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TV and radio presenter Neil Fox - preferably known as Dr. Fox, or better still, just Foxy - talks us through his time on the show, a possible return for Pop Idol and that stumble with professional partner Pam O’Connor.
How does it feel to be the first out?
"Of course, I'm very disappointed to be the first out. I've put three months of really hard graft, and learning how to skate - I've put a lot of effort into it. It was always going to be someone and sadly that person was me. It was a great show, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and I enjoyed the skate-off, if that makes sense, and it's all part of the show. I'm not some sicko who really enjoys the humiliation - it's all part of the show and it's done really well. I enjoyed watching it last year and found myself weirdly excited to be doing the same thing. I just wish there had been a different outcome."
Had you skated before the show?
"A couple of times with the kids but it was literally hanging on the sides, shuffling around like everyone else. Out of this series, I've learnt how to skate really well - I can skate really well when I'm not with a partner, and it's a lovely freedom. I love it and I will certainly keep doing it."
Was that what made you decide to take part in the show?
"The honest answer is that I'd watched last year's show, not wanting to enjoy it, because it was yet another reality show where a bunch of celebs were going to have to learn how to do something else, but I loved it, I watched it and loved it and thought it was done brilliantly. I remember watching it and saying on the radio how much that that was the only show I'd looked at and thought 'I want to do that' and obviously one of my bosses at ITV heard and said 'if you'd like to have a go, come and do an audition', and that's how - I did the audition and they said, okay, we'd love you to come and do the show."
What did you have to do at the audition?
"There were a couple of coaches, and we had to skate so they could see what we were like. Forward, backward, see if we could do anything. I couldn't go backwards at all, I mean literally not anything, and they said you just push out on your legs, and nothing happened. I found it really, really hard. We had to see if we could jump over a tiny little bar that literally was two inches high - we all went head over heels. It was hard. I saw Lisa Scott-Lee coming in after me, weirdly! Then they send the tape off to Torvill and Dean, and they have a look at it and think 'have they got anything, could we teach these people', and they obviously thought yes, for whatever reason, and here I am. There I was."
How would you have judged your own performance on the night?
"I don't think my performance was good on the night. I think my first performance was better than my skate-off performance, and that wasn't down to nerves on the skate-off. I just cocked up on a bit that I'm really annoyed about - it was a bit of our routine that I really hated. The end bit, I didn't like it at all. It was to do with a lift, and Pam and everyone had built this big thing up about dropping her, and gosh, was I worried about dropping her, and was she worried about being droped again. They made it into such a big thing that when we came to a lift we were freaking paranoid about 'oh my god, here comes the lift'. A lift isn't hard, it was a very simple lift I had to do. But the more people say 'oh, are you worried about the lift', the more you should be. That's one of those things - Kay and her partner skated a routine where she didn't have to do too much. She was lifted quite a lot, and together they did it better than I did it. Pam, bless her, my partner, used to say: 'let's see if we can do a great one'. She used to do a great one every time! She's a professional ice skater, she's fantastic. Award-winning ice skating champion! The problem was never her, it was always going to be me."
You said after you were evicted that Pam takes a while to make friends with someone. Will you stay in touch?
"I think so. She's getting married in a couple of months time to her skating partner Jonathan. I do hope we stay friends. Our worlds don't really cross - she lives in California and is an ice-skating coach with her partner, I work over here in the entertainment business in London. If she lived in London I'm sure our paths would cross. I hope we'll stay in touch because she's been part of my life for the past couple of months. She's a patient, lovely girl - she's a charmer. And when I say she's one of those girls who takes time to make friends, there are lots of people in the entertainment business who, when you meet them after one second, they're your best friend, but it's not the way I am. There are lots of people who are like instant bezzie mates. That's not how it is with her, it takes a bit of time for her to get to know people, and that's been great getting to know each other. You see someone every day and you're dancing with them, you get to know them."
What do you think the ideal tune would have been for you to skate to on Saturday night?
"I wish we could have danced our second week song and second week routine first week. It was Guns 'n' Roses - Knocking on Heaven's Door. It was a really odd song to skate to, and partly that just would have been a really great thing to see on Saturday night TV, seeing people skate to Guns 'n' Roses. You'd go, 'what'? It really worked - we had a really lovely slow and difficult routine. It was really coming along, we'd practiced a lot, and I was really looking forward to skating it because I always thought the first week would be quite hard but if I could get through the first week it would have been easier for me because we had a really strong routine. The time has gone now, so we have to move on."
Do you think it's fair you went, after other people like Stephen were clearly very nervous on the ice and were struggling quite a bit?
"I think to be fair there are four of us that are at the bottom. Phil, definitely Kay, Stephen and myself. I think they will be the first four people to go. After that, I think there are some really good medium people - some of the girls in the first routine didn't actually skate very much, they had amazing routines where their partners lifted them a lot and they spun and did kind of things that looked spectacular for a first show. There's no doubt there are some very good people, some very good people this year, really very good. I think Duncan - Duncan's a naturally good skater, he's a good looking guy, a lovely guy and he was in a very successful band. Put all those things together and he's a strong contender, I would have thought."
So you're tipping Duncan to win?
"I think if I had to pick one I would pick Duncan to win. Kieran's really good too - this country loves its sportsmen. Kieran is great fun - he works really hard, trains really hard and did a really great first routine. He's skating really well, as well, it wasn't just a fun, mad caterpillar at the end, he skated well during that whole thing."
