Chemmy Alcott

April 2012

DOING Dancing On Ice has been massively surreal. I did go into it thinking I’m a ski racer, this could be a doddle for me. But I was thrown in at the deep end and realised that it’s really challenging. 

I have such a new found respect for ice skaters. They have to be super athletic, they have to learn choreography, they have to perform... it’s not just sport, it’s entertainment.

I remember skating out for the very first show and them saying ‘we have ten million viewers, everyone have a great skate.’ It excited some of the others but it didn’t excite me. I was thinking ‘Oh my gosh!’

I remember being at the Olympics knowing that a million people were watching and thought that was a dream come true.

It is weird being recognised for taking part in a reality TV show as opposed to being top ten in the world in your chosen sport. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m not complaining.

I ranked eight in the world for my sport and I hardly had any attention. They day before I crashed I had something like 900 Twitter followers. The day after I crashed I got an extra thousand. Now I’m on over 30,000.

A lot of the ski-ing world thought ‘Why would you do this?’. But I’m an intelligent girl. I knew that it would raise my profile. And I need to raise £90,000 to ski when I come back. Yes, it’s great that I spent a year doing rehab but if I can’t afford a world class programme what’s the point?

I’m trying to organise my comeback to ski-ing as well as working on the tour. I knew when I broke my leg how bad it was and that recovering was going to take a long time. The aim was always the Olympics in 2014.

One of the other reasons I did the show was to see how my leg would handle it.

And it’s a different side to me. I’ve never been a performer or an actress and at the beginning I did feel really silly. But then I started enjoying it. It’s fun to challenge yourself.

I’ve gone from the start gate and raced down to the bottom but I’ve never been judged. I just look at the watch to tell me whether I’ve won or lost.

But Dancing On Ice is all about showing people that you’re loving it and smiling the whole time while thinking about every single move. That was a challenge in itself.

And I have had so many people sending messages saying I inspired them. They’d say ‘I’ve had a crash, I’ve been injured and you’ve inspired me to get of the couch and do something with my life.’

On the first show they talked about me breaking my neck when I was 11. And there was a little girl who is seven who broke her neck the day before that show. And she completely latched on to my story.

Her parents said that I’m the one getting her through this. She realises that she can walk again. It’s amazing that you can affect someone in such a positive way.

Chemmy Alcott joins Matthew Wolfenden, Andy Whyment, Heidi Range, Chico, Jorgie Porter, Jennifer Ellison and Sam Attwater on the Dancing On Ice Live Tour 2012 at the Capital FM Arena on April 20 to 22. Performances will be at 7.30pm on April 20 and 21, at 2.30pm on April 21 and at 1.30pm on April 22. Tickets range from £42.50 to £125 and are available from the venue box office in Bolero Square, by calling 08444 124624 or through www.capitalfmarena.com

Sam Attwater

March 2012

I HAVEN’T skated properly since last year’s tour, to be honest, and that ended in May.

I do still enjoy skating but it has been a case of finding the time. I can go down to the ice rink but I never get any skating done. Obviously the people there have an interest in ice skating so they recognise you and you end up talking to them for ages.

I’ve got two weeks of rehearsals (with skating partner Brianne Delcourt) and then we rehearse with all the other celebrities for three weeks.

Everyone says it’s like riding a bike and I had a couple of goes on the ice last week and discovered that they were lying. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t remember what to do.

It’ll be fine, I’m sure.

I’m on the tour again because they like to have the previous year’s winner to compete against the new champion. Who is going to be the best? I think it’s going to be this year’s champion (laughs).

But it’ll be fun. The tour is when the fun starts. I met up with all the guys who are on the show now and they were all stressing. I told them that once they go on the tour, you do the same routines over and over again, you really get to know each other and have a good time.

When you’re on the ITV show, you are learning a new routine every single week and you don’t get a chance to relax.

Everyone stays in the same hotel, you’re all travelling together and you do become like a family. You do socialise pretty much every night.

Getting together with Chloe (Madeley) is what made the tour for me last year.

We spent 24 hours a day together and it made us very close very quickly. It was amazing at the time. I don’t know if it was beneficial in the long run. It didn’t work out but we’re still friends. I spoke to her this morning actually.

After the Dancing On Ice tour I went straight into the West End in the musical Dreamboats and Petticoats, then last Christmas I did panto with Dame Edna Everage in Wimbledon. That was incredible.

I learned so much. (Barry Humphries) is nearly 80 and he was doing 12 shows a week.

He was a gent. I’d been told that he was a diva but that was rubbish. I’ve never met someone so professional, so nice, so kind.

He didn’t miss a rehearsal, he didn’t miss a line, he didn’t miss a queue... and he was singing, he was dancing and he had six costume changes throughout the show.

I’d worked with Des O’Connor in Dreamboats and again the old school professionalism was there. He’s 80.

One Sunday evening he was playing with his seven-year-old boy when he caught his teeth on a door and pulled his two front teeth out. He was at the dentist on Monday morning, had two caps fitted and he was on stage on Monday night. He just got on with it.

I’ve also been working on an iPhone application called I Am Konki. Konki was the name of one my business partners’ imaginary friends when he was a child. The idea is that Konki is your friend and does everything for you. So instead of having ten or 15 apps on your phone, you only need the one. It includes shopping, fashion, sport, news and music and they all link together. It’ll be launched in April.

Acting is my main thing but we have time out of work so you have to keep busy. This is my retirement. Then I can carry on acting just for fun.

Sam Attwater will be among the celebrities on the Dancing On Ice Live Tour 2012 at the Capital FM Arena from April 20 to 22. He’ll be joined by Matthew Wolfenden, Andy Whyment, Heidi Range, Chico, Jorgie Porter and Jennifer Ellison.

Performances will be at 7.30pm on April 20 and 21, at 2.30pm on April 21 and at 1.30pm on April 22. Tickets range from £42.50 to £125 and are available from the venue box office in Bolero Square, by calling 08444 124624 or through www.capitalfmarena.com