Bonnie Langford wishes she had "enjoyed" her time on 'Dancing on Ice’ more than she did.
Bonnie Lanford wishes she had enjoyed her time more on Dancing on Ice
The 58-year-old star - who has carved out an illustrious career on stage and screen ever since she competed on 'Opportunity Knocks' in the 1970s with roles in 'Doctor Who' and in a string of West End musicals - competed on the inaugural series of the ITV1 skating show in 2006 and admitted that she got so "anxious" about it that she couldn't allow herself to make a mistake.
Speaking on the 'White Wine Question Time' podcast, she told former 'Loose Women' actor Kate Thornton: "I got so intense and so anxious about it, I wish I had enjoyed it. I did enjoy it, I did but I'd get really intense about it all. I was so ignorant, it was blissful. It was such an opportunity for me to say 'I don't know how to do this' because as a child I had always been 'Don't excuse me because of my age.' I was always so professional but sometimes that can mean you don't allow yourself to make a mistake. You can still be the best you can be, but it doesn't matter if you make a mistake. With ice skating, falling over is the best thing because it makes you get up. I'd probably put most of my career as a success and a failure because in the middle of things, I maybe don't enjoy it while it is happening. And that's something I'm working on greatly."
The former 'EastEnders' actress - who finished third on the series behind fellow soap stars Stefan Booth and eventual winner Gaynor Faye - explained that she wasn't initially meant to be in the show but ended up taking part after a fellow celebrity pulled out and ended up suffering a "headbanger" after cracking her skull open early on in her training.
She added: I'd never skated in my life! As a dancer, you don't put skates on. You weren't allowed to skate or horse ride. But they asked me to be the reserve so I didn't get any training and this was the very very first series. It was a real test. I thought 'Well, I don't have to stay anywhere, it's not the jungle, it's not a house. I can go home, and I'm only the reserve.' So I did a couple of lessons and then they asked me to try out with Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean anyway.
"Next day, I get a phone call to say someone had broken their wrist and I said 'Well, I haven't got time to train, I'm doing pantomime' and two days later they say 'You're in the live show!' I didn't know any of it, ignorance was absolute bliss. I wasn't completely blissful about it because I was terrified but in a way I didn't know what I was signing up to. So at 5 o'clock in the morning, I was in Slough ice rink with Torvill and Dean and my skating partner Matt Evers. I did a spin the first time and it worked, but the second time, I cracked my head open on the ice. That's why it's called a headbanger, because of me!"
Tagged in Kate Thornton Jayne Torvill