As a skater parent our job was to get the kids back and forth to the rehearsals As we were never allowed to stay and watch at these rehearsals we only just finding out what our kids got up to while with the film crew. The show placed great demands on the parents and adult member of the team. For some teams like the Angels these demands proved too much and hence the reason why the remainder of the team didn’t continue with the show after Olvia broke her foot.

A typical week would start with a call from the BBC on a Monday to arrange a Choreography session. Latter that week we would rush off after school to the rehearsal to meet the choreographer. Each rehearsal required one of the parents to drive 100 miles. Teams living closer to the studio had an in built advantage. We often wonder what would of happened if the best team in the competition had been from Scotland.

We always looked forward to this wondering what the theme would be and what piece of music we would be given. Each week we got about a hour in which to learn the new routine. There was always some challenging new move to learn in time to the music. By now our team had a reputation for being able to perform some quite complex moves and so the pressure was on to include even more difficult moves. Increasing the complexity of the moves meant that the team not only had to worry about getting the move right but also smiling making it look easy. While all the members in the team are good skaters in the own right, none of them had skated as part of a team and this was to prove more of a challenge than the moves.

As artistic skaters the team were used to choosing their own music and making up their own routines. Having someone else do this for us was a great opportunity to learn from some of the best in the business. It was also a source of frustration as the team felt they less control over the content of their routine.

With the choreography session over the BBC often wanted to interview the team. As this part of the production was being handled by a different team it often occurred on another evening in the week. With other commitments such as work this really only gave the team about an hour each week to get together to practice their new routine. For their artistic skating the team members can often spend an hour just practicing a small section of their routine like a particular step sequence.

Friday was often the day in which the weekly challenge was held like the go-kart racing. While these were immense fun for the kids they were usually a very tiring full day of filming and not the 2 mins that you get to see on the TV. In between all of this the members of the team had to prepare for various competitions they were taking part in. Limiting the amount of time the team could devote to their routine to just an hour per week.

On Saturday’s it was off to the studio for the dress-rehearsal and overnight stay for the next show on the Sunday. The team was always really excited to find out what costumes Chloe and Patrick had created
for them. This in itself was amazing how they managed to come up with a fantastic set of costumes for all of the teams each week. We normally take weeks just choosing the right material and colours to go with our programs. After a full day in the studio rehearsing there was just a few hours left to get dinner and a well earned rest before the show.

As anyone who visited the studio will know, from the outside you needed to convince yourself you had arrived at the right destination. Once inside it was even harder to believe that this place would be
transformed to the amazing venue the viewers on T.V. see. With the audience in place and the lights on the magic started to work and the place looked fabulous.

I have been to a few TV show before and expected a lot of waiting around with endless retakes. There was to be very little of this. Sam and Mark are very professional at what they do and entertained the audience while reading their lines. With the show over it was time for the long journey home and the debate on the weeks judging to start.