What about someone like Clare? She's a strong skater.
"I think Clare, as a girl, really good. Two things that might be a problem with Clare - she started off really strongly, and it might be... I wonder how far she can go in the next few weeks. She's learnt an awful lot over the last few months, but I wonder how much further can she go in the next few weeks, because people always like to see progress made. There's no doubt that she's very good. The only other thing that may be slightly against her is that people don't know her that well, whereas they really know Duncan. We really feel we know Duncan, you know, he's done some TV, been in Blue, he was very successful, one of the big boys there. So we'll just have to see."
What do you think to the others?
"You know, Lee Sharpe's good, there's no doubt - you have to say well done to Ulrika, who was very elegant, without a shadow of a doubt the most elegant of the girls on Saturday. Did a brilliant job. Her problem is she believes she can't do any good - I think she's had so much knocking in the papers over the years I think it's knocked her confidence. She looked fabulous and danced beautifully - and actually she did a lot of dancing on the ice. A lot of girls get lifted, and the lift looks spectacular, and actually if you look back at Ulrika's routine - she had some nice lifts, but some skating as well, that looked beautiful. So I think she could do very well in this competition. I don't think she'll win - I think this one will be won by a feller."
According to press reports, Simon Fuller is in talks to revive Pop Idol. Have you been approached to be part of a new series and would you consider it? Do you think it could work again?
"I'd definitely do Pop Idol again. If we did Pop Idol again, I'd love to think that we could get together the four original judges, else it wouldn't be quite the same. Last summer, we were all contracted to do Celebrity Pop Idol. We'd all been contacted, got the dates lined up - and it turned into Celebrity X Factor, because we heard that Simon Cowell didn't want to do Celebrity Pop Idol, there were some contractual problems, so it became Celebrity X Factor, so we didn't do it. I'd love to do it. It was great fun, and we genuinely all had a really great time doing it. Of course, it doesn't require you to go off for three months to learn how to ice skate for it, either! I do hope we do it, I really do hope we do it."
I wouldn't mind seeing it back!
"There was something very pure about Pop Idol, I think there was a simplicity there - programmes like X Factor have become very successful, but there are a lot of gimmicks in these other shows, and I think there was something very pure about Pop Idol. It was very simple, public vote, no games, you couldn't fix it by the judges saying 'save this person, save that person'. It was very pure. Public didn't like the person, out they go. Luckily in the first series we ended up with two very good people in the final. The second series suffered by not having a great final ten, really, the public voting out all the good ones first. And we ended up with what wasn't really a sensational last few people. They were all very good, but no one was going to be a star out of them."
Looking back at programmes like Popstars and Fame Academy, they were also quite pure and simple, if you'll excuse the reference! Do you think more cynical programmes like X Factor grate on the public?
"I think the thing with shows now is that they've all become big entertainment shows, but they've become more entertainment shows than talent shows now, in that the result is much less important - it's the process. Really, it's like - someone wins, they have a hit record, get to number one - goodbye! With Pop Idol, it was such an unknown quantity. Hear'Say did really well out of Popstars, and then wow, we had Will Young, who's become this international star. Then, of course, we ended up with Michelle, and of course suddenly, it didn't...she didn't have any career at all after it. Interestingly enough - the problem is that it became a really great show. Brookstein was the first [on X Factor], and then the second series...my god, what's his name? Um..."
That's kind of the thing - you don't remember, there's no career!
"There you go! You see, there you go! Aha, Shayne Ward. Now, Shayne Ward is really very good, but he's had one hit and that's it, and they're saying there's another great album on the way, but the problem is that now there's Leona Lewis on the way. Leona Lewis... I think she's done a lot of good for X Factor, because she's really good, and I think they needed to find someone great on that show, and prove it's not just a great Saturday night talent show, we can find people. The hard thing is, if we do Pop Idol again, there are so many of these bloody shows now. We have to ask - do we need any more shows on TV where members of the public sing? We've got Stars In Their Eyes, Soapstar Superstar, Just The Two Of Us, X Factor... f***ing hell, how many more people can come and sing other people's songs on TV? But clearly, the public love them, because they all rate really well."
Like you said, they like the process.
"While these shows are popular, they will be on. What has been lovely about Dancing On Ice, it's been interesting, there's a different reaction - because people go 'cor blimey, big respect', because they know it's hard, and it has been hard - it's not been easy for me learning to iceskate. I've loved it, and I can skate well now, I could hardly stand up two months ago. It's been lovely learning, and because of that I think there's a genuine camaraderie betwen all the professional skaters as well - but all the celebs doing this have been genuinely rooting for each other on Saturday night. There was a great atmosphere there - you wanted everyone to do well, and when Lisa fell, we were all like 'no, get up', we were really sad for her, we weren't thinking 'great, she's going to be marked down'. It's nice, it's a very positive show, there's no negativity about the show, and I think that comes across on the screen - it's a lovely positive thing to watch. The producers aren't trying to make you fall, they want you to skate well, and so do Torvill and Dean. And so do the judges. No one's thinking 'God, fall over, it makes good telly'. A lot of the lovely process of all those singing shows is wanting to see those nightmare singers, because god, it makes good telly, all the auditions are brilliant. This is a very different show, and got 10 million on Saturday night, so clearly it does matter."
Thanks for chatting, Neil!
Your next clue can be found in an interview with a star of new cult drama Heroes
