Great skates

SO convincing was Ray Quinn’s win in the final of ITV1’s Dancing On Ice that the judges were actually talking about him being good enough to ice skate professionally. “That’s a million miles away now. You’ve literally got to train for years to become that good. But I love skating and I know I’m never going to give it up,” he replies with a laugh.

The X Factor runner-up puts his rise to fame down to Simon Cowell’s change of mind which reinstated him in the competition when it looked like he was going to fall at the first hurdle.

“At the end of the day I want to thank him for giving me that stepping stone in life. I needed it. If I’d have walked away, who knows what would have happened?

You have to live for today in this industry because tomorrow is never certain,” he says.

Quinn’s reversal in fortunes saw him turn X Factor fame into Dancing On Ice victory, the UK tour which takes him to Newcastle and then the lead role of Danny Zucco in the West End version of Grease from May and then another pantomime run at Birmingham’s Hippodrome with Joe Pasquale.

First there is a little skating to get out of his system. How did he cope with being favourite to win every week and the pressure of the bookies making him a 5-1 certainty to clinch the TV series? “It was added pressure each week to go out and perform and then raise my game as well.

It’s been such an amazing part of my life.

The possibilities were endless and I just really had a fabulous time each week and I loved the challenge to get out there and do myself justice.

“There were so many people in it that I never thought I might win at the start.

Any of the others could have been good. I was just pleased that people decided to vote for me. I was proud of myself for carrying on,” he says.

“Every week there were hairy moments and it was so unpredictable. I feared every week I’d be in the skate-off. Up to now I’ve stayed injury-free apart from the odd bump and scratch.”

Quinn is promising drama and fireworks at Newcastle “and Chris and Jane and plenty of celebs to look at, laugh at and enjoy”. He’s not certain of the voting format for the Tyneside contest, which has tended to involve mobile phone voting in recent years, but will be showing off his winning routine based on the song Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Know.

“Hopefully we’ll get to do the Bolero, particularly as the tour celebrates its anniversary. There was pressure with other routines, but here you have to impress Jane (Torvill) and Chris (Dean) because this is the dance that they made iconic,” he says.

Most people watching tend to identify with his rival Todd Carty who could hardly stand up on the ice and fitted into the John Sergeant role of the determined but talentless contender. How did Quinn cope with that initial fear of making a fool of himself in front of millions on TV?

“I love danger and adrenaline and I’m a real adrenaline junkie and I love the element of danger and the challenge and I really wanted to make an impression and I tried my best to do so. I’d never skated before apart from two or three times when I was kid. We had a couple of lessons before the show started,” says Quinn who went on to do lifts with partner, Maria Filippov, which displayed a growing level of confidence.

“From the beginning I was trying to do lots of things. I liked the fact that Maria completely put her trust in me. She was a dream of a partner because she’s so competitive and I was a real challenge.

Mind you, she could never be angry at me.

All I’d do was smile and she’d laugh.

When we were both tired and a routine wasn’t working we went home and tried again the next day,” he says.

Was success all down to his dance training? “I thought my dance training was going to give me an advantage, but wow what did I know? The ice is completely different and with blades on trying to dance is completely different.

The choreographer was wanting dances, but it was so difficult because of the little intricate steps. There’s a fine line between attacking the routine and doing something that’s going to end up hurting you.”

The only down side of Quinn’s rise to fame is that he became caught up in a story about quitting Liverpool’s pantomime, leading to shows being cancelled, so he could join the cast of Dancing On Ice.

“Things happened out of my control which led me to walk away, but the pantomime itself I really enjoyed. It wasn’t my fault at the end of the day. I always intended to do both, but something happened and it forced me to move on,”

says Quinn who refused to give the reason behind his decision to leave.

“Let’s let things roll for a while and see how it goes. I’m really open-minded and whatever is meant to be won't pass me by," he adds.