Do you think the quality of the skating has improved since your day?

" I think the bar's definitely been raised. If I was skating in the past couple of series against people like Hayley and Ray there's no way I would have won. I can't do the splits in the air! I wouldn't have even attempted it, to be honest. I think it's a lot more competitive than when I did it"

Have you given the notorious headbanger a go?

"No and I wouldn't! I did something like an areoplane and it was quite risky. My teeth were half an inch from the ice, which was a little bit scary."

Do you still get nervous about skating?
" I haven't skated for three years and I'm petrified about doing the tour. I'm having dreams and I wake up in the night thinking: WHAT AM I DOING!? I'm going to be competing with people hot off the ice who've been training for six months- great!"

Have you ever known anyone to argue about their costumes or music?
"I don't think people argue, i think they have discussions. Costumes are so personal for people. You have to be careful because they have a big impact. I've watched people before and seen people wearing brown or mustard and gone URGH!"

So we won't see you in a Sharron Davies style swimsuit?
"I can categorically say 100 percent not a chance"

Have Jason Gardiner's put-down got worse since you took part?

"no, because poor Kelly Holmes got a rough deal from him the series I was in. He's a bit naughty because he can get too personal but he's always been like that. He was never nasty to me, but I don't agree with him being personal" It's about the skating, not what people look like"


What happens backstage?

"Everyone's usually practising and putting last-minute things together. I used to try desperately not to listen to what waas going on in the show because it would make me really nervous".

How may times a week were you fake tanned?

"I didn't use fake tan!"

Who do you think will win this year?

"Hayley's been consistent all the way through- she's the 1st person this series to get 30.0. But then in 2008 I thought Chris Fountain was going to win- so what do I know?"

As I suspected Gaynor hasn't done any skating recently so she's really going to struggle on tour - sounds like she's very nervous too.

My advice to her would be relax & enjoy. She's never going to compete with the likes of Chris, Ray, Hayley & Clare so she should stop worrying & just enjoy the experience & have fun skating with Matt.

Where's this interview from, please?

Yep. There's people like Gary, Emily and Mikey on the tour, so she doesn't need to worry about being the worst every week or anything. Just enjoy it!

I think she may find herself bottom a lot of the time. Mikey, Emily & Gary have all been skating for a few months now & are also used to their partners. Gaynor's only been back skating for a short time & she is skating with a new partner.

Why are you so bitter towards Gary? He's clearly a great skater and gets high marks. His total is higher (by a LOT) than Kierons. YEP.

Oh actually that kind of answers my original question.

Awk...Gaynor was lovely

Bella magazine. I copied it from the magazine. This is legal isn't it? People on soaps do it for Inside Soap!? Please don't sue me!

Actually it isn't Gary's highest score is 22.5 in Week 7 while Kieron's highest is 23.0 in Week 10.

And to be honest Gary is a little bit better than Emily not sure about Gaynor cause we haven't seen how well she can skate in ages but I think Mikey was a better skater than Gary.

I googled it because I wanted to see the original and couldn't find it, so I thought I'd ask where it's from. That explains why I couldn't find it - Bella magazine doesn't have an online version, as far as I'm aware. Thanks for that info

Gaynor was never a good skater to start with, and 3 years of not skating means that's unlikely to change.

If they wanted someone from series 1 I'd rather they chose Stefan instead.

It's Ok.

Nice girl, but they could save themselves a bit a material and not bother with the bolero outfit for her !! Can't see her getting to THAT level any night on the tour.

They could do that for a few of them TBH. Only people I see skating bolero this year are Ray, Chris, Hayley & Clare. Same as for previous tours in that only 4/5 people got to skate to it.