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How are you feeling after leaving the show?
"I'm gutted to have gone out but at the same time I'm kind of looking around me at people like Chris Fountain and Suzanne Shaw and realise that they are the main contenders. I think it's quite a unique experience to be in a competition but not really be in contention, if you know what I mean? Whenever I've competed in the past I've had a chance of winning but in this game it wasn't the case! I think maybe it was my time. No regrets really, I'm quite pleased with how far I got in the show."
You've been in three skate-offs prior to this. Were you thinking “not again” or did you feel confident you could come through again?
"No, I was thinking 'oh, not again'. I’ll be honest, I was thinking 'who is it going to be with this time?' Obviously I was in a skate-off with Samantha Mumba, then with Aggie Mackenzie, then with Tim Vincent and it was like, who is it going to be? I thought if it’s Greg or Linda then I think I’d have had a fighting chance, maybe. I don’t know if that’s realistic but that’s what I felt. Anyone else I’m doomed. Unfortunately for me it was someone else and it was Zaraah. She just had to stay upright to make sure that she saw me off, anyway."
The judges, particularly Jason, have said some scathing things, what are they like backstage to you and the other skaters?
"They’re different backstage of course - they’re being candid, they’re doing their job. They’re very cutting and sometimes unnecessarily so. Sometimes their comments are completely out of context. I think there’s no consistency with their opinion sometimes, and sometimes they tell you to do something and you do it, and they don’t recognise it and they’ll p*** on something else. Subjective sport, I’ve always had a problem with that. I never had that with athletics, it was always black and white as to who would win."
Do you feel that being a sportsman gave you a bit of an edge over other contestants when you started the show?
"I think in terms of the work ethic, definitely. I think in terms of things like a skate-off where you’re put into a difficult situation, I felt at home, that was it. You’re put under the most amount of pressure, you get one chance and you’ve got to nail it, loved it! That was it for me. I kind of felt that was my comfort zone and consistently I brought a better performance in the skate-off which seems a bit crazy but that seems to be the case. That, I guess, is what I trained for for years and what I enjoyed and made me successful as an athlete. At the same time people bring their skills from what they’re doing, like Chris Fountain – he even said it last night. I think Jason picked up on the fact that he didn’t look scared going into the lift and he said, 'well, I’m an actor'. So he’s bringing his skills as an actor to the ice dancing. Greg and I would use what we learned in the sports field to it and you do what you can."
Is the feeling you get skating different to when you're competing at athletics?
"Different buzz, different buzz. I’d say it is… because you’re so completely out of your comfort zone. Even with all the training we’ve done it’s still only a few months of training, it’s not a lot of time. There’s no distant memory. It wasn’t that long ago that I couldn’t even stand up in ice skates so to be put in a very pressurised, difficult situation with some fairly dangerous lifts, it’s hard. It’s certainly a lot harder than I anticipated but also it’s a lot harder than a lot of people think when they’re watching. I think as well people are closer to the edge, they are very close to having very serious accidents all the time and when you watch it on TV and people are smiling going into these lifts, it’s like that’s kind of masking what’s really going on because there’s a lot of treachery there."
What was Susie like as a partner?
"Susie was great, Susie was absolutely brilliant. We have a very similar kind of sense of humour and we have had a lot of fun in the training. She’s very, very brave, I’d say she possibly the bravest of all the female professional partners. She will just throw herself into new situations, new lifts. She’ll want to try to go for new stuff and it’s been great."
The show has turned you into something of a sex symbol, how does that feel?
"[Laughs] I’ve no idea, that’s a new one for me! Crikey, I’m a married man nowadays with two kids so I don’t consider myself as a sex symbol as you put it, but it’s very flattering all the same and I don’t think that does me any harm. It depends on who’s considering me![Laughs]"
What did you enjoy most about the Dancing On Ice experience?
"I enjoyed lots of it, I enjoyed the training. I really did enjoy the challenge of being given a new hold to sort out and to go every day and practice and push the boundaries of what I was doing. I enjoyed the live performance, the real cutting edge, the real black and white thing of are you in or are you out? One thing since retiring from athletics is that athletics is very cut-throat, you live and die by the sword and I missed that. You don’t get that in normal everyday life. Things don’t happen quickly in everyday life but to be back in an environment where I felt as though things were happening quickly, possibly too quickly, was a great whirlwind of an experience."
Do you think you'll carry on skating?
"I’d love to. What I’d love to do is carry on skating because I’ve got two young girls and I’d love to teach them so I’d love to get even more stable on skates and become even more proficient."
Everyone seems to be tipping Chris to win the show, would you agree with that?
"Yes, I would. I think Chris has shown everything it takes to win Dancing On Ice. He can skate, he can dance, he’s entertaining, he’s a top lad, a really nice bloke and I think all those thrown into one… I actually think he’s got the hardest challenge because if you think about it, Chris is expected to keep up with the male professionals who have been ice dancing for years. Chris did a bit of skating for his hockey, but spinning and lifting and doing all the stuff that he has to do now is new to him but he’s pulling it off week after week. I think he is in the most difficult situation and I desperately hope he does win."
Dancing On Ice continues Sunday at 6.25pm on ITV1.
