Chris Fountain: I'm so keen to win Dancing On Ice crown I can't sleepExclusive by Lara Gould TV Editor
It's three o'clock in the morning and Chris Fountain is out in his garden rehearsing the jumps he hopes will win him TV's Dancing On Ice crown.
You simply can't get more determined than this. The Hollyoaks heart-throb has been propelled to a whole new level of fame by ITV1's Sunday-night contest and he's determined to go all the way.
Chris, just 20 years old, is cool and relaxed when we meet on the show's training rink in Elstree, Herts, and he tries to show me a few of the skills he's learned. But don't let that fool you. This boy's in it to win it, with secret training sessions and that small-hours whirl round his garden.
He's the bookies' favourite at 2/5-on and he doesn't mind owning up to a burning ambition.
"I want to be in the final and I want to win," he tells me as we test out a complex lift. "I've barely slept since I started training in November.
I get about four hours a night but even then I wake up and go through my routines in my head. This week I practiced in my garden in the middle of the night. I was out on the grass at 2.45am rehearsing my jumps to make sure they're perfect.
"I haven't been out since New Year's Eve because I'm so busy skating. On Friday evening I got the train down from Liverpool and headed straight to the rink. "Everyone else had gone home. But I squeezed in two hours practice from 8pm to 10pm."
"I'm desperate to get a 6 this week so I've been practising my jumps because I want to get them right... and if they go wrong I could break my leg. So there's a lot at stake."
Chris looks toned and muscly in skintight rhinestone studded turquoise shirt and slinky black trousers.
And for a male pin-up he seems quite comfortable in Dancing on Ice's camp costumes.
"The only thing I've said no to so far was a pink crop top," he says.
"Other than that I'm up for anything. I even have padding down the front of my trousers.
"But I swear it's only to keep the crown jewels in place and stop the audience getting an eyeful. I've got nothing to worry about in that department..."
So have his raunchy lifts and one-to-ones with sexy skate partner Frankie Poultney led to any over-excitment?
"Luckily not on the rink. It's too cold for anything like that out there.
But maybe in the privacy of my dressing room..."
And what about the high-maintenence beauty regime that's become synonymous with the ITV1 show?
Chris says: "I have an all-over spray tan but I have to scrub it off when I go back to Hollyoaks on a Tuesday. The only thing I hate is waiting around for the tan to set so I get the make-up girl to blast me with a hair-dryer after it's applied."
So what else goes on behind the scenes that viewers don't get to hear about?
"I thought Linda Lusardi was having sex in the physio room the other day. I heard her moaning and it sounded like she was having an orgasm. But when I stuck my head round the door, I saw she was having painful treatment on her injured ankle.
"Suzanne Shaw's got the best bum of the girl skaters and my partner Frankie is pretty, too. But she's married and old enough to be my mum.
"Holly Willoughby's lovely as well. I don't know what people were complaining about with her lowcut dresses.
Baywatch used to be on at teatime and no one complained about that.
"I though she looked great."
CHRIS ON HIS CO-STARS
Linda
'Great looking woman with a hug to cheer me up'
Greg
'Underdog ...but I won't be surprised if he's in the final'
Suzanne
'I fear her in the final.
Does great Donald Duck impression'
Gareth
'One of my biggest rivals but not one of my best mates'
Zaraah
'Good fun. Her party trick is talking with her mouth closed'
Sundaymirror
