Dancing On Ice, ITV’s more slippery answer to Strictly Come Dancing, is back on our screens with 12 celebrities out to show they are more Torvill or Dean than Todd Carty. But controversy has already is already surrounding the show after the first week of practice with James Jordan, a former professional dancer on Strictly, accused of having an advantage and attracting heavy market support after his first public performance (9/4 with William Hill).
While it’s not quite up there with The Jump in terms of injuries and mishaps, Dancing On Ice has its moments down the years. From Jennifer Ellison somehow managing to carve herself up with her own skate to David Seaman dropping his partner head-first, this is not a competition for the faint-hearted d-lister.
After a three-year sabbatical, Dancing On Ice reappeared on our screens in 2018 but it appears that, no matter how carefully you plan, the mix of enthusiastic amateur and an ice rink will always be a recipe for disaster. You’ve got to feel sorry for the professional partners who have to put up with all the nonsense, especially poor Matt Evers who has to consider how he’ll raise the bar with TOWIE participant Gemma Collins, who you would have thought was one of the most unlikely women in Britain to excel at ice skating. She doesn’t like being told what to do, either, which spells double trouble.
Collins is one of the usual crop of reality TV contestants but Love Island’s Wes Nelson (5/2 with Ladbrokes) will probably last longer, physically and in the competition itself. There have been a total of five soap stars to triumph since Gaynor Faye won the first-ever competition in 2006. Two of them had appeared on Coronation Street, represented this year by Jane Danson (a general 12/1). Comic and former EsatEnders actor Richard Blackwood is 11/2 with several bookmakers and deemed one of those with a modicum of talent on skates. Ex-Pussycat Doll Melody Thornton (10/1 with Ladbrokes) and former Grease actress Didi Conn (available at 100/1) are included in that hope that American networks will buy the show. Australian Mark Little, Neighbours’ Joe Mangel, also makes the 12-strong line-up but, like Miss Conn, he’s no spring chicken either. Ryan Sidebottom is the token ex-sportsman but the Yorkshire and England fast bowler is also among the outsiders at a best 40/1.
Dancing On Ice 2019 Current Best Odds
James Jordan 9/4
Wes Nelson 5/2
Richard Blackwood 11/2
Saara Aalto 8/1
Melody Thornton 10/1
Jane Danson and Brian McFadden 12/1
Gemma Collins and Ryan Sidebottom 33/1
Saira Khan 66/1
Mark Little and Didi Conn 100/1
(Odds correct at 11.00am January 7)
