ONE is a ballroom champ who seemed destined to win Dancing On Ice, the other a novice who shook more than his trademark maracas.
But former Strictly professional Brendan Cole, who has made it to this weekend’s final of the ITV contest, reckons hapless Bez was one of his greatest rivals.
He knew the Happy Mondays legend would win the public vote — and insists he was not as bad as his performances on the night suggested.
Brendan, 45, said: “At first you’re going, ‘Yeah, OK Bez’, but on the practice rink he was actually doing some incredible stuff.
“You go, ‘Bloody hell, Bez!’ but then quite often in the live show it didn’t quite go to plan for him.
“He was actually quite good at certain things at certain times.”
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Fellow showbiz pros Regan Gascoigne and Kimberly Wyatt, who make up the final three, also admit they felt threatened by 57-year-old Bez.
He remained in the competition long after steadier skaters such as Ben Fogle and Rachel Stevens departed, and while he wasn’t too hot on the ice, viewers loved his madcap routines.
‘I’m competitive’
At the same time Brendan, Regan and Kimberly dominated the scoreboard, leading to claims that the show was “fixed” for the three expert dancers to win.
But Brendan reckons Dancing On Ice would suffer without competitors with the full range of abilities.
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He said: “I think the fact we have a dance background has only improved things on the ice. The stuff we’ve been able to do because of that background has been special.
“People are always going to complain, we’ll never change their minds. All we can do is our best on the ice.
“There’s something cool about the fact we’re all here, we’ve all got dance backgrounds so we’ve got that performance element. You’re not worried about somebody not performing — you know all of us will be on it.”
Regan's secret is out
BOOKIES’ favourite Regan Gascoigne has a secret to his confidence on the rink — he pretends he is on a dancefloor rather than ice.
Dancer Regan, the son of football legend Gazza, says: “I disconnect the blade from the ice, to just think, ‘It’s the floor’.
“I obviously love performing on the ground so to have it on ice . . . and a new skill . . . the whole thing is just so special.”
Regan, 26, adds: “My best moment was when I first watched a rehearsal back, seeing me on screen. It was the first time I registered that it was me on Dancing On Ice. That was like, ‘Wow!’”
He has consistently topped the leaderboard, but says: “I honestly, genuinely can’t believe I’ve made it this far. I was shocked when I got asked to do Dancing On Ice.
“I’m not even known and they always get really big people to do the show.
“Now I’m here sat between Brendan and Kimberly. I’m like, ‘What the hell, how am I here? ”
As his show dance, Regan is preparing to perform a musical theatre number on a huge set.
During his 15 years on Strictly, Brendan became known as the show’s bad boy, often arguing with judges about their verdicts on his dancing.
He was fiercely competitive, hard on his dance partners and was at the centre of one of the earliest cases of the Strictly curse when he split from fiancée Camilla Dallerup while partnered with BBC newsreader Natasha Kaplinski in 2004.
But the New Zealand-born dancer — now married to model Zoe Hobbs and dad to their two children — said that hard image was just a “narrative” peddled by the show.
He added: “I’m not actually fiercely competitive. I’m competitive with myself — if I do something that’s not where I can be, then I’m immensely peed off with myself.
“If I win or lose it doesn’t matter, but it’s nice to win — don’t get me wrong. I came on this show hoping to prove to people that Strictly only showed one side of me. They pushed that narrative for 15 series and it was tiring — that’s actually not me.
“I muck around a lot, and that wasn’t shown. But it is being shown on Dancing On Ice.” That doesn’t mean that Brendan hasn’t gone all out to win. He and his pro partner Vanessa Bauer— and while she recovered from Covid, Brendyn Hatfield — have pushed the limits to show viewers what he can do.
I’m not actually fiercely competitive. I’m competitive with myself — if I do something that’s not where I can be, then I’m immensely peed off with myself.
And Brendan has now revealed the secret injury that almost drove him out of the contest. He said: “I had a moment two weeks ago when I didn’t think I was going to be on the show.
“I had fallen on my hip quite badly when I was holding Vanessa in a lift, and she landed on top of me.
“And then the Saturday of quarter- finals, my hip went out, my muscles stopped working and I couldn’t stand on my leg. It kept on giving way.
“Even 15 minutes before the show I ran to the physio. I was worried I’d have to pull out.” In Sunday night’s glittering finale, the trio will perform four routines, including a show dance and their own take on Torvill and Dean’s stunning Bolero, which won them Olympic gold in 1984.
Due to a scheduling shake-up for the FA Cup quarter-finals last weekend, the dancers have now had two weeks to prepare for the event.
‘Small meltdown’
Brendan said: “It was nice to have the weekend, a bit of family time. But when you enter into something like this we’ve all said, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’.
“The whole journey — six months of ridiculous dedication and sacrifice away from our families — all coming to that moment.
“My mind is focused on an incredible last show, perfecting what I’ve spent six months trying to perfect.” It all sounds rather like the hard-nut Brendan we know from Strictly.
So has he really changed — and has lockdown played a part?
He said: “I’m not saying I don’t want to win, but it’s not at the forefront of my mind.
“The year and a half of no performing, being forced out of your job — for me personally I didn’t realise how hard that was going to be.
“Six months in, I was at a low point, going, ‘I’m not fulfilling my dream, what I love to do, I’m just taking my kids to school every day’.
“Then to have an opportunity like this, a big show with incredibly talented people . . . ”
The cheeky Brendan of old soon rears his head as he jokes about trying to sabotage his TV rival Regan — and it’s clear that the final three have become a very close unit. He added: “My weakness is my love for my competitors, how well I want them to do!
“Regan’s weakness is he’s very particular with how he puts down his blade guards, and I’m not really bothered.
“So I throw mine in front of him and it makes him have a small meltdown.”
- The Dancing On Ice live final is on ITV at 7pm on Sunday.Additional reporting: Amanda Devlin
Kim last dance fears
FINALIST Kimberly Wyatt embraced the chance to dance again – because she feared the pandemic meant she had performed for the last time.
The 40-year-old Pussycat Dolls star was due to tour with the band when Covid hit, and she said: “It’s been a crazy couple of years.
“I thought I was going to go on tour with the Pussycat Dolls, then thrust into lockdown and you never know when your last opportunity to be a performer will come.
“So to be able to live this has been an absolute pleasure and a dream.
“The final is four more chances to go out there and dance.”
Kimberly’s romantic show dance will fulfil an ambition from childhood in Missouri to be a skater.
She said: “I loved watching the Olympics — Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul. I idolised them but quickly realised I was never going to be able to find ice or be supported in that, which is why I got into dancing.
“This piece is really a reflection of my six-year-old self and what is now happening.”
