Dancing on Ice: Louie Spence brands Jorgie Porter ‘boring’ in Props Week

As if the remaining contestants in this series of Dancing on Ice needed anything else with which to injure themselves… the powers-that-be decided to add hammers, dumbbells, whips and more to their routines this week.

Yes – it was Props Week: in which viewers have the added excitement of wondering whether one of the skating stars is going to drop a heavy weight on their foot or get tangled up in ribbons.

Actually, it wasn’t just Props Week: it was Props-Plus-Circus-Theme Week (we’ve already observed how the DOI producers seem a tad obsessed with theme weeks. I bet they’re the kind of people who get married dressed as Elvis and dress their cats up as superheroes in their spare time). Anyway, as well as mastering said props, the contestants had to amaze, entertain and make us laugh… dressed in outfits of varying degrees of ridiculousness.

Chico gave us his best circus strongman performance (mercifully keeping his clothes on this week). Emmerdale’s Matthew Wolfenden sported a natty ringmaster’s outfit, with his partner dressed as a rather friendly lion. Hollyoaks’ Jorgie Porter was more demurely attired as a ribbon-twirling dancer, while skier Chemmy Alcott dressed in top hat and tails as a magician. I felt particularly sorry for actress Jennifer Ellison who had to don full clown costume – very hard to pull off her trademark sexy routines wearing a big red nose.

Themes aside, with the tantalising prospect of reaching next week’s semi-final, the competition was more intense than ever. The quality of skating was up to the challenge, with strong performances all round – and there were no accidents despite the props.

The surprise of the evening was left to judge Louie Spence, who awarded Jorgie just 6.5 for her supposedly “boring” routine to Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games”, putting her at the bottom of the leaderboard for the first time. Louie’s fellow judges Robin Cousins and Katerina Witt looked genuinely shocked at his harsh marking, along with almost everyone else in the audience and across the twittersphere.

Ironically, Jorgie’s poor scores are likely to have given her a boost when it came to the public voting. And, true to form, the viewers’ votes saved her from the dreaded Skate Off, which was instead between Chico and Chemmy. Dubbing herself the “Queen of the Skate Off” (she’d already been in it three times before), Chemmy gave it her all, but Chico won round two of the three judges to make it through to next week.

Semi-final week sees the return of the Ultimate Skills Challenge: 23 separate skills in a one-minute solo performance. Will the thought of making it to the final spur them on, or will the pressure get to them like it did to Sébastien Foucan earlier in the series?