Stefan Booth Online

Interview with Michael Dias

Backstage at Live From Studio Five - January 2010

Did you enjoy going on the show?
I've never met Callum before but he was lovely chap. Melinda and I go back a few years - she interviewed me back in 2004 on 'Loose Lips' (one of her talk shows) when i was playing the Cliff Richard character in a musical called 'Summer Holiday.' We have a few mutual friends and she is one of my neighbours so we bump into each other now and again.

It does come across that they’re a nice bunch of people.
It was really free and easy, because there’s nothing worse than being in an interview where the presenters are stuck up and static. Obviously it’s live TV so you don’t want awkward pauses, but they were great and kept things moving.

One thing you did recently that certainly wasn’t static was ‘Dancing On Ice’. How was that?
I absolutely loved it. It was by no means easy, but we had a phenomenal time and it was a real journey. I spent three months getting up at six in the morning, going to bed a ten, and getting up and falling over, and learning how to skate with the best in-between! It was great being mentored by Torvill and Dean, who were absolutely incredible.

How long did it take you to learn to skate?
We had two months to prep before the show began. We had partners for a month before it started, and we just went for it and three months later we found ourselves in the final!

You did - congratulations!
I saw it through to the very end. A lot of these contestants go through similar journeys, and part of me envies them, but part of me doesn’t because it’s so hard. What people need to understand is it’s pretty serious out there; you aren’t just skating- you’ve sometimes effectively got your partner’s life in your hands, and you’ve also got the public either with you or against you, and it’s an incredible and almost overwhelming feeling to know people are watching you on TV, waiting for you to either fall over or do really well!

So, after all that effort and training, how did it feel to get to where you did?
It’s been lovely, and the opportunities that have come from it have been great. I discovered a real joy in being on the ice. When I was younger it wasn’t that cool to skate, but the show has done wonders for the ice-skating community.

What do you have planned for the future?
I have just been on Doctors and finished filming last week in Dublin for a new BBC Drama called "The Silence". Really great bunch of people and script. The director won an Emmy for her last job so this will be great to watch.

I’m also published as a singer songwriter so that takes a bit of time.

Source: With kind permission of Michael Dias, January 2010