Ashley Banjo uncertain of Dancing On Ice future

3 May 2022

Ashley Banjo doesn't know if he'll be back on 'Dancing On Ice'.

Ashley Banjo doesn't know if he'll be back on Dancing On Ice

The Diversity choreographer looks forward to being on the judging panel of the celebrity skating contest every January and although he knows it'll be back next year, producers have yet to confirm if he'll be offered an extension to his contract.

He told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: “'Dancing on Ice' has become part of my calendar and a big part of my career and what I love to do.

“The producers have told me that the show will be returning for another series. But they haven’t given me the green light yet.

“I have my fingers crossed that they will ask me back.”

The 33-year-old star - who joined the show in 2018 - admitted his love of the ice has taken him by surprise.

He added: “I never thought I’d be involved or even really care about ice dancing. But I started to care about the competition and the contestants.”

Meanwhile, Ashley recently admitted he still gets a "stream" of abuse of the 'Black Lives Matter'-inspired routine Diversity performed on 'Britain's Got Talent' in September 2020.

He said: “It happens all the time.

"I did this slot on 'GMB' [last week] to talk about how life-changing it was winning a BAFTA for the routine and I went on Twitter afterwards, and it was just like a stream of comments. The negative ones always cut through."

But the abuse won't stop the collective from performing the routine on their current 'Connected' tour, though the 'Dancing On Ice' judge admitted he always feels nervous about how audiences will react.

He said: “Every night, I go down and take that knee and there’s a little part of me that just kind of goes, ‘I wonder what’s gonna happen’. You just don’t know.

“We never got the opportunity to perform that routine in front of a crowd at the time because of Covid.

“We’ve never felt what it feels like. You can only guess what the audience may react to but you don’t know. To see an audience react to it is a completely different feeling.”