Torvill & Dean: The Perfect Day

ANNOUNCER: Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean...

APPLAUSE

..Great Britain.

CHEERING

-JAYNE:

-I just heard this massive roar.

And I looked up and saw all the sixes.

COMMENTATOR: It's right across the board!

CHEERING That's it. What a marvellous, marvellous set of marks.

-CHRIS:

-That is one of your proudest moments ever.

Olympic gold medals for the greatest ice dancers of all time.

-CHRIS:

-In our heads that day will always be

our perfect day.

So now Torvill and Dean face the supreme test.

Champions of Europe, champions of the world,

but can they now become the Olympic champions?

I got up about 4.30 in the morning.

Because I knew that the bus was at least

an hour before the training session so...

5, 5.15 bus.

Get into the building with a little bit of time

to get changed and warm up as well.

Before 6am, 6.30 practice.

On 14th February it was a very early start.

Our practice was at 6am, in the morning.

I remember that because it was 6am in the morning(!)

All the other competitors that were supposed to be on that practice

didn't go.

But we felt like it was our opportunity to be

in the building, cos we didn't have that many practices

actually in the main building to do the free dance.

You had other practice rinks that you go to, but you don't

always get the opportunity to be on the big rink.

MUSIC: "Bolero" by Ravel

COMMENTATOR: Torvill and Dean, as brilliant in practice

as they are in performance and competition

and a standing ovation from the audience in this practice rink.

APPLAUSE

Having had that chance to get on the ice...

it felt great. It felt like,

"OK, next time we take to the ice it's going to be for this...

"this final performance."

When we finished the run-through, which did go well...

um, there was a small ripple of applause and we were like,

"Where's it coming from?"

There'd been cleaners cleaning from the previous night

and they'd all downed tools and sat and watched us

and applauded at the end of it, so...

..erm, it was a nice little bonus to the morning.

For me, way back I was very shy

and it was when I was on the ice that I wasn't shy.

And I could perform, I could be romantic, funny...

whatever that person was meant to be.

I started skating when I was about eight, almost nine years old.

I went on a school trip.

Because the teacher at the time just took it upon herself to think,

"Oh, I'll organise a coach to take the kids skating."

And I guess if it hadn't been for her,

I wouldn't have fallen in love with it, really.

I remember the first visit. I went on the ice

and I just loved it.

I can't describe it any other way, I just loved it and...

I think the hired skates that they had...

mainly the boots were all brown and they weren't very attractive.

But because I'd got probably quite a small foot

they found an old pair of white ones

and every week I went I asked if I could have these white ones

cos it felt like the real thing.

And then from there it became a way of life, really.

ANNOUNCER: Michael Hutchinson and Jayne Torvill

from Nottingham gave a delightful display.

I think it was the feeling of movement that I enjoyed.

It's very unique to ice skating,

you don't get that movement anywhere else.

The audience, with a sprinkling of ex-skating champs among them,

were obviously impressed by their performance.

For me when I started skating it was all about the enjoyment of it,

the fun of it, it was never...

.."I want to be a world champion and Olympic champion."

It was never about competing, really, it was about enjoying it

and also wanting to do it better.

I think when you have a passion for something

you always want to get better at it.

I came from a little village called Calverton in Nottinghamshire.

And, erm, at Christmas time I got a pair of ice skates.

My stepmother had been a recreational skater.

She thought it might be a good idea for me to get out

of the little village and go to the big town, Nottingham,

which was ten miles away. And I think my stepmum

just thought, "You need to see more than just the community

"of Calverton" because there's every chance that

I'm going to be a miner like my dad. Erm, but at that time

we didn't have a car so we had to get on a bus

and so Nottingham did feel a long, long way away.

But for the first two weeks of getting my first pair of ice skates

I couldn't skate cos I couldn't get to the ice rink,

so I just walked around the house in them for two weeks.

And that was my introduction to skating.

When I walked into an ice rink for the very first time

it was magical.

And certainly the Nottingham ice rink, it was an old rink.

A cavernous place. It just looked exotic, and ice, to me,

the whiteness of it, the purity of it...

I know it sounds cliched, but when I skated it felt like I was flying.

I like gymnastics. I like the feeling of

feeling free, and so as I was skating around

that freedom became even more.

It was my escape.

I met Chris at the ice rink, um...

I'm not sure how old I was, probably about 14.

I met him because he started skating with a good friend of mine.

I noticed him cos he was very striking with his very blond hair

and...blue eyes. And I always noticed that he liked to

skate around fast, as well.

I previously had another partner, Sandra, Sandra Elson, and...

but I think we were...too alike, we were both a bit fiery

and it didn't last very long!

When Chris and I first skated together it wasn't like,

"Oh, wow, this feels great, we're going to be great."

It was just we both had a passion for the same thing.

And we both had that willingness to work

and we were both very disciplined.

I mean, we're very different personality-wise, but...

as far as the ice-skating was concerned

we both wanted the same thing.

