Before I go into the episode, I just want to tie up some loose ends. Firstly, there were no studio guests this week. HOWEVER, Katie Thistleton and Hacker did get a video call from Josh B just before the episode came on.
Well, they made out that it was a video call, but it was obvious that it was pre-recorded. All it consisted of was him saying hello, and then going out into the rink and doing a camel spin.
But, it did gave Katie a chance to throw in a bad pun. The picture was breaking up, and Hacker commented about “It keeps going funny, is that the connection” and Katie replied “It’s a poor connection – it’s frozen hasn’t it?! ’Cause of the ice – you get it? Like the ice, it’s frozen…”
Yes, we get it. But we’d rather not!
Half an hour earlier, they had shown a preview of the episode, and the antics were even more cringe-worthy! They showed a clip of one of the icicles taking off her skateguard, and it led to this sketch where Hacker was trying to work out what it was for and why it needed to be taken off. Oh, it was awful!
I’m getting too old for this!
Anyway, onto the episode!
Episode 7 – International Rivalry
I have to be honest – this was not the best episode of the series. And a large part of that assessment was because of the way it was put together.
You know the way that each episode has three strands, and they jump between them to try to keep the attention of the young viewers. And usually they nicely interweave the stories, with (say) 5 minutes on one story, then 5 minutes on another, and so on. Well, this time, for the first five minutes or so of this episode, we were changing story every minute! And it was getting extremely irritating!
In my recent reviews, I have got into the habit of telling you what happened in the order it happened. But, I can’t do that this time – it would be impossible to follow! So, I will revert back to my original style of talking about each strand in its entirity.
The first strand was about a Singles skater called Solomon. He is 8 years old, and we see his Mum getting him up at 4:45am. And he is no-where near fully awake! At the rink, we see him and some other skaters being taken through a warm-up by their coach (Joy) before they go out on the ice.
Already, it was obvious that this was a strict coach that pushes her students hard. And the piece she did to camera more than confirmed it!
“Getting out of bed at 4 or 5 in the morning, they are not coming to a playgroup. They’re coming to learn to develop the body, to be able to go onto the ice, to do the skills, and progress throughout their skating career”
Come on, these are kids! Skating is supposed to be fun for them!
The next time we come to Solomon, his Mum is picking him up from school. He is going home to get changed, fed and then back to the rink. At home, we find out a bit about his family. He is from a family of 6 children. And there was an interesting piece with 2 of his sisters, Enid and Lydia.
Enid told us that they also had skating lessons, and tried out for the Synchro team. But, they realised that their parents couldn’t afford for all 3 of them to be skating, so since Solomon was the best of the three, the girls let him continue. Lydia then added that although she sacrificed skating for Solly, she is the best one at Chess.
We then finally get to see Solomon on the ice. And Joy was shouting and roaring at them. I have to be honest, if it was me, I would have been walked out and never came back. So, fair play to the kids for having the determination to keep at it.
Anyway, after being made out like an auld targe, she then showed her softer side. She had gathered the 4 pupils together and told them that it was time to train the axel. And she asked who was excited, and three of them put their hands up straight away, while Solomon was more hesitant. But, she explained what it entailed to them very calmly and softly. It was like a different woman!
Anyway, they then started trying, and Solomon was falling. Now, I’m not sure whether Joy was talking to him or talking to us, but she made a very good observation:
“When you think about, they’re coming down onto a hard slippy cold surface with a very, very thin blade and a big fat boot on the end of their foot”.
Unfortunately, that’s where the producer cut off that sound bite. So, we don’t know what the point she was getting to was!
Anyway, they then showed Solomon doing some spins, and Joy was back to shouting. But then he did it right and she was praising him no end! Then she revealed something to us. Solomon is the sort of pupil that while he is skating, he is always listening out, looking for information. And she said that he is “an absolute dream to teach”.
What this was all leading up to was that Joy wants Solomon to do his axel as part of a routine with some older boys for the centre’s annual gala. We met the woman in charge of the gala, Tamara (I was intrigued by her accent, so I did a bit of searching, and found out that she was Tamara Glad, a coach from Croatia), and she told us that the theme was “Around The World In 80 Skates”.
