I went to Torvill and Dean’s ‘Our Last Dance’ opening night at Wembley – review

A stellar 50-year career that began on an ice rink in Nottingham is coming to an end for Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean – but the dynamic duo are going out with a bang. Rather than gliding off gracefully into the sunset as they prepare to hang up their skates for good, the ice dance legends are putting on the show to end all shows.

Opening night of Our Last Dance at the Ovo Arena Wembley squeezed five decades into two hours of unadulterated joy but you’d expect nothing less from the world’s most famous ice dancing couple. Chris, a former policeman, and Jayne, who was a Norwich Union insurance clerk, celebrate their unrivalled success in a show full of razzamatazz and emotion.

Now both in their sixties, their knees might be creakier than those of the young couple who wowed judges to score perfect sixes and scoop the gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo but they’ve lost none of the magic that has won them a legion of devoted fans, among them celebrities Anita Dobson, Robert Lindsay and Anthea Turner in the Wembley crowd.

A dazzling new routine to The Greatest Showman is the opening number, with the Nottingham legends joined by a cast of world-class skaters.

In a trip down memory lane, the golden couple take fans back to the 70s and 80s – a time when some members of the audience weren’t even born. A giant screen helps to tell the story of how it all began in Nottingham, illustrated by a black-and-white photo of the old ice stadium and newspaper cuttings of their meteoric rise to fame.

Their first impressions of each other? Jayne thought Chris was a golden prince, while he described her as “queen bee of the ice”. Nostalgic routines they performed as amateurs such as Mack and Mabel, Barnum, Summertime and Let’s Face the Music and Dance still have the momentum and precision of all those years ago. Jayne shines, literally, in shimmering silver and gold costumes – a far cry from that fluorescent green outfit she once wore.

Professionals from ITV’s Dancing on Ice (Notts-based Mark Hanretty, Sylvian Longchambon, Vanessa James and co.) showcase their talent with 80s bangers such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Relax, a dramatic performance to the classical Gustav Holst’s The Planets, and a cheeky cowboy and cowgirl number.

One minute the pace is fast and furious, the next slapstick humour. A special shout-out to Dan Whiston who swirls high up above using aerial silks to Send in the Clowns.

One of the biggest cheers of the night goes to American and French medal winner Philip Warren for his speed and jaw-dropping acrobatic backflips, while young British champions James Hernandez and Phebe Bekker’s James Bond routine proves that the future of GB ice dancing is in good hands.

The moment everyone is waiting for is the iconic Bolero – the career-defining dance at the Olympics 40 years ago, which for the first time showed the Soviet Union that Great Britain was a force to be reckoned with.

The very performance of them starting on their knees in 1984 is shown on the big screen – I think anyone in their 60s can forgive them for portraying it this way, but then as they skate out into the arena in billowing purple outfits it’s as poignant and dramatic as ever, earning them a standing ovation.

While they leave it to the younger ensemble to provide the thrills and spills, the headbangers, the backflips, dizzying spins, and one-handed lifts high into the air, Torvill and Dean bring the memories.

Later this month Our Last Dance will be on home turf, with sell-out shows at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, on April 23 and 24, before returning in July for their last ever performance together, a fitting finale in the same spot where it began all those years ago. It’s going to be emotional.