Dancing on Ice’s Graham Bell takes aim at golden ticket winner Rufus Hound saying he ‘isn’t great’ – but won over crowd
GRAHAM Bell has taken aim at golden ticket winner Rufus Hound saying he “isn’t great” at skating – but won the crowd over with his performance skills.
The former Olympic skier didn’t hold back as he gave his verdict on the celebrities in week one ahead of his performance on Sunday night.
“The ones who are technically not as good at skating produce amazing performances to the camera,” said Graham.
“Rufus’s performance was just fantastic. He will admit this, he’s not the best skater.
“I’ve watched him train because we share rinks. He isn’t great, but he performed brilliantly.
“It’s about getting that balance between technical skating and producing some kind of wow performance.
“The technical skaters, the ones who skated really well, did that pretty good.
“Obviously Joe had that fall, which knocked him down a bit, and Rebekah was incredible but maybe she was in the air too much.
“Her routine looked really good if you watched it live whereas I watched it back on TV and thought ‘ok what’s missing’.
“It’s not necessarily the best skaters who will win.
“Last year Perry did a back flip and his bolero was off the charts and crazily good but yet he didn’t win because people love Joe swash. It’s not all about the skating.”
Graham’s time on the ITV show has already been dramatic.
He was pulled out of performing in week one after his partner’s horrific injury.
A freak accident saw Graham stab Yebin Mok with his skating blade.
The 36-year-old pro skater’s injury was so severe that it “exposed her tendons”.
She is hoping to return to the show once she’s fully recovered, but in the meantime Graham will skate with fellow professional Karina Mantras.
“It was very stressful when Yebin got hurt,” admitted Graham.
“Now I know she is going to be OK, recover and get back into the show, providing I stay in, it’s great.
“I’ve had a really good session with Karina and working together really well and starting to gel.
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“I am pretty happy. For the bad things that went on, we’re bouncing back.
“We were flying high ready to go and had everything prepared, then boom an injury like that and suddenly we were really struggling to hang into the show.
“Now I’m more confident going into the weekend. Hopefully Yebin will be back week four if not week 5.”