Edgy drama on ice

JAYNE TORVILL and Christopher Dean’s meteoric rise to become Olympic figure skating gold medallists is to be made into an ITV drama.

Two young British stars, pictured, who will no doubt feel they’ve struck gold themselves having bagged the muchcoveted roles are Will Tudor, 31, of Game Of Thrones fame, who’ll play Christopher, while 23-year-old Poppy Lee Friar, best known for her role in Channel 4 show Ackley Bridge, will portray Jayne.

The two-hour one-off special will depict the pair’s early lives building up to their famous triumph at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

“We feel very honoured that ITV have commissioned this film based on what was a very significant period in each of our lives,” Torvill and Dean said in a statement.

They of course became fully fledged national treasures following their triumphant performance accompanied by Ravel’s Bolero in Sarajevo.

According to ITV, the programme will show “the creative impetus that finally drove them to become ice dancing royalty”, while also covering their rise to stardom from “humble beginnings”, sometime clash of personalities, as well as how they “together tried to establish a new language for ice dance”.

Brian May’s wife and former EastEnders star Anita Dobson, ex Ballykissangel actor Stephen Tompkinson and Ray Winstone’s daughter Jaime are also set to star in the drama scripted by Made In Dagenham writer William Ivory. Christopher, 59, and Jayne, 60, officially hung up their skates in 1998 and now serve as coaches on another ITV programme, Dancing On Ice.