Dancing On Ice's Richard Blackwood reveals his secret skating past ahead of launch

He has a slight advantage!

Author: Emma DoddsPublished 3rd Jan 2019
Last updated 4th Jan 2019

Dancing On Ice launches this Sunday 6th January, and fans of the show cannot wait to see 12 new celebrities take to the ice for this series. Last year's Dancing On Ice was a revamp of the show after a four-year hiatus, and former choreographers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean returned to the show as judges.

They will once again take to their seats on the judging panel with Jason Gardiner and Ashley Banjo, and presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield will be reunited after Holly's stint in the I'm A Celebrity! jungle late last year.

All 12 celebrities have been working hard ahead of the new series this Sunday, but it turns out that one of them may not have had to work quite as hard to get the hang of skating.

Former EastEnders actor Richard Blackwood appeared in an interview on Good Morning Britain earlier today, and revealed that he'd actually spent much of his childhood on the ice.

The 46-year-old explained, "My mum went to live in Sweden when I was three or four years old. I used to go to school there and I would ski to school and ice-skate to school. I then used to skate every Wednesday and Friday at Streatham ice-rink, that was like the local hangout."

Swipe through to see which celebrities are taking part in Dancing On Ice 2019...


Dancing On Ice's Richard Blackwood reveals his secret skating past ahead of launch
2 of 13

Despite his background in skating, Richard - who's paired with Carlotta Edwards - added that he's still being put through his paces in training, "It's very, very gruelling. Even if you can skate, the discipline that these guys put you through, I've got a lot of respect for them."

But although Richard might be one of the more experienced skaters on the show, he confessed that Gemma Collins was one to watch, "She can skate. Gemma will scare a lot of people but she'll go out there and show you she's about that life."

He added that James Jordan, former Strictly Come Dancing professional, was also looking pretty dangerous, "James is a secret one, he acts like he can't skate, but he was pulling off some spins yesterday that were scaring us."

Dancing On Ice launches this Sunday 6th January on ITV1 at 6pm.

NOW WATCH: Little Mix open up about being role models

Tune into Northern Ireland’s number 1 for music, Cool FM on 97.4FM, online, on our Rayo app, your DAB radio, or say ‘Play Cool FM’ on your Smart Speaker. We play you the biggest hits from the world’s hottest artists, from Pete Snodden in the morning to the NI Hit 40.