back again and again. Normally there are only say a couple of new ones. They also pick a panel of five judges. Again these have remained pretty constant with only one or two variations over the years. Currently the panel are, Karen Barber (who helps with coaching), Robin Cousins, Nicky Slater, Ruthie Henshall and Jason Gardner. The first three have skated themselves to high levels so concentrate on the technical side of things whereas the last two come from a performance background as thus tend to pay more attention to positions and involvment with the song and so on. This is often reflected by the variation of marks given with scraps sometimes breaking out amonst the panel. Hosts for the show are Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. I think they're a likeable pair and seem to interact well with all involved though at one point Holly was attracting too much atttention for her revealing dresses.

The celeb couples (celeb / pro) this year are:
Graeme Le Saux - Kristina Lenko
Ellery hanley - Frankie Poultney
Gemma Bissex - Anrei Lipanov
Jeremy Edwards - Darya Nucci
Roxanne Pallett - Daniel Whiston
Melinda Messenger - Fred Palasack
Zoe Salmon - Matt Evers
Coleen Nolan - Stuart Widall
Michael Underwood - Melanie Lambert
Todd Carty - Susie Lipanova
Donal Macintyre - Florentine Houdiniere
Jessica Taylor - Pavel Aubrecht
Ray Quinn - Maria Filipov

So how does a show go? Well, first of Philip and Holly welcome us to the show and give us a little overview of what's to come and then normally Torvill and Dean go out on the ice and do a routine. Sometimes they are accompanied by the pro skaters, sometimes by the celebrities and sometimes both. Occasionaly they will have a musical guest on to sing while they skate. Recently it was Bette Midler but my favourite was the routine when Take That did Shine and Jane and Chris did a fabulous routine around them. In fact tonight's was really good, no guest star but all the pros came on the ice too and they did It's Raining Men. It's always a lot of fun. After this commentator Tony Gubba will introduce the skating couples. Torvill and Dean also tell us about this weeks required element and we are shown a little video of them demonstrating it. The required element is a move that all the couples must incorporate into their weekly routines. These get harder as time progresses.

Then the individual performances begin. At the beginning of the week the celebs are given their song which they must dance to and shown the routine that has been prepared for them. They spend the week learning and trying to perfect this routine. Normally only part of a song is used as they get about 90 seconds on the ice normally. One by one the couples perform. After each one, the couple come over to talk to Philip who questions Jane and Chris on what they thought of the performance given. This tends to be complimentary. I've never heard them really criticise. Each member of the judging panel gives a score out of 6 increasing in 0.5 increments. I'd say the most common mark given out is a 4.0. Holly then picks two judges and asks them to explain their score. Normally they will compliment parts of the routines and give constructive criticism. However Jason is well known for being mean and often gets booed by the audience. Recent comments of his include 'you look like Mr Potato Head' and 'you look like you've had an accident in your pants'. I do think he goes too far, beyond what it is helpful and is just nasty for the sake of it. Some say he is a Simon Cowell copycat. I find Karen to be the nicest of the judges perhaps because she sees the effort that goes into the practice. After everyone has performed they do a little recap of the routines. Normally there are 13 couples at the start so the show can run a long time and sometimes you have forgotten the routines at the beginning after two hours have passed. In the last episode of the series the show runs slightly differently. The final three couples have to perform not only their favourite routine from the series (hopefully gaining a much higher score than the last time they did it) but also an aerial routine where the celeb goes up in the air on wires whilst attempting to seem graceful. Then one contestant is eliminated and we are left with the last two couples who skate to their own version of Bolero that they themselves choreograph. This is normally quite special and they all seem so proud of having done their own version of the classic.

Then later in the evening we have The Skate Off Show. After a routine, the judges grade the it and award it a score out of six. These are added up to give a figure out of 30.00. That accounts for 50% of a couple's overall score. The other 50% comes from phone voting. Each couple has a phone number which the public call if they want that person to remain in the show. Philip then reveals one by one who has been kept in the competition until there are only two couples who received the lowest overall score left. After receiving some advice from Jane and Chris each couple repeats the routine they perfomed earlier. Then it is up to the panel of judges to decide who stays and who goes. The contestant with the majority vote stays. The loser then goes and has a farewell chat with the hosts and have a last lap of honour round the rink.

The front runner this year seems to be Ray Quinn who is suprisingly good though as people often pointed out he is a competent roller skater so perhaps this makes it easier. However you can't always be sure who is going to win. Last year all bets were on Chris Fountain but Suzanne Shaw pipped him to the posts with some elegant routines. Some people, in fact most seem keen to continue to skate in their spare time. I have heard that previous champion Kyran Bracken now takes part in performances so enamoured was he with the sport. There is also the official Dancing On Ice Tour which goes round the country in April where stars of all the series perfom. I hear this is very popular and a very entertaining evening. It's certainly something I'd happily go to. Some however do not have that natural affinity with the ice. Todd Carty for example. He was the 'John Sergeant' of the show. One night during a routine he tripped, lost control and flew off down the entrance tunnel. It had everyone in hysterics and was a huge hit on YouTube so hear. Others have had greater misfortune. Being a dangerous sport of course there are frequent cuts, scrapes, bruises and falls but I think Andi Peters and Michael Underwood have come off worse having had broken bones. I also really like the costumes in the show. They are always bright and colourful with sequins and beads all over. Some of the men sometimes initiially are sceptical but they quicky come round. During the show they sometimes have theme nights e.g. the '80s. Tonight was Props' Night where they have to work a prop into the routine. This ranges from a feather boa to a chair and often cause problems. I've noticed that sometimes the judges seem to have their favourites. Tonight there was clearly tension between judge Ruthie and Roxanne. I also really like watching the partnerships develop between the couples. I love watching the training clips. They seem to have such fun despite having such a challenge ahead.

In all I highly reccommend this show. Its family friendly, gets kids interested in skating (ice rink customer numbers have greatly increased since this show started) and is just so enjoyable to watch.

Summary: makes me want to get down to my local rink