INTERVIEW with Keith Chegwin - October 2013

Christmas is undoubtably a busy time for anyone but for TV funny-man Keith Chegwin it's even more so. Last year he appeared on the eighth series of Dancing On Ice after intense training during a four week pantomime season. This year Keith is back in pantomime at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon but not before returning to the ice at the London Palladium! Keith took the time out from rehearsals to talk about his busy schedule. 

Where did your love of ice skating come from Keith? Was it something you've always enjoyed or was Dancing On Ice your first experience of it?

Dancing On Ice was the first sort of real serious experience of skating but when I was about twelve I went to a stage school with Phil Collins and his sister Carol Collins was a champion ice skater! We stayed with her for a little while and she took me to the ice rink and I got to learn a few things but then I just stopped it. Two years ago Dancing On Ice phoned up and it was between that or Strictly Come Dancing and obviously I chose Dancing On Ice and it's been my love ever since!

I've caught you in the middle of rehearsals here because you're about to take to the ice again with the Imperial Ice Stars at the London Palladium?

Yeah, The Nutcracker On Ice! It's such an honour, it's a bit like the Royal Ballet phoning up and saying "Oh we're doing Swan Lake, have you got any tights? Can you help us out!?" ... These guys on ice, it's a different kettle of fish isn't it, Dancing On Ice is fantastic and I can't tell you how much I'd recommend anybody go off and do it but they're restrained to health and safety - this it's just away you go! These are 26 Olympic athletes that between them own over 250 medals for Olympic and Commonwealth games and I think to myself "Oh my God... I've only won the Radio Lollipop award!"

And this is the London Palladium we're talking about here... how are the nerves?

Well it's weird, I've never really suffered from nerves, I suffer from excitement! I get really buzzy about things, yesterday in rehearsals I was that excited I was just catching my blades all over the place! My ambition for this is when you see us come on stage you won't know it's me! You'll think "oh no that's one of the profes.... oh no, it IS Keith!" - I want my skating to be up to scratch really. But the London Palladium for us old people is like the O2 now, it's the climax of your career. 

Keith and partner Olga Sharutenko the last series of Dancing On Ice 

People don't really appreciate what all this is about though. When I say to people I'm in The Nutcracker they're like "oh, okay..." but no, this takes you into a fantasy world - we're flying in it and there's magic and for the first time ever I shall be on stage and not shouting "Wey Hey!" or "it's behind you!" 

So what can we expect from the pantomime afterwards then? Back to Keith we know and love?

Oh I don't know, I might leave my skates on, it has been done before! Last year one of the characters in our panto had his roller skates on and went round the stage! He was really good ... he has been in Starlight Express though! I shall be sad to take my skates off really but I do love panto as well, especially at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon - Jack And The Beanstalk this year, come and see us! It's my third year back there and it's like coming home to family! Everyone backstage and front of house are all really nice people and the audiences are great. I remember the best compliment I was ever given was from the theatre manager Derek Aldridge and he said "Keith, can you just calm it down because the kids keep jumping up and wrecking the seats!" Haha, I was likes yessss!! I've done my job! 

Keith in last years pantomime Aladdin at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon

You can see Keith reunited with his Dancing On Ice partner Olga Sharutenko in The Nutcracker On Ice at the London Palladium from 24 October - 3 November by booking tickets here. Tickets are between £21 and £76. Following that you can catch the show at the Wales Milennium Centre, Cardiff from 8 - 17 November and at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton from 19 - 23 November. 

You can then see Keith in pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon from 7 December 2013 - 5 January 2014. For more information on the pantomime click here. To book tickets click here.

Listen to an extended version of the interview with Keith and dance partner Olga Sharutenko below:

Related Articles
Jack And The Beanstalk (Press Launch)
Aladdin (Wyvern Theatre) Review

SLEEPING BEAUTY ON ICE (UK Tour) Review October 2013

This week, the New Alexandra Theatre stage is unlikely to be as you've ever seen it before. Covered in over 14 tonnes of ice the stage is set for the Imperial Ice Stars and their production of Sleeping Beauty On Ice which runs until Saturday. 

Artistic director of the company Tony Mercer presents something very special here - the opportunity to see ice dancing in the intimacy of a theatre as opposed to on television or a large arena - it's almost like a different medium. You can really appreciate the skill required in such proximity. Just as a ballet tells the story of the Sleeping Beauty through gesture and it's own dance style, the ice dancing does too - it's very different but achieves the same result. With this we have speed unlike any other show, daring and exciting lifts and a conglomeration of catches, spins, leaps, flying, arial stunts, fire... you name it!

Olga Sharutenko and Bogdan Berezenko (Photograph by Phil Hitchman)

ITV's Dancing On Ice professional and World Champion figure skater Olga Sharutenko is Princess Aurora, the girl destined to prick her finger and succumb to an endless sleep - only to be woken by true love's kiss in the shape of Prince Désiré - Bogdan Berezenko. Both command the ice with the highest level of skill, dazzling costumes, beautiful lifts and flying. I wish that I could comment with more understanding of ice dancing but I do believe that this should impress even the most knowledgeable. 

