Blades of glory: Torvill & Dean's last dance
The final chapter in the 50-year story of Torvill & Dean will be triple-looping onto screens this Christmas and North East crew members were crucial in capturing all the action on and off the ice
On the Sunday after Christmas - that slightly woozy lull when the nation collectively reaches for the remote, a leftover mince pie or something equally comforting - ITV is offering the ultimate nostalgia blanket.
Torvill & Dean: The Last Dance is a one-off documentary following Britain’s most beloved ice duo as they take their final bow.
Made by North East production company Film Nova, the film charts Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean’s farewell tour, bringing together half a century of memories, extraordinary athleticism and legendary moments on the ice.
For many, Jayne and Chris are inseparable from the Britain of their childhoods - a time when there were only a handful of TV channels and certain moments became instant national history.
Their iconic Bolero at the 1984 Winter Olympics is right up there with Dirty Den serving Ange the divorce papers in Eastenders. I once answered Bolero to the task of ‘something purple’ in Scattegories.
That performance and others like Summertime and Barnum (which had styling input from Michael Crawford who had been playing the leading role in the corresponding West End show) remain immediately familiar to the millions who watched them live in living rooms all over the UK and beyond.
Director Alan Ryan remembers watching it himself, aged 10, sitting with his family. “You had one telly in the front room, and that was kind of it,” he says. “You and me were two of 24 million people that tuned in to watch the Bolero. It’s pretty incredible to think of that kind of communal national moment.”
Though Alan works out of Film Nova’s London office, the company’s base is firmly in the North East - something reflected in the crew who followed Jayne and Chris on their final tour, which included director of photography Simon Glass, whose natural warmth and subtle eye helped the team blend seamlessly into the skaters’ touring family.
That intimacy was vital. Torvill and Dean have worked with many of their off-ice team for decades; the filmmakers knew they couldn’t capture the truth of this finale unless they were welcomed into that inner circle.
“The only way we could do that was by having a small, very intimate crew,” Alan explains. “I heard Jayne and Chris talking about the film on TV this morning and they said after the first day or so, they pretty much forgot we were there, which was great to hear. That’s exactly what we were going for.”
Part of the documentary’s power lies in the contrast between the pair’s age - 66 and 67 during filming - and the physicality of what they continue to demand of their bodies.
“They were moving at speeds of 25, 30 miles an hour, and they were still throwing each other around the place,” Alan says. “I mean I was looking at them rehearsing thinking, ‘you can’t do that when you’re 40 or 50, let alone when you’re approaching 70!’ Being up close to it all, I still couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.”
As well as being widely known over the past five decades as entertainers and sporting personalities - with appearances on prime time shows like ITV’s celebrity skating show Dancing on Ice - Alan says he wanted to remind viewers of their sporting prowess.
“I think it sometimes gets overlooked that Jayne and Chris are simply two of the greatest living sportspeople of all time, when you look at what they achieved and how they influenced their sport.
“Of course I was really keen to include as much of that nostalgia - which I love - but also to see them at work and see just how extraordinary they are and how in tune with one another. Their commitment to what they do is inspirational.”
The hour-long film, which will be broadcast on December 28 at 8.30pm - spans the duo’s preparations for their final performance on the aforementioned Dancing on Ice, through the early rehearsals in their native Nottingham, the first live show in London, the intense run of UK arenas and an Australian leg of the tour.
There is true jeopardy throughout. The opening night in London is nearly derailed when Chris is hospitalised with food poisoning less than 24 hours before curtain up; he is literally on a drip the night before performing.
“We really weren’t sure up to the point where they stepped out whether that was going to happen,” Alan says.
Over in Australia, a fall left Jayne - who was joined on tour by her two children - temporarily unable to feel her legs, which had everyone terrified. But thanks to some magic from their on-hand physio, the show was able to go on, to rapturous applause.
In an increasingly clickbait world where the most trivial of things can be given the most dramatic of headlines, it’s refreshing that the film doesn’t sensationalise these moments. Instead, they become moving proof of the pair’s resilience, discipline and refusal to let each other down.
Unsurprisingly, the final scenes are the most affecting. Filmed in Nottingham on the site of the ice rink where they trained as teenagers (now an arena), Torvill and Dean perform their last ever Bolero in front of thousands of adoring fans.
Decades after it secured a perfect 6.0 scorecard and its accompanying Olympic gold medals, the piece still has the power to silence a crowd.
“I was a gibbering wreck,” Alan admits. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, including us.”
After the show, Chris does what perhaps only a Nottingham lad of his vintage could do: he toasts the company, looks out over the whole tour family and documentary crew, and urges them all to join them upstairs and “get pissed”.
They did. And that human ending - warmth, relief, camaraderie - is exactly the note Alan wanted to leave us on.
Once finished, and handed over to the broadcaster, ITV clearly agreed with the film’s festive potential, awarding it a sought-after Christmas week prime-time transmission.
“We were thrilled to get such an amazing slot,” says Alan. “We were hoping for something amid the Christmas schedule, but a Sunday night in between Christmas and New Year is perfect!”
For Alan, whose 25 year television career has been dominated by football and cricket, it has been the journey of a lifetime.
“It’s the best job I’ve ever done. I loved every minute of it,” he says.
And the cherry on top of the… ice cream(?) was an email from Chris last week.
“He said Jayne just called him to say that she absolutely loved it,” he says. “That made my day. Now I’m really looking forward to everyone else being able to see it.”
Whether you grew up watching them, cheered them on with your grandparents, or only know them from Dancing on Ice, Torvill and Dean: The Last Dance is a love letter to a uniquely British kind of magic: two ordinary kids from Nottingham who became world-shaking athletes, entertainers, and, eventually, part of our national folklore.
Torvill & Dean: The Last Dance is on ITV1 on Sunday, December 28 at 8.30pm and available to stream on ITVX after broadcast.
Tx for bringing back the memories of those gripping early performances! Entrancing but nerve wracking. Good to learn Film Nova connection. Doco is now in diary.