Who's the judge?My sister in law berated me the other day for not having been blogging. Why have I been quiet... Well.... it's about TV, a studio and life...
DANCING ON ICE 4 - The series is now at semi final stage. As I expected we've seen celebs and pro skaters combine to deliver drama, fun and surprises that make the DOI format so brilliant.
Ray - on sheer talent should win - if he can relax and not get focused on not being perfect, and the British public vote for him and not just expect him to win. Jessica, if she gets driving numbers and not slow ones can challenge him. Donal - doing better and better still needs to get ' Marriage Gear Forward' to improve his posture. Colleen - goodness, the John Sargent factor kicked in last week. She skated with the most guts and attack and anything is possible on DOI. Flying this week. A must see.
Chris and Jayne have been great - she has lost weight and is so toned.. must be the fitness video! He's got bigger muscles... the result is some new flick lifts that are very clever alongside their easy mirror style.
Judges - Jason has been on form. He is Mr Predictable - Mr Nasty to start, Mr Nicer now. He berates and clobbers verbally early on moves into giving challenges and advice and then claims success with the survivors as we near the end of the journey. Not always easy to be on the receiving end of jibes but the pantomime of it has been embraced by our celebs this year more than ever. Robin - has often spoken so eloquently what I was thinking. Ruthie has her heart on her sleeve and has the courage to stand her ground in this. Karen has won the glamour stakes with a new look and maintains an encouraging stance for celebs when speaking. All in all the panel has been more involved as a group in debate at times this year, I do like that more. It would be great to have more air time though - I do commentary for Eurosport - been doing a lot this year - and can speak of the performances afterwards. Pain to not be able to share this and get it out of the system!!!! Must find a way of doing this therapy....
So for me as a judge on DOI - I do have a mix of emotions. I love being involved with the show of it all. It's always a challenging time some weeks to separate some of the couples as they may be good technically and bad artistically or vice versa. But.. what I have to say is more than a sound bite, my style works more in discussion format but there is no air time for this so I find it very frustrating at times to (1) not be asked and (2) to have a sound bite segment to answer in. However, that's the job, so no point moaning. Ha I hear you say - I should have been blogging more... I've tried to encourage the celebs and the pros more this year and not be concerned about sound bites. To do what they do is brave, crazy and - whether paid well or not - crazily entertaining!
So DOI Tour next - faster than last year with less dates. Will be fun to meet the team on tour again. Looking forward to breakfast at the Lowry in Manchester.
Thanks for the people who have said hello via the blog and messages and have asked for pics and signatures. I'll get back to you soon. Always great to hear from you and sorry for my delays in replying.
I've been doing a lot more commentary for Eurosport this autumn and new year. Junior Worlds the other week was an eye opener as expected with some fabulous skating the other week. This has taken up time, in an entertaining way. Must work out a way of covering World's though - I miss doing this every year as Simon and Chris do it.
So why haven't I been online more. What's going on? What's my focus? Studio building.... To create music and film. Sounds easy, but it's like building a house. I'm loving the challenge and learning loads but in danger of becoming and anorack at times. I understand about codecs! I was at the Broadcast Expo the other week and met some of the techies from Dancing On Ice... The cost of the kit we use on DOI and how great are technical team across the board are. I appreciate it more and more.
So busy in this studio creation - the output due to be starting from the end of June this year. Not a lot of time... No pressure then.
Christiane's coming to DOI on Sunday, her first visit this year due to Tiger needing to be looked after. It will be his first 'part evening' on his own. He'll be at my brother's and we'll be back after the show so he'll be fine - we hope. He's almost walking and is adorable...
See you Sunday.
Love
Nicky