MUSIC: "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller

Jayne was at the ripe old age of 15. She'd finished pair skating.

She was doing single skating, but at 15 she was maybe a bit old,

but she kept on dancing, and a coach that I had at the time

-suggested we try out.

-Even from the beginning I noticed that Chris

had that drive in him. He always wanted to...

do something better and it had to be perfect and if it wasn't perfect

then you have to do it again until it is.

Erm... And I was very similar in that way but...

I was happy to keep training, keep repeating everything

until it was right.

I think we both had "failed relationships" or partnerships...

erm, that we wanted to make this work.

Erm, the rest is history, as they say.

COMMENTATOR: A rather special train arrives in Sarajevo carrying

the West German Olympic team plus the hottest gold-medal favourites

of 1984, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

We arrived in Sarajevo on the German team train

because we'd been practising and working in Oberstdorf

which is in Bavaria. That had become our second home, effectively.

Looks lovely, the hat, we all love the hat.

PRESENTER: Jayne keeping out the cold in fur coat and hat

because her official team blazer didn't fit.

You always feel a bit for them, I suppose, having been a competitor

you know what it's...

the sort of build up and tensions that come with it.

And certainly with Torvill and Dean, there was a huge

amount of expectation.

They were the hottest favourites of the entire Olympic Games.

They were the one British hope,

which was why there was so much attention on them.

Erm, and they didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about.

PRESENTER: As usual the British, European

and World Ice Dance champions

were the main focus of attention.

They're the best-known skaters in the world

and everyone wants to talk to them.

But when it was time to leave for the Village,

something was amiss.

When we arrived in Sarajevo we got off the train and there was

people around us and press and we're moving down the station

and Jayne suddenly remembers -

"I've forgot your coat."

And she dashed off and there she's gone, she's left me.

"Where's Jayne gone?"

It was Christopher's coat, he took all the bags from me.

And said, "Can you get my coat?" But I just forgot it.

INTERVIEWER LAUGHS

PRESENTER: Britain's ice dance world champions

are the only serious medal prospect in our team of 55

but the endless scrutiny here of their every move

and one slip in training has left them strangely tense and unsmiling.

It was hard, when we first arrived, to get an overall picture

of Sarajevo because you're very much herded around.

So from leaving the train we were straight into the Village.

They were very conscious of security and if you wanted to get out

of the Village you had to get a pass.

It's all part of the security, now so essential at Olympic events

that the soldiers and their guns are as familiar as wallpaper.

Where the British team were housed I remember they kept the boys

and the girls separate.

There was one single room within this apartment

and I got it as I was the most senior member and...

the one that was... It was possibly going to be my turn to win a medal.

So I had the single room which I was quite happy with

because then I can do my own thing, my own preparations.

We had three bedrooms, we had a kitchen, so

we, like, had a little house together

and we were on the same practices so we travelled together,

we warmed up in the same group together so we were always together.

I was in a room on my own at Sarajevo.

It was quite a stock room, there wasn't a lot of luxuries,

it was functional. There was a bed and I think there was a cupboard

and there was a bathroom shared by all the boys.

It was just kind of an apartment block that had

just been built and it wasn't the Ritz or anything

but, hey, you're an ice skater you're there to do a job.

It was a very basic room, like a dormitory, really,

just one single wooden bed.

But my favourite thing was the blankets,

which had the Olympic rings on and the symbol

of that particular Games which was Vucko the bear/wolf

kind of character. And I was really excited to have

this blanket, I remember.

How are you feeling, now you're here in Sarajevo?

It's nice, it was very sort of...

village-y sort of atmosphere and everybody is getting

ready for their own thing. It just feels...

In actual fact you feel sort of a little small within a big event.

I understand that you will be carrying the British flag.

-Chris will.

-Just heard that, yes...

it's... can't believe it yet!

We were the main medal contenders. We were courting a lot of publicity

so the Chef de Mission asked if...

one of us would carry the flag. Well, actually, he asked me...

-I don't think you got a look-in(!)

-It's obvious... I know.

Just Chris, not me.

And so, gosh, yeah. No, I was honoured.

Britain's champion duo on ice, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean,

were kept apart by Olympic regulations this afternoon.

The organising committee refused to let both of them

carry the Union flag

at the opening of the 14th Winter Games at Sarajevo in Yugoslavia.

So Christopher carried the flag and Jayne marched in the front rank

of the British team, a few feet behind him.

Michael Blakey describes the Opening Ceremony, which was watched by

500 million television viewers.

After days of protest about professionalism

and a lack of snow, the formal opening of

the 14th Winter Olympics went off without a hitch.

Lebanon, in the throes of civil war, sent a team of three.

The Soviet Union, who headed the medals table

at six of the last seven Olympics

once again face a serious threat from East Germany.

One gold medal they don't expect to win - ice dancing.

Christopher Dean carried the Union flag alone, despite the wishes

of the British team that Jayne Torvill should partner him.

For once, she was six paces behind.

The temperatures were freezing.

