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Torvill and Dean: The perfect day
bloodynora
Posts: 843 Forum Member
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On Friday February 7th at 9pm on BBC2 there is a documentary telling the story of February 14th 1984 when Chris and Jane won gold in Sarajevo!
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bloodynora
Posts: 843
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Maybe, for those of old enough to remember both the original performance (I was 15, and my teenage hormones so wanted them to be a couple in real life, whilst also having a crush on CD!) and also the 25th anniversary programmes. But many people either won't have seen, or remember much I detail about either, and even those that have might not mind watching something else (however much regurgitated) for the 30th anniversary. My children have heard me talk about it and seen clips, but have never really seen or heard 'the whole story'. For the more recent generations who've heard about it from parents, but without much in terms of real context, it does offer an opportunity for filling in the gaps. And I (and I'm sure many others as well!) will watch any 30th anniversary celebrations with much pleasure as well, no matter how much of it is 'old hat'!
Yes it was special but since then Russia has taken gold three times - yet they don't keep regurgitating the same old clips of success in years gone by and it's a fact that the URS won three times in the first four years of Ice Dancing as an Olympic Sport.
It's easy to see that we're not used to much success if we're still dwelling, with such sickening nostalgia, on our one and only victory.
Personally I feel really embarrassed when I hear our sports reporters asking foreign skaters if they remember T&D's 'iconic moment' and see them struggling to say how inspiring, awesome etc. they found it.
I bet it will get decent viewing figures
I don't begrudge those who want to watch and I think (hope) this will be the last time we are subjected to such schmaltz.
T&D were unique. Nowadays, is it the case that ice dancers have to perform compulsory side-by-side twizzles in their free dances ? If that is so, it is retrograde.
Room for both as far as I'm concerned.
Don't get me wrong, it is an amazing routine - I was ten at the time and I can remember being the only person in the whole school who could name the music when we were asked in assembly (I was something of a human sponge at the time) - and it still gives me goosebumps but I just feel it's been done to death, especially with DOI, and Torvill & Dean, whilst nice enough, are a bit dull.
I couldn't agree more.
T&D's strength was in their synchronisation, but their routines - including the Bolero - are all a bit pedestrian, not just compared with todays' ice dancing, but that of 20-25 years ago. yes, they won gold, but since then so have loads of other couples & we don't don't get their gold routines pushed down our throats every year!
Like Grishuk and Platov circa 1994 ?
Those not watching it won' t be subjected to it. There' s plenty else to do.
To be fair, T&D's performance was out of the ordinary, as it got perfect 6s for artistic impression and transcended the sport i.e. they were high profile in the wider world in the UK, not just the skating world.
You don't get such performances very often, but those that fall into such a category do get regular airings:
- Eddie the Eagle
- Jamaican bobsledders
- Steven Bradbury's "lucky gold"
- Hermann Maier's Nagano crash
- Lindsey Jacobelis' showboating
The production line of Russian ice dance winners is fine and worthy, but not in this category, though it's a crying shame that Oksana Grishuk is not on telly more often...
As will I.
While all that may well be true, there are those in other sports who have done more and yet keep a low profile. How about Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather for example? They not only won the World Championships with a perfect score, but did so for 14 - yes FOURTEEN - years in a row. Beats anything T&D have done hands down.
I thought Grishuk was notorious for lascivious behaviour, pinching the partners of other ice dancers.
Simple - The Olympics are high profile. Professional dancing (on floorboards) isn't.
24 million people watched T&D's free dance in Lillehammer on TV. Rightly or wrongly, the combination of the Olympics, being Britain's most likely winners and live primetime TV blows most things out of the water, irrespective of the relative merits of their achievements.
How many folk would tune in to watch Burns and Fairweathers' greatest hits on TV do you think?
I think she only did that once, but it doesn't detract from her visual charms!