Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SNOWBUSINEES!
Never mind the bruises, Denise Van Outen, Jason Donovan and Rebekah Vardy promise an avalanche of good old-fashioned glamour that will lift everyone’s spirits as Dancing On Ice returns... ‘I’m hoping this eclipses what I’ve done before’ JASON DONOVAN
So far she’s dressed up as Spider-woman, Jingles the Elf, Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts and a scary clown riding a stuffed turkey. And that’s just for the Dancing On Ice rehearsals! You can always rely on model and TV presenter Rebekah Vardy to provide plenty of sparkle and drama, whether it’s on the ice or in her ‘Wagatha Christie’ High Court showdown.
The latter, in which Becky has been embroiled in a defamation case after Coleen Rooney accused her of leaking stories to the press about her, has undoubtedly taken its toll, but today she’s refusing to let it show. ‘This week I decided we were just going to have loads of fun,’ she tells me over Zoom from her Cheshire mansion. ‘I love dressing up and I wanted to do something really cool. It started off with my professional skating partner Andy Buchanan and I wearing traditional Christmas outfits, so I was Jingles the Elf spreading Christmas cheer and Andy was a semi-naked Santa,’ she laughs.
Goodness! Is that a whole new twist for the hugely popular family show? ‘No, it’s nothing like that,’ she clarifies with a wink. ‘It was a jumper with a torso design, so it looked like Andy was topless. It was a joke – they all take the mickey out of him, saying he’s always got his top off.
‘Do you know what I’m going to skate in for my first show on TV? I’m just going to wear this and nothing else,’ she laughs, pointing to the tawny pom-pom hat she’s wearing today. ‘That will scare everyone! But seriously, our TV routines are going to be totally glam, all sequins and fake tan. I never usually use that as I’m half Portuguese and quite oliveskinned, so that will be amazing.
‘I’m on cloud nine right now,’ she adds. ‘It’s been a really bad year for so many different reasons and for so many people, so if me having fun can cheer people up and make them smile, then that’s great. Mind you, I am a bit sick of seeing myself at the moment, as the rest of the country probably are too!’
Right now, pom-pom hat aside, she’s looking more like she’s come straight off the ski slopes in a bright pink fleece and black padded gilet as she dangles her white skating boots in the air before swinging them over her kitchen Aga to dry.
It’s a scene of domestic bliss rather than bling, and Becky, who appears on ITV’S Loose Women, is warm and self-effacing – far from the hardfaced WAG some may perceive her to be as the wealthy wife of Leicester
City footballer Jamie. ‘I’m totally laughing at myself,’ she says. ‘I am the biggest idiot in training. Sometimes Andy says, “What am I walking into today?” He says he’s never had so much fun because I make him laugh every day. I’m a child at heart. But he makes me laugh too because he’s such a wally. We’re the perfect skating partnership.’
There’s talk that Becky might have had some previous training on the ice, but she insists that’s not the case. ‘Andy made me do the falling leaf today – a low cork turn into a sort of ballet jump – and he said, “I cannot believe you’ve picked that up in ten minutes.” But I said, “That’s the sign of a good teacher.”
‘When my parents split up we used to go and stay with my dad at the weekends, and ice skating was something fun we could do together. Dad taught me how to stand up and skate, and then he literally said, “Right, off you go...” I didn’t know how to stop or anything! I was just so free-spirited I taught myself really, but it was all totally wrong, which has been a big problem because I’ve had to retrain my brain.’
Behind all the frivolity Becky, 38, admits she has a feisty, competitive streak. ‘Today Andy stopped me mid-routine to tell me something, and it was the first time he’d seen that fuming look on my face. I was about to swear at him.
‘But this is serious now. Everyone says I’m really competitive but I want to see everyone do their best too. I’ve been following the other contestants on Instagram and thinking, “God, you’re really doing well,” but we’re all sending messages of encouragement to each other so it’s nice that everyone’s coming together.
‘What I’m dreading most is falling flat on my face, but the thing I’m most looking forward to is getting my glam back on. I’m hoping 2021 brings happiness to everyone and hopefully people’s lives can finally get back on track.’
Every year in rehearsals the stars are secretly rated by the production crew of Dancing On Ice, hosted by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, on how well they’re doing. While Becky has put in some incredible scores, she’s been pipped by singer and former Neighbours actor Jason Donovan, who also excelled on Strictly Come Dancing in 2011.
‘This is a very different experience – you’ve got to respect the ice,’ he says. ‘I’m enjoying it, I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and it combines athleticism with entertainment. But the ice is not very forgiving, and you’re really just skating on razor blades.’
Jason, 52, is paired with pro skater
‘Falling flat on my face is what I dread most’ REBEKAH VARDY
Alexandra Schauman and, like the other competitors, he’s been rehearsing on the rink for hours every day. ‘I love skating – I’m a skateboarder and a surfer, so Dancing On Ice was a show where I always thought, “I can see myself doing this one day.”
‘But I’ve been very transparent in saying that I’ve skated before. Am I someone who was taught to skate though? No. Like most kids, and like my kids, I’ve been to skating rinks. But what this show requires is a lot more co-ordination than just going around a rink and trying not to fall over. The jeopardy is pretty intense.’
