Behind all the glitzy costumes and celebrity dazzle of Dancing on Ice , it seems the reality is not quite so glamorous.
When finalists Joe Swash, Libby Clegg and Perri Kiely glide on to the ice in Sunday’s final, spare a thought for the effort that has gone into giving them that polished look.
Paralympic sprint star Libby, 29, says: “Actually, it’s just not glamorous at all. The worst thing about getting dressed is getting stitched into costume.
“As soon as they stitch me in I’m like, ‘I need a wee’.”
Street dancer Perri, 24, chimes in: “Everything’s done so it all looks so pristine. If you ever see one of us in a shirt, it will be attached to shorts so it doesn't untuck. It’s like a huge babygrow."
He added: “You’re stitched into everything. Never mind getting it off but it’s like, how do you go to the toilet? You have to move it to the side, it’s a nightmare.”
Even once they are out on the ice, the primping and preening continues.
Libby says: “I had the make-up girls shaving my armpits. The pre-record ran over and they needed to put a whole new face on me and new hair, so the two girls were just there shaving an armpit each, wet wiping me.”
At Bovingdon Airfield, a former RAF station in rainy Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the three finalists are more than happy to share their backstage secrets.
Taking a sneak peek at the costume rack backstage, it is easy to see how awkward the sparkly – and tiny – leotards would be to change in and out of.
The trio are busy training at least four hours a day in the run-up to the final.
And sitting at the side of the rink with the them, as they laugh and joke constantly, it’s clear how close they have become over the course of the show.
Joe reveals he has even seen Libby getting her spray-tan done in her underwear.
He says: “Sometimes I’ll go into the spray room and pretend I don’t realise Libby’s in there and I’m like, wow...”
Libby laughs it off, saying: “I just don’t really care! I’m not bothered. I’m going to be honest, I want my spray tan done as quick as possible. So I just strip off and get it done. Joe was watching me in the reflection of the TV once.
“But it’s the most unattractive thing ever. I’ve just stood there in my thong.”
With an arm around Libby, Joe says: “We know each other far too well to let a pair of boobs get in the way.”
All three of them are now in hysterics, very much in a last-day-of-school mood after long months of all-consuming effort to get this far in the show.
Joe, 38, cannot wait to get home to wife Stacey Solomon, mum of his 10-month-old son Rex, as well as two kids from previous relationships.
He says: “We haven’t seen much of each other, this has been such an intense thing to do.
The last thing I want to do, and the last thing she wants to do, because she has the kids, is to look at each other naked.
“When this finishes, we can look at each other naked. I really do miss her and the little baby, little Rexy.”
Joe says of Rex: “I feel like I had him and then I started this and then haven’t seen him since. You get that parent guilt.”Libby is also keen to get back to her 10-month-old son Edward and her fiance Dan Powell.
She says: “Dan’s getting more baby cuddles than me. Edward wants Dan.”
If any of them are feeling competitive for Sunday’s final, they are extremely good at hiding it.
Perri says: “I’m so happy it’s us three in the final.
“We do genuinely get on so well and I feel like we’ll all be really happy
whatever the outcome.”
After our rink-side catch up, they are training again – and it is exhausting just watching.
Joe and partner Alex Murphy are first up, with the TV presenter sporting a huge bandage around his head from an ear infection. They do their routine over and over again – with a few falls – until they get it right.
Meanwhile Vanessa Bauer is busy bossing Perry around as he is running a bit late for their session.
Next door, it’s Libby and Mark Hanretty’s turn on the main rink and she is determined to nail a lift.
No matter how many times she falls over, she is still beaming as Mark picks her up, despite all the ice down her back. It seems that whatever happens Sunday, all three finalists will leave with a genuine smile on their face.
- Dancing on Ice is on ITV Sunday at 6pm.
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