Apparently, Tamara has been going around the centre talent spotting, so Joy brought her along to see Solomon. He had to do his axel three times in a row to show that he could do it consistently. The first attempt, he fell. But then he did it successfully three times. So, he got in.
The next strand I want to discuss is a Synchro strand. Now, there were actually 2 Synchro strands, but we will come to the main one later. This one was about a young skater called Asiyah. She is Muslim, and wears a hijab. So, I’m not entirely sure how doing Synchro is going to work, given the obsession with everybody looking identical. But, that is just me thinking things through too much.
Anyway, she really enjoys skating, and has been doing Synchro for 2 years. And she explained the progression. She started off in “Ice Pops”, then moved onto “Icetastics”, and the aim is to make it into the “Icicles”. And when talking about the Icicles, she was so in awe of them! But, first she has to make it into the juvenile team. We weren’t told their name in the programme, but a quick search revealed they are called the “Silhouettes” (evidently not a jazzy enough name for this series!)
The next time we come to Asiyah, she is at home. First we see her in the kitchen, where her Dad is washing the dishes. This isn’t significant; I am just mentioning it so that I can point out that he is wearing TARTAN TREWS and a WAISTCOAT!!! For washing the dishes!!!
In this part, Asiyah is talking about Islam, and about wearing the hijab (OK, so she just refers to it as a headscarf. This is a children’s programme, remember, so they don’t want to make things too complicated!). She explains that her Mum and her sister also wear headscarves, and she likes it. She would like to see more Muslim girls getting into Synchro, and skating in general. Then she says she has only ever seen one Muslim girl skating internationally, and she is from the Emirates. (Mmmm, I wonder who that could be… :sarcasm: ) And Asiyah would like to meet her one day.
So, Zahra Lari, if you are reading this, the invitation has been extended!
Back in the kitchen, and Asiyah’s Dad asks what time the squad announcements were due, and when Asiyah said the time, he casually pointed out that that was 5 minutes ago. So, mad rush to the laptop, and she found out she had got into the team.
So, she is now 2 squads away from the Icicles.
Which brings us neatly onto the third strand: the Icicles going to the World Championships in Zagreb.
The episode started with a re-cap of what has happened so far in the series with the Icicles. And, ominously, there was an emphasis placed on the injuries to Afton and Emily. Thankfully, this was just the producers trying to lead us up the garden path. Both were there, and both were fine to compete.
They left on a bus for Heathrow at 2am!!!
After arriving at the rink, we saw them having a sing-song in the changing rooms (“
Everytime We Touch” by Cascada). And they were still singing when waiting to get onto the ice for their 20 minute practice!
Instead of showing us much of the practice, the producers decided to give us some background information. Between the coach Esther and the narrator, we found out that the Icicles were 14th out of 19 teams competing at Worlds the previous year. But this year, there were 24 teams, and so it was going to be harder. The narrator also introduced what was to become the over-riding theme of the whole strand: the aim was to beat France. And by the end of the episode, you were fed up hearing about wanting to beat France!
Getting back to the practice, and I liked the way the woman over the PA told them their time was up: “Please leave the ice. Have a nice day!”
When we returned to the Icicles, it was the day of the competition. And this was where Afton was featured again. She was led to believe that her Mum (Michelle) wasn’t able to come. But, this was all just a rouse so that she could arrive on the day and surprise her. One of the other girls on the team, Sam, was in on the plan, and had made sure Afton was in her room.
Oh, it was brilliant. Michelle knocked on the door, and one of the girls shouted it was open. And she went in, and as soon as Afton saw her, she jumped off the bed, screamed “Mum!” and ran over to get the biggest cuddle you have ever seen! All in the blink of an eye!
Next time we came back to them, the Icicles were getting their make-up done (although it wasn’t pointed out this episode, it was Emily’s sister Lizzie doing it as usual). And the girl that had been asking all the questions at the party in the previous episode was back in action! Not asking questions this time, but just going on about how everything they had worked for over the past year boiled down to these 3 minutes. And I was thinking “are you trying to make them nervous?!”
