Time To Get Skates On And Back Atack, Sheffield & Tamaddon
Dancing On Ice will be returning to our screens with a new spin-off show airing this Friday followed by the first live show two days later.
The 14 celebrity contestants have been unveiled and initial prices have been available for a while now. It’s still unclear at time of writing but it looks as if only 7 skaters will compete in week one, with the remaining seven competing the following week.
Much like Strictly we think it’s a good idea to take an early position regardless of the fact none of the contestants have been seen on the rink yet.
The three we are most keen to be green on from the get-go are Jeremy Sheffield, Emily Atack and Hayley Tamaddon.
Mikey Graham could have a run in the series on the back of a certain sympathy vote following Stephen Gately’s recent death, but it’s hard to imagine him being as good at skating as the likes of Lucy, Sheffield, Richardson and Young in what looks a keenly-contested Top Male market.
Gary Lucy is paired with last year’s winning pro, Maria Filippov. Filippov has a tremendous record in the show and Lucy looks another strong partner for her. The one thing against Lucy is that it would be unprecedented for a pro to win a series of this nature back-to-back.
Pre-series we prefer Sheffield, a trained ballet dancer, and a good looking bloke to boot, who appeared in Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn video. Sadly, this has been factored into his somewhat miserly price of 4-1.
Young, Tamaddon and Richardson are all soap stars, and young and dynamic enough to prove themselves decent on skates, and the diminutive Young might just be a Ray Quinn mark II.
Tamaddon is pretty in the Ali Bastian, non-threatening mould which is a plus, and if she comes across well – never easy for attractive females – she could go far.
Being pretty and blonde may makes things even tougher for Emily Atack but we reckon she could be just the type to excel and along with Tamaddon s
he looks a front runner in the Top Female market.
Atack is a little known actress as of now, apart from among those who have seen The In-Betweeners. A definite plus for Atack is she is partnered with a bit of DOI fave in Fred Palascak (the same can be said for Tamaddon, partnered by Daniel Whiston).
We have major reservations about Sharon Davies mainly because sportswomen can often come across as too competitive which is a vote loser, and early reports claim she has already annoyed some of her rivals. Despite the squiggle alongside her name, she could offer a great early trade at around 25s or bigger on Betfair because she could be really impressive in her first outing on the ice and her odds will then tumble.
There’s enough in Daniella Westbrook, Tana Ramsay, Heather Mills and Sinitta’s c
eleb profiles to put us off all of them, while age is against Bobby Davro and Dr Hilary Jones. Both the latter could get the popular vote – Davro for his potential comedy value, and Jones because he has been a staple of daytime tv for many years, and is very much the housewives’ choice.
The great intangible at this stage is how the contestants project themselves on the show. Jeremy Edwards did for his chances early on in last year’s series by coming out with the crass comment on first meeting his female pro partner that ‘at least she’s not a minger’.
Of the women Tamaddon’s credentials look the most solid so 7s on the outright with Coral and 5-2 with Boylesports to be top female are both worth a poke. We would also recommend taking the 10s and 7-2 available on Emily Atack on these two markets.
Of the men we think Jeremy Sheffield is a worthy favourite and 4-1 on the outright is still worth taking.
Rob Furber