Dancing on Ice judge may be cold on telly, but you can’t help warming to him

Mar 14 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Hollyoaks actor Chris Fountain dancing with partner Frankie Poultney ahead of Dancing On Ice. Picture: Joel Ryan/PA Photos _320

But the pressure found its way to the surface in the form of his OCD. He obsessed about aesthetics, cleanliness and germs. He still opens doors covering his hands with his sleeves. “It was unbelievable the amount of time I spent on making sure vases and ornaments and pillows and rugs and paintings were placed correctly,” he says. “I’d be lining things up and measuring the distance between them and making sure the things on either side were symmetrical.

“For me to leave the house, it took at least two hours.”

He now lives the single life in London’s Soho, surrounded by friends from various backgrounds, who helped broaden his intense dancer’s perspective on life and lighten up. He’s always impeccably dressed and used to be the culture guru on Queer Eye for a Straight Guy, aimed at sharpening up the look of the scruffy English male. I think it must be entertaining but a little scary, being his friend.

“It’s interesting in my personal life as I don’t sit around constantly scoring everything in my vision,” he says. “I hope someone would take a gun to my head if that ever happened. But all my friends respect my attention to detail and draw on my expertise. Girlfriends call me up constantly if they have to go out or go to an interview about what to wear, and husbands meet up with me to talk to them about shopping. I’m always there for them. I use what I know and I’m generous with it.”

It does seem that Gardiner is probably one of the most passionate people about music and dance as you’ll find on TV, and ITV did “luck out” when they found a dance expert with his watchability.

In April and May, he hits the road with the stars of the series for a show where the audience can text vote for their favourites and the judges are on hand to deconstruct their performances.

In his spare time, he admits he never watches Dancing on Ice and Strictly Come Dancing is “not something I find riveting”.

He’s unlikely to be found comparing complimentary shower caps with his celeb colleagues – he finds the travelling aspect of the tour “hideous” and coolly dismisses Greg et al as “not my friends” – all excellent news for audiences.

He might be icy cold on telly, but you can’t help warming to him.

* DANCING on Ice comes to the Liverpool Echo Arena May 2–5 2008. For tickets call 08700 11 26 26 or buy online at www.dancing onicetour.co.uk

emma.pinch@dailypost.co.uk