Competition time! But first, they showed a bit of the Opening Ceremony, which looked impressive. Then they showed Esther having her pre-competition pep talk to the team, and then the girls having a team chant in the foyer. And then they had a few of the parents talking to camera about how nervous they were!
We then went into the changing rooms, and the Icicles were trying to having a moment of concentration. And the French team next door were making a racket. And Esther was trying to tell the girls not to let it get to them, and that the French would be celebrating when getting their scores no matter how they did.
The reason she did this was because the French team (the Black Diam’s) was on directly before them, and so would be getting their scores while the Icicles were getting into position.
Now, they showed a few clips, and the narrator was saying that they were looking good. But, from the couple of clips they showed, I didn’t think they looked great.
It’s really hard to judge from a couple of clips. So, here is a video of the whole routine:
WJSSC 2015 Zagreb - Team Black Diam`s Junior - France - Short Program
You can even see the Icicles in their sky blue dresses in the background waiting to come on!
Well, the French finished, and as they were coming off the ice, the Icicles were coming onto the ice. And, I have to saw, it was a badly planned thing, as the two gates were right beside each other. Anyway, the French then got their scores, and some of the Icicles were covering their ears as they didn’t want to hear it. No, I don’t know how that would have drowned out the PA either!
As they did with the Singles skaters at the Coupe de Printemps, the BBC just showed edited together clips with their own music over the top of it. But, if you want to see the proper version of the routine, here it is:
WJSSC 2015 Zagreb - Team Icicles Junior - Great Britain - Short Program
Oh no!!! If I had realised it was “Let It Go”, I wouldn’t have bothered looking it up!!! I HATE THAT SONG!!! I much preferred the BBC’s music!!!
Here are the
SP results and the
SP Protocols. I am no expert on Synchro but, based on what I saw on those 2 videos, they got the French and British teams the right way around.
Awww!!! It was great to watch the girls celebrating, both when they got the results and afterwards. Afton was talking about it being the first time they had beat the French, and being totally overwhelmed. Emily talked about how everybody was so happy, crying and screaming with happiness, and how it was “the best moment ever”. Esther’s comment was the best, though. She said
“I feel like I’m in a dream. I still don’t feel right, like. My heart’s beating as fast as it’s ever beaten in it’s life. I’ve cried more than I’ve ever cried. I’m just… I can’t believe it. I’m so proud of them.”
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Now, do you remember how I was complaining about how the producers of the series put together the coverage of the Singles skaters competing at the Coupe de Printemps. Well, this was as bad. No, it was worse, because they really did give the impression that this was a one-round competition. It was all about the Short Programme. There was no mention of the Free Skate AT ALL!!!
But, thankfully, we can see how they both got on in the Free Skate:
WJSSC 2015 Zagreb - Team Black Diam`s Junior - France - Free Skating
WJSSC 2015 Zagreb - Team Icicles Junior - Great Britain - Free Skating
Incidentally, the user who uploaded these videos actually has ALL of the routines from last year’s Junior Worlds. So, thank you so much for filming these videos and uploading them to YouTube.
Now, I haven’t watched these Free Skate videos, as I want to get as much of what I have left from the Cup of Austria and Lombardia Trophy watched before tomorrow. But, I have had a look at the
FS results and the
FS Protocols.
And, finally, here is a link to the
overall results.
Next Time: Jellie have a competition, and Ellie admits to being nervous. We see a clip of a school assembly, where it is being announced that one of the pupils is getting a skating scholarship. And Kloe goes home to visit her family.
Looking forward to it!
CaroLiza_fan
(Erm, maybe I’m a thick bloke, but what’s the difference with an “Olympic dress”?!) With Emma having so many dresses, the plan is for her to pass her old dresses onto Jessica as she grows.
): Liam the Ice Hockey player is trying out for Team GB, but has food poisoning. And we (finally!) get back to Ella and Adriano, and the Icicles!
ALL THE BEST JOSH B!!! 
Although actually I had wondered that before, what would happen if Josh and Ellie were ever to split up. Given the alarming rapidity with which Britain's teams are breaking up, she might be able to find another partner easily enough in the junior ranks. But obviously I'm really happy they didn't!! 
