I won’t miss ‘Dancing on Ice’

At best it was “car crash” television with people tuning in just hoping to see someone half-famous land on their head.

At worst, it was just a pale imitation of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, albeit it a bit slippy!

But the news set me thinking about what sort of programming I would like to see in its place.

Well for starters, I would like to see something with a few actors in it – actors who are actually acting, not dancing, living in a strange house for a month or eating unmentionable bits of kangaroo!

From where I sit, too much of our prime time television is filled with reality TV or “celebrity” competitions.

I admit to tuning in to some of them, but I also admit that I don’t always have control of Jenson, Frank, Buttons or whatever you chose to call your remote!

Given the choice between dancing dogs or well-scripted drama with some good actors plying their trade, I know which I would watch.

I always marvelled at how television companies could run the risk of turning people into millionaires via quiz shows.

But then a friend who works in television pointed out that even if every edition of Who Wants to Be a bla bla bla had actually paid out the top prize, it would still have been considerably cheaper than paying actors, scriptwriters, directors, key grips, best boys and the like.

Another TV insider I know also suggested that television companies would not run the risk of putting quality drama on Saturday evenings, for instance, because people would not start watching something they may not be able to see through to a conclusion two, three or more weeks later.

Do these people not know that most of us have access to some sort of a recording device or even the internet?

ITV will have a big Sunday night gap to fill after the last season of Dancing on Ice.

Let’s all just hope that they fill that gap with some quality drama and not more Kylie wannabees or rehashed video clips of family misfortunes.