CHRISTMAS
ICE skating isn’t easy, as actors Poppy Lee Friar and Will Tudor found out the hard way. In upcoming ITV drama, Torvill & Dean the bubbly stars play, you’ve guessed it, Olympic champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.
But neither had much experience of the sport before they got their skates on for filming.
“I fell on my coccyx a few times!” laughs Poppy Lee, 23, who you might recognise from Channel 4 drama Ackley Bridge.
“I had only skated twice before, once was for a birthday party; I loved it but could only go in straight lines, and couldn’t turn,” adds 31-year-old Will, known for shows such as Game Of Thrones and Humans.
“The second time was for a date, terrible idea. The skates I was wearing were blunt, I was like Bambi on ice.”
However the pair embraced the chance to learn a new skill. For two weeks, they skated for two to three hours a day.
“Top-level ice skating is just amazing to me,” says London-born Poppy Lee.
“Obviously we’re nowhere near that, but I really enjoyed it. What an amazing opportunity to soak up as many of these skills as possible, teach me the cross overs, teach me how to skate backwards. There were moments where, physically, all the training just clicked into place. That moment when you’re gliding along on one leg, suddenly you feel this incredible freedom,” affirms Will, who is also a Londoner. “You get the peace of being on the ice.
“You can completely imagine how Torvill and Dean could get wrapped up in this world and these dances, because it is very, very beautiful.”
The one-off show tells the story of the pair’s early years of working together and what drove them to win gold at the 1984 Olympic games in Sarajevo, when they danced their famous Bolero routine and achieved a score of 12 perfect 6.0s.
Did the pair feel pressure playing such famous real people?
“I don’t think we could think about it really. If we did, we’d freak out a little bit,” says Will.
“It’s only afterwards you think, ‘Oh my goodness!’ We spoke to them (Torvill and Dean) and they’re so kind; they gave us creative licence, they’re ecstatic that this is happening,” adds Poppy Lee. “As an actor you take little bits from what you see online, what you read and apply it to yourself to make it your own. Of course, there is a pressure when you think about it now, but at the time I was just thinking about what’s going on in the scene.”
Although the duo are reluctant to give too much away about the show, which also stars Anita Dobson, Stephen Tompkinson and Jaime Winstone, they confirm we will see a romance storyline develop between Torvill and Dean.
“The writer, Billy Ivory, conducted lots of interviews with them, so whatever happens is based on some kind of truth,” reveals Poppy Lee.
Will says what he took away from the story is that the pair’s relationship was “extraordinary” and “based on love”.