Other roles worthy of mention are Aleksei Vasilev as Catalabutte and Svitlana Pylypenko as his assistant - although these are comedy roles the skaters must still execute the finest performance and they in particular get time to shine. Iuliia Odintcova and Jurijs Salmanovs as Carabosse and her shadow skate a much a harsher show. Far from the delicacy of the royal skaters this duo have a faster, more daring job performed equally as impressive. 

Jurijs Salmanovs and Iuliia Odintcova (Photograph by Phil Hitchman)

The scenic design by Eamon D'Arcy consists mostly of backdrops, beautifully detailed and enough to make up for the fact that other scenery is impossible with the ice rink taking up all available space. The use of a pre-recorded soundtrack does lack the grandeur of a live band but by no means takes away from the incredible production. 

If your reason for not going to the theatre is a hot and stuffy auditorium - you've no excuses here! That chill is soon forgotten about as this incredible cast soon heat things up with an unforgettable show. Unlike any usual evening of theatre, make the most of your chance to catch Sleeping Beauty On Ice at the Birmingham New Alexandra Theatre until Saturday 12th October 2013. Book tickets here. 

Find out more about the ice and listen to interviews with the cast and crew here. 

Cast List: Vasilii Andreev, Yulia Ashcheulova, Maksim Beliakov, Bogdan Berezenko, Anastasia Ignatyeve, Ekaterina Ivleva, Pavlo Khimich, Volodymyr Khodakivskyy, Fiona Kirk, Yahor Maistrou, Konstantin Medovikov, Artur Minchuck, Maria Mukhortova, Svetlana Nalimova, Iuliia Odintcova, Svitlana Pylypenko, Jurijs Salmanovs, Alina Saprykina, Olga Sharutenko, Anna Silaeva, Tatiana Smirnova, Danil Tataurov, Olga Tataurova, Oleg Tazetdinov, Alesksei Vasilev.

SLEEPING BEAUTY ON ICE (UK Tour) Birmingham Press Launch

The summer is all but a distant memory and it won't be long until Birmingham is really feeling the winter chill. Jumpers and scarves however are already a necessity at the New Alexandra Theatre this week as the Imperial Ice Stars take over the stage. 

The acclaimed production of Sleeping Beauty On Ice takes nearly 24 hours to get into a venue and for the entirety of its run, the freezers are on! Walking into an unusually cold auditorium, Dancing On Ice professional and World Champion figure skater Olga Sharutenko greeted members of the press with cast members Bogdan Berezenko, Iuliia Odintcova and Jurijs Salmanovs.

As part of the day's activities I took to the ice with Olga and Bogdan for my very first ice skating lesson. I was petrified, but if I was ever going to do it, this was the time. Clung to the world champion figure skaters I tentatively made my way across the stage. I didn't think it was possible to sweat so much in such cold temperatures but I thoroughly enjoyed my first time on the ice! Would I do it again? With my world champion teachers of course but I can't see myself attempting it solo at Solihull Ice Rink!

It is a smile... just about! (Photograph by Phil Hitchman)

Between them, the cast have won over 250 competition medals, most of whom started skating from a very young age - some as young as 3! 44 people tour with the show including performers, technicians and a doctor with a further 17 people required at each venue. The freight of the whole show is approximately 25,000kg - the equivalent of 70 grand pianos.

Talking about the ice, production manager Bruno Hunt said: "To set the ice it's quite simple, we keep spraying the surface until it freezes over but to break it, that's really hard! About half way through the last show at a venue we'll turn the chillers down to about -12 and that makes the ice brittle and easier to smash. After the final show we go out in lines and smash it, shovel it into wheelbarrows and get it out of the building ... then we've got a lot of mopping up to do!"

An ice version of a show is completely different to what you would expect from a ballet version, as director Tony Mercer explains: "A lot of the time companies will just say 'copy the ballet' but that's not the right idea at all. Ice dancing is fabulous as we all saw with Torvill and Dean and their Bolero - ice dancing can tell a story just as well as ballet can, so why try to mimic ballet. Of course, it's balletic in style but I put together Imperial Ice Stars so that I could bring to the stage the kind of ice dancing I wanted to see."

Olga Sharutenko & Bogdan Berezenko (Photograph by Phil Hitchman)

You can listen to longer clips from the interviews with Bruno Hunt (Production Manager), Tony Mercer (Artistic Director/Choreographer), Bogdan Berezenko (Prince Désiré) and Olga Sharutenko (Princess Aurora) in the podcast below. 

Sleeping Beauty On Ice runs at the Birmingham New Alexandra Theatre until Saturday 12 October 2013. You can book tickets here.