Dancing On Ice bosses told us ‘absolutely nothing’ about it being final series, says devastated pro skater Mark Hanretty
DANCING On Ice’s Mark Hanretty has revealed the show’s stars weren’t told the 2025 series would be its last before the news was made public.
The championship level pro, who finished runner-up this year with Michaela Strachan, announced he was departing the show weeks before the last episode aired.
But in an exclusive interview, Mark, 40, told The Sun it was still upsetting to discover ITV was resting the long-running entertainment show.
He said: “We’re not ignorant to what we hear and see online.
“There’s absolutely nothing from the production telling us this would be the last series at all, and we only found out… there was no pre-warning for any of us.
“Understandably for the ice skating community, the professional ice skating community there’s a sadness that it’s not continuing. I do feel for the professional ice skaters that have joined the show more recently, because it is an incredible job. It’s a wonderful job, and it’s just dreamy on so many fronts.”
He spoke fondly of being pampered by the hair, wardrobe and makeup teams, describing it as a “novel experience”.
However, rising production costs and a change to the way people view television put increasing pressure on the programme.
“I suppose we can’t say it came as a huge surprise,” said Mark. “Because you know we’re mindful that viewing figures were lower, and it’s a very expensive show, I’m sure, to produce, but we’re all sad.”
Mark is hopeful the show will return in some capacity in the future and is buoyed by the fact the official statement by ITV didn’t say it has been axed for good.
The Midlands based skater made his decision to step away after 11 series to pursue other opportunities and to spend more time with his young family.
The Dancing On Ice pros had to travel to where their celeb partners were based and then on weekends headed to the live show studio in Hertfordshire.
While he was very familiar with his fellow pros from the skating circuit and the production teams that helped bring the weekly themes to life, his dealings with the judging panel and hosts Stephen Mulhern and Holly Willoughby were limited.
He said: “We didn’t really have a huge amount to do with them. Nothing but respect and good vibes, but our paths just didn’t cross hugely.
“They had their job to do. We had our jobs to. It was nice to chat them when we did, but I didn’t have dealings with them. It was just live show.
“There’s not a huge crossover just because of the geography of the studio as well.”
GOING FOR GOLD
At the same time whispers behind the set about the show’s future were rife, Mark did his best maintain a Zen state of mind in a bid to win the show for the first time.
It created an odd contrast of emotions and ultimately he and Michaela finished second to Coronation Street‘s Sam Aston.
It was the fourth time he’d made the final and each occasion was with a female celebrity: Libby Clegg, Adele Roberts, Kimberly Wyatt and Michaela.
Two out of those four stars bravely skated with disabilities; Clegg is registered blind while Adele has a stoma after being diagnosed with cancer.
To this day, Mark is surprised that their inspiring stories weren’t enough to propel them to first place when combined with their impressive skating abilities.
He said: “I don’t necessarily think I’m sad about that, but I’m just interested that it’s still quite telling in the world that we’re in that
still the demographic will go for the same thing.”
Mark isn’t grieving the end of the show as he’s already reunited with a number of fellow DOI pros in rehearsals for Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean‘s farewell arena run.
GOODBYE TO LEGENDS
The former Olympic champions are finally hanging up their skates after 50 years together.
He’s enjoying the high standard of skating, which is a notable step up from the ITV show.
There was a responsibility on Dancing On Ice to ensure novice skaters were safe and the skill standard varied considerably from person to person.
Mark said: “I had a conversation with Vanessa Bauer this week, and we were just saying it’s a very niche remit that we pro skaters on that show have because we have to lose ego because it’s not about us, it’s about supporting another human on the show.”
Like Strictly Come Dancing, the professional have a certain celebrity status of their own after so many years on TV.
However, Mark accepts that Strictly’s regulars have a crossover appeal that surpasses its ITV rival.
“For some reason the professional skaters on DOI have never
gravitated beyond the show in the way that the strictly pros have,” he said.
“Most often we’ll see some of the Strictly pros on The One Show or This Morning and, for some reason, we just haven’t managed to transfer into a more public consciousness.
“I think that’s something that we often wish that we could have somehow done more of.”
Mark admits he tried to land a place on Strictly as a celeb dancer in a similar way to how Brendan Cole and James Jordan went the opposite way, but his efforts were met with a “firm no”.
For now, he’s focused on producing the best show possible for childhood heroes Torvill and Dean.
He said of the tour: “It really just is an amazing celebration of them. There’s been a couple of times where I try not to be too much of a wet lettuce, for want of a better term, because I grew up watching Torvill and Dean’s VHS cassettes and I used to watch them ’til the cassettes went grainy.
“And now I’m involved in numbers celebrating routines that I’ve watched for 30 years, it’s like f**k, you know.”
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