Dancing on Ice: Ricky Hatton, Eddie the Eagle, Adele Roberts and Emmerdale’s Roxy Shahidi prepare for ITV show's return

Holly Willoughby will return to television to present the long-running ice skating show alongside Stephen Mulhern, who will replace Phillip Schofield.

Judges Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Ashley Banjo and Oti Mabuse will also return, with former world champion boxer Ricky Hatton, Coronation Street actress Claire Sweeney, singer Hannah Spearritt, West End star Amber Davies and Olympian Greg Rutherford among the stars taking part.

TV personality Miles Nazaire, comedian and writer Lou Sanders, actor Ricky Norwood, radio presenter Adele Roberts, actor Ryan Thomas and Emmerdale’s Roxy Shahidi will also compete.

Former Gogglebox star Stephen Lustig-Webb was due to feature but was forced to pull out after breaking his left ankle during ice skating training, with Olympian Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards taking his place.

Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton, who has been partnered with professional Robin Johnstone, is perhaps the most surprising of the contestants in the line-up.

He said: “I just thought it was a new challenge for me. I've always liked a challenge. I mean, I’m pretty fearless. I think you have to be, being a boxer, don't you? I've never been shy of a challenge. It's well-documented a few years ago, I wasn't in a very good place. But since then everything's moving forward and positive in my life. I think a few years ago, I probably wouldn't have been in a position and I'd have said no (to the show). When it came forward this time, I jumped at the chance and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.”

What did his family and friends think?

“They all thought it was crackers because I can't dance on a solid floor, so I don't know how I'm going to do it on ice! But it was great. The reaction of my kids, Millie and Fearne, they watched the show and they went: ‘Oh my God, dad. Oh honestly, are you dad? Can't wait for this. Don't go embarrassing us, dad.’ That fills you with confidence, doesn't it?”

Roxy Shahidi will be known to TV audiences for playing Leyla Harding on Leeds-based soap Emmerdale. She had wanted to compete on Dancing on Ice around seven years ago but was pregnant, but got the chance this time around, skating alongside Sylvain Longchambon.

She says: “My very first day was with my coach Ed, and it was a shock because you realise that a lot of people when they ice skate, they're not actually ice skating. They're kind of walking on ice and you've got to learn to glide which requires a specific kind of technique, more balance, and kind of retraining your brain a bit to move your feet in a way that you don't move when you are walking. I thought I could ice skate. I thought I could go forward by this point very slowly. He was like, ‘No!’ I was spending two hours just trying to figure out how to move forward. That was a bit of an eye-opener just how much I actually had to learn.

"You think when you watch it, ‘Oh my gosh, a lot of work must go into that’. Oh my gosh, no. The pros have been doing it for years but actually every single second on the ice is a technique. It's something that has to be learned. If you change direction even a tiny bit, or you take your balance on one foot, there's hours and hours of practice that's gone into that. I think I was blissfully unaware of just how much mental and physical work was involved to get from tottering around on the ice to moving smoothly and doing anything that's remotely watchable. It's been an eye-opener just to go, ‘Wow, I didn't realise just how hard it all is’.”

Broadcaster and DJ Adele Roberts, who is partnered with Mark Hanretty, has been “dying to be on this show since it started”.

She says: “I'm a massive fan. I even have all the DVDs of the show. The technology doesn't even exist anymore, I've got the DVDs, I can't even watch them! I love the show and for me, it gives you that Christmas feel after Christmas is finished. It's January, you've got no money, it's cold, you don't want to go back to work, school or college - this is the best thing for Sunday nights. It just makes you feel good. Another reason I wanted to do it as well is just more recently being able to reclaim my body after what it's been through. I feel like it's allowing me to take back who I am again."

Roberts – who studied pharmacology at the University of Leeds, where she joined Leeds Student Radio presenting a weekly mix show, and was on the third series of Big Brother in 2002 – began using a stoma bag in 2021 after surgery for bowel cancer.

“I think it's a privilege to be alive,” he says. “I understand that now. What a joy, what amazing problems to have that I might fall on the ice. I get that now. And so no, there's no expectation from me. Just making the show is my prize. Anything from here is a bonus.”

Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards – who became the first Briton to compete in ski jumping at an Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, 1988 – is also an interesting inclusion among the contestants.

However, his experience on skis has not necessarily prepared him for the challenge, he says.

"There's a lot of pressure now that everybody thinks I'm going to be a really, really good skater. I'm a really, really bad skater at the moment! It's a completely different sport. When I ski I automatically get myself into a certain stance. That stance is not a good stance for skating which is why I keep falling on my face because I'm used to arching my back and going forwards. They said: ‘No, you've got to stand upright and straight’. Even that side of things is really difficult. The balance helps a little bit because I can balance left and right. With skates, you've got to balance left, right, forward, backwards, everywhere, it's completely different. It’s like going back to basics.”

Dancing on Ice starts on ITV on Sunday.