So is he nervous? ‘I think the biggest fear is fear itself, so I say, “No risk, no magic.” I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt in my career, apart from the need to keep working hard, is to allow mistakes to happen because it’s OK not to get it right – that’s part of getting it right.’
Part of Jason’s enduring popularity is his uncomplicated candour about his mistakes. He was catapulted to fame in Britain in the late 1980s by the Australian soap opera Neighbours. His duet with co-star and then-girlfriend Kylie Minogue, Especially For You, kickstarted a pop career and he became a squeaky clean teen pin-up who went on to sell 16 million records in the UK and scored three solo number ones.
Kylie shared a throwback photo of the pair together in the 1980s recently, writing, ‘Hard to believe, but Especially For You turns... wait for it... 32!’ and Jason says he’s still in awe of her. ‘That emotional connection gets better with age,’ he says. ‘She’s smashing at the moment. She blows me away. Her energy, her commitment, her focus, the way she reinvents. I mean, wow!’ His career in musical theatre has also been outstanding, starting with his first major role in the West
End’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which was revived last year and which he will return to again at the London Palladium this summer. But the halo has been tarnished by his past cocaine abuse, most notably when he collapsed at Kate Moss’s 21st birthday party at the Viper Room in Los Angeles in 1995. He has been clean for almost two decades now, since the birth of the first of his three children. ‘I don’t really focus on the lows, and I know what I don’t want to do in my life, which is why I’m at a good point, particularly with my family,’ he says.
‘My history is out there but I don’t see that as my future. This is me now. This is Dancing On Ice. This is me fit, healthy and looking forward and I’m hoping it will eclipse other things I’ve done in the past.’ Exercise has been key, he says. ‘I like a challenge and I like to keep fit, normally by riding my bike a lot. And I’m a bit OCD too in the sense that I cannot sit still. But I swim, I’m an outdoor person. I’m an Aussie! ‘Skating is also a psychological game. I discovered that this week when I had a bit of a rough Monday. I think I’d probably had a couple of glasses of red wine too many on Sunday night, and suddenly the ice became scary,’ he admits. ‘The only thing you can do is work your butt off so that even if things go wrong, something kicks in to cover it and make it look OK. There’s no point having a boozy night before the first show – you won’t be in tune with it.’ He’s currently trying to crack The Nutcracker on the ice, hoping to impress judges Jayne Torvill, Christopher Dean, Ashley Banjo and John Barrowman. ‘It’s easy to hold onto someone, but the real skaters are the ones that can move away from their partner and still hold their own. That’s hard!’ No doubt he’ll master it, but most of all he’s looking forward to doing what Jason does best – old school entertainment. ‘Always give them the old razzle dazzle and swing from the chandeliers,’ he laughs. Denise Van Outen, meanwhile, is a showbiz all-rounder with a wealth of experience as an actress, singer and TV presenter. No stranger to reality contests having finished as a runner-up on Strictly Come Dancing in 2012, she was one of the first contestants to sign up for the show. But will she take to the ice as easily as she did to the dancefloor? ‘Strictly has no bearing on this at
all!’ she says. ‘The most frustrating thing is that everyone I’ve spoken to says, “You’re going to be amazing because you went to dance school when you were younger.” But skating is the opposite of everything I’ve been taught with dance. On the ice, it’s all about getting down and dirty.’
She says she’s been struggling to stay upright, even though she’s getting 24/7 feedback from her skating partner Matt Evers who is now living in a bubble with her, her partner Eddie Boxshall and her daughter Betsy in Chelmsford.
‘I’m Matt’s 13th celebrity partner and he said it’s been a struggle to teach me because I’ve got more fear,’ says Denise, 46. ‘I’ve had a couple of injuries over the years, including a disc replacement, and I don’t want to have that feeling again. When you hit the ice it’s hard, and I fall every day. But I’m getting quite used to it.
‘I sometimes fall over when I’m just standing talking to Matt, and he’ll say, “How did that happen?” In the past I’ve been able to get away with things I’m not particularly good at, but there’s nowhere to hide with this. I don’t understand why I’m not getting it, so I said to Matt, “Do some
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield are back once again to present the show people get to this stage and it just clicks?” And he said, “Yes. But it might never do.”’
At least she can compare notes with fellow contestant Myleene Klass. ‘We’ve been messaging each other a lot, I think we’re quite level in that we’ve both never done it before. We wind each other up and send messages pretending we’re really good. I’ll say, “Myleene, I’ve cracked it today, I’ve done a triple axel.” We’ve laughed a lot.’
Denise has had a versatile career since she found fame as a presenter on The Big Breakfast in the 90s, with a number of West End shows under her belt including Legally Blonde, Tell Me On A Sunday and more recently Cabaret All Stars. ‘I was born with jazz hands,’ she says. ‘I really do love costumes and dressing up. So I’ve gone from wearing sexy fishnet tights in Cabaret All Stars to putting on layers of really dark American tan tights to cover up bruises.
‘But I never think of giving up as I know how lucky I am,’ she says. ‘I’d like to do a spiral, which is like an Arabesque with your leg in the air. I think I’d look elegant doing that, but at the moment I look like I’ve been fired out of a cannon and can’t stop!’