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Dancing On Ice’s Ashley Banjo wants Torvill and Dean to do same-sex routine

Ashley Banjo wants Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean to dance with same-sex partners.
The ‘Dancing On Ice’ star wants his fellow judges to follow in the footsteps of upcoming pairing Ian ‘H’ Watkins and Matt Evers by performing a same-sex routine on the new series when the show returns in 2020.
He told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre TV column: "Maybe Jayne and Christopher will do it. It would be good to see."
Although the Diversity frontman is glad the ITV figure skating show is introducing a same-sex partnership between a pro and celebrity, but he suggested it shouldn’t be a rarity on television.
He added: "It’s great it’s happening on the new series of ‘Dancing On Ice’. It’s starting to make its way to becoming more of a normality — but it always should’ve been."
The 31-year-old star pointed to his own Channel 4 show ‘Flirty Dancing’, which led the way with same-sex pairings earlier this year.
The programme returns for its second series this week, and it sees strangers learning a routine in advance and dancing together the first time they meet.
He said: "On ‘Flirty Dancing’ we’ve had same-sex couples and we don’t go, ‘This week, guess what we’re doing? We’re being progressive!’
"So I don’t make a point of saying I’m proud of ‘Flirty Dancing’ because the show is about finding love — gay, straight or whatever.
"It normalises it in more ways than any other show because what’s at the heart of the show is love."