Published at 09:11, Saturday, 28 March 2009

NO surprise there then. Ray Quinn lifted the Dancing on Ice trophy, broke into his trademark cheeky grin, melted hearts and made everybody happy.

Ray Quinn

Three perfect scores in one spangle-packed evening. Two from the judges, another from the viewers – does this boy ever put a foot wrong?

Probably not, is the answer to that. Some people are just natural showmen and young Ray is quite clearly one of them – a born performer, all round entertaining talent and no doubt very good to his mother too.

My guess is that women of a certain age (guilty as charged, your honour) love the lad to bits.

All necessarily snide sideswipes apart – it’s not at all cool to love Dancing on Ice (ITV) – once the dross was evicted from this largely cheesy talent show, it became impossible not to love it.

The very idea that non-skaters could become pro-standard skaters and dance with the kind of skill, grace and mind-blowing passion to make rewind on Sky+ an imperative (simply had to view again – and again) is little short of a wonder.

Sad? Moi? It’s possible. Not sad enough to worry too much about the Strictly stuff but as one who never balanced sufficiently well to master a bicycle without stabilisers, dancing on blades on ice and flying in a harness looks miraculous.

And that the cheeky little Scouse chap took the prize was the icing on a spellbinding grand final cake.

The former X Factor star had gone head-to-head with TV reporter Donal MacIntyre as they both performed Bolero. That secured Ray’s victory, obviously. MacIntyre is to dance what Ray is investigation of organised crime.

Said the champ: “I'm absolutely speechless. I've been dreaming of this moment since the beginning. I'm so proud...” which wasn’t speechless at all. A speech, in fact.

It’s now reported Quinn will swap his ice skates for dancing shoes to join the West End cast of Grease, currently running at the Piccadilly Theatre, London.

He will play the lead role of Danny Zuko, when he has completed the Dancing on Ice tour which will bring back the dross for a chilly reprise of all they did badly first time round.

Speechless again, Ray Quinn said of his new role: “I'm so thrilled to be playing Danny in the West End. Grease is such an all time favourite and to be in the role made so famous by John Travolta is amazing – I can't believe my luck, it's a dream come true!"

There could be a few more of those for this talented lad, whose career kicked off in the hugely popular Channel 4 soap Brookside.

After his appearance on the X Factor in 2006, Quinn went on to release his debut and subsequently number one, platinum-selling album Doing It My Way. He also completed his own sell-out tour of the UK in 2007.

And he’s still only 20. Some kids eh... they’ve got the lot.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk