James and Ola Jordan are chatting to HELLO! about the first episode of Dancing on Ice when their daughter, Ella interrupts. "Oh, my baby's climbed on the table," James laughs. "And then she gets stuck and doesn't know how to get down."
The pair are now in the third lockdown with their baby girl, and reveal that she was loving the show's music (while also trying her best to walk for the first time). "We tried to watch it with her, but she wouldn't stop running around. That being said, she was bopping around to the show's music," James explains.
WATCH: Ola and James Jordan's baby Ella shows off her dance moves
"It's quite cute to watch her, but she's more interested in grabbing our hands and walking around. That's all she wants to do at the moment," Ola adds.
Despite their baby girl's distraction techniques, the former Strictly pros managed to settle in and enjoy the show. Find out their thoughts for the premiere...
"I really enjoyed it, I thought it was a great show," James said. "I think by looking at the other celebs in the group dance that next week is going to be even better! They all looked pretty decent."
He continued: "I thought overall the show was really good and great to see that under the circumstances they were able to get it on air. Like with Strictly, everyone needs a bit of glitz and glamour. And if they can carry on playing football, they can carry on with Dancing on Ice."
James won the show in 2019
Speaking about their early favourite, James added: "My favourite so far is Joe-Warren. I was gutted for him because I think he was the frontrunner of the night. His skating ability is far superior to everyone else but he did fall over. However, he fell over with a smile as they said. He seems like a really nice young man, I really like them as a couple."
Joe-Warren Plant is an early favourite for the pair
Ola added: "The falling over was somewhere to grow from. It gives people something to talk about with him. And watching him, he fell over because he didn't play it safe and he pushed the boundaries. I really liked him, they for me were the frontrunners out of that group."
James, who won the series back in 2019, had a good explanation of why Joe-Warren might have been able to go the extra mile. "It is much easier to push yourself when you're 18. Watching his VTs, he was falling and falling," he said. "If I fell that much I would have broken every bone in my body. When you fall at a certain age it hurts a lot more, you're more brittle. When you're 18 you kind of bounce. I didn't bounce, I just crashed! Also, when you're older, you become more fearful about everything. I think it's harder to push yourself as you get older because you know it'll hurt a lot more."
James spoke from experience after hurting his shoulder on the show
He continued: "I think with Denise, for example, fair play going out there with an injury, I know how talented she is because I danced with her on Strictly so I know she's a really hard worker and would push herself, but it's scary on ice and having the injury, you could see she was holding back but hopefully she recovers and she can come back next week and smash it. But it is tough."
Denise performed despite her injury
Speaking about his own experience getting injured on the show, he continued: "I got injured a few times, the time I got injured the worst was just before the final. I fell on my shoulder and had to have surgery after the final. I had the physio jumping on me in-between dances. I wouldn't have been able to do the final if it wasn't for Sharon, the physio."
Ola revealed that James also had a hard fall just before one of his dances, explaining: "The first time, the first show, I'm sitting in the audience and James' VT is playing and he comes onto the ice to warm up and he goes, 'WHAP,' on the floor and the whole audience went, 'Ohhhhh,' before he actually danced! No one actually got to see it except the audience, it was hilarious, I was like, 'What is he doing?!'"
Ola joked about watching James perform
The pair also chatted about the various injuries on the show so far, and how difficult it is to regain confidence after hurting your partner.
James explained: "It's horrible, I remember when I was lifting Alex, my partner, and I had her between my legs and I lost balance. I've lifted for years and I know how to lift, but it's different on ice! If it goes wrong on ice, you can't stop yourself, and I felt horrendous. But it is dangerous!"
The former Strictly pros were also somewhat unimpressed to see four people tie on the leaderboard. James said: "I would have scored differently, let's put it that way. To have four people tied! I don't understand - between the four judges, you believe four people should have the exact same marks? I don't get that."
The judges gave four performers the same score
"I think the show misses a Jason Gardner character in my opinion. But people say, 'The way the world is nowadays you've got to be nice,' well no, you've also got to be honest and if something's bad, there's nothing wrong with saying it's bad. There's nothing wrong with saying, 'You know what, it could be better.'"
He continued: "You don't have to be cruel, you just need to be honest. I love all the judges but they are all nice. It's not that I'm not nice, but I'd be honest! You need to hear the truth sometimes to get better! Maybe they're a bit worried about being too harsh, with what's going on in the world."
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