TV

Opening night of Dancing On Ice has been thrown into jeopardy

It's a race against time to try and fix it

With only two days to go until the new series of Dancing On Ice is due to start, the show has apparently hit a major stumbling block.

According to contestant and Good Morning Britain weatherman Alex Beresford, the studio in which the programme is being shot has a massive HOLE in the side of it, after being struck by Storm Eleanor.

And the drama is sure to leave producers of the ITV show biting their nails as engineers work around the clock to try to fix the problem.

Alex, 37 – who’s partnered with Canadian skater Brianne Delcourt on the ice – dropped the bombshell while giving his early-morning weather report.

He told Charlotte Hawkins, Iain Lee and Ben Shephard: “During Storm Eleanor, the side of the studio actually came off.

“When I got to the studio yesterday, if you looked up you could actually see the sky.”

A gobsmacked Iain replied: “So there’s still a hole in it?”

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“Yes,” laughed Alex. “So hopefully, when we go there today for rehearsal, it’ll be fully fixed and we’ll be OK for Sunday.”

Alex also shed some light on the difficulties faced by the celebrities on the ice rink itself.

He said: “Yesterday was the first time we actually got to be on the studio ice, and it was scary.

“It’s not like an ice rink, which is bright and lovely. It’s dark, with studio lights, and you can’t actually see where you’re skating.”

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Oh, and to make things even more difficult, they won’t have a barrier to hang on to either…

Explained Alex: “We were all sat there by the side, and Lemar said: ‘Oh my gosh, there’s no barrier – usually I hold on to that…’

“And I said: ‘Yeah, mate, you won’t be able to do that!'”

Alex has the best possible partner to help him overcome the hurdles, though – Brianne won Dancing On Ice in 2011, along with her celebrity partner, one-time EastEnders actor Sam Attwater.

Brianne gave birth to her first child – a daughter called Gracie – in November 2016.

Dancing On Ice returns Sunday at 6pm on ITV.


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor