Rufus Hound was given the first Golden Ticket on 'Dancing on Ice' on Sunday (17.01.21).

Rufus Hound

Rufus Hound

The 41-year-old comedian and his professional partner Robin Johnstone got a free pass into musicals week in a fortnight's time after their video game inspired skate wowed the judges as the ITV ice skating competition returned to screens during a spectacular first show.

Giving his verdict, judge John Barrowman said: "Just because it was solely a lot of fun and showed a lot of personality, I've decided to go for Rufus and Robin."

Whilst, as well as Ashley Banjo, Jayne Torvill chose to give the Golden Ticket to Rufus and Robin. She said: "Because I liked the improvement and want to see more of it, Rufus and Robin."

With all three judges choosing the dancing duo, Christopher Dean didn't need to vote but he insisted that if he had, he would have chosen to send the comedian through too.

And Rufus was clearly overcome with emotion as he was handed the pre-sanitised golden ticket.

Asked how he felt, he told hosts Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby: "Thank you. I've spent most of this year not being terribly emotionally stable because the world stopped making sense. And this does not make more sense of it. But thank you. I don't know what is happening."

Elsewhere, Lady Leshurr and Brendyn Hatfield found themselves in next week's skate-off after their girl-power inspired dance to Little Mix's track 'Salute'.

This week, four couples - Jason Donovan and Alexandra Shauman, Joe-Warren Plant and Vanessa Baeur, Lady Leshurr and Brendyn and Rebekah Vardy and Andy Buchanan - were joint top of the leaderboard with 25 out of 40 points whilst Rufus and Robin scored 23.5 points. Denise Van Outen, who danced with a dislocated shoulder, and Matt Evers were bottom of the leaderboard with 19.5 points.

The remaining six contestants - Myleene Klass, Faye Brookes, Sonny Jay, Billie Shepherd, Graham Bell and Colin Jackson - also performed a group dance to '9 To 5' ahead of their performance next week.

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