And they bussed you in,

four hours, at least,

before it was going to happen.

And so you've got all this thick gear on cos they said,

"Dress warm, cos it's going to be cold."

But the buses were like 100 degrees inside.

So you're boiling, you're taking it off and then they said,

"Right, off we go."

-All the gear came on.

-Outside it was freezing.

And you're so conscious of not getting a cold,

so conscious of not getting a fever

or something like that.

Erm, and yet at the same time we absolutely wanted to

march and be a part of that team spirit.

CHEERING

ANNOUNCER: The fire on the grand pedestal has been lit,

the venues have been illuminated.

The contests have been declared open.

There was this kind of question mark, "Are they an item?

"Are they together?"

Talk about American sweethearts, these were two British sweethearts,

I think that, the nation wanted this also...

..to work for them.

Thinking of them as an item.

There was always a lot of speculation about our relationship

and we never admitted it or denied it. It was just left floating.

-Hmm.

-And I think people kind of enjoyed that, the romantic vision.

We always equate it to Fred and Ginger.

You see them on the screen, they perform

and you believe what they're doing

and you believe as the movie credits roll

that they go off happily waving in the distance and, for us,

I think that was our image.

'I remember doing some kind of a press conference'

after we'd won and that's when more questions came,

cos it was Valentine's Day when we'd won and there was lots of,

"Are you going to get married now?"

There have been suggestions that you may soon decide

to make your personal relationship a more permanent one.

Is there any truth in that?

Chris, instead of saying no, cos we had no intention

-of getting married...

-We hadn't got a plan...

We hadn't got any plan about anything, only that

we had got the World Championships a month later.

And Chris said "Not yet"

as a reply, which sent them all in a frenzy of...

"Oh, they might be!" Did you do that on purpose?

-Did it just come out?

-You know how things just come out my mouth,

-sometimes.

-I do, yeah.

We travelled back on the bus from the...

in the same way going out, nobody else was on it but Jayne and myself,

the driver and Betty, going back.

So it was quite a solitary morning until we got back to the Village.

Our coach Betty Callaway was always with us,

she was guiding us and making sure that we were happy

and not getting stressed,

not getting too nervous.

We went back to the Village and then went and had breakfast.

Canteen was open. Have a lazy breakfast.

We ate together, the three of us, and I think that was good for us

cos we had a grown-up there as well!

When I came across anybody in the canteen, people would be saying,

"Are you ready for tonight? What's happening?"

And I tried to make it very brief and short -

"Oh, fine. Yep, its all going good."

Moving on. Didn't want to get into a conversation

about how I'm feeling, didn't want to self-analyse...

..how I was feeling.

To actually try to talk to Jayne and Chris on the day of the competition,

I think would have been a huge mistake.

I think they were in a world of their own

and they stayed in a world of their own

when they were on the ice and competing

until it was all over, I think it's fair to say.

MUSIC: "Bolero" by Ravel

HE HUMS TUNE

On paper you wouldn't think it would make a dance.

But it's a sort of sexy piece of music.

It was just so...

tremendously different to anything that had ever been done

and was likely to be done in the future.

It was... I thought it was a real masterpiece, truthfully,

musically.

Because it was one piece.

As opposed to the usual three cuts that everybody did.

If you look at what people danced to...

for ice dance competitions,

they were much more showy.

This was a much subtler routine, and quite unique.

MUSIC RESUMES

When you watch the Russians, it was all bling.

UPBEAT CLASSICAL MUSIC

There were big lifts and it was razzmatazz.

This wasn't like that at all.

In our heads it was a driving beat that was taking us somewhere

and the crescendo of the music that just grew and grew.

That's what we wanted to create, that emotion that was building

up to a climactic ending. And Bolero had it all.

Except for it was 18 minutes long!

The tempo that they both felt was the most appropriate

was just a little too long.

And as it worked out we could get it down to 4 minutes 28,

we couldn't get it down to 4 minutes 10.

Looked at the rules and it says, "The stopwatch starts

"when you start to skate."

And starting to skate, in my head, not when you start to move

but when your blades touch the ice,

and Jayne's blade didn't touch the ice

until 4 minutes and 10 seconds.

I believe there's a dramatic ending that really involves you, Jayne.

Erm, well, we both die at the end. We're both dead.

You both die?! So what do you do on the ice?

-SHE LAUGHS

-We lie down.

LAUGHTER

PRESENTER: In their minds they're thinking about two young people

who are unable to marry

and so decide to end their lives. They are climbing a mountain,

a fiery volcano, and at the top they throw themselves into the inferno.

It's a made-up story, obviously.

And I don't know how it came about, truthfully.

Which one of us thought of this, but it just came about

that it was a love story and this...

These two lovers climbing up this volcano, I don't know,

don't ask me why a volcano, but as the music built they got

further and further up the volcano and then in the end...

that was it, they threw themselves into the volcano and that was...

Bit silly, really, isn't it?!

HE CHUCKLES

We've always believed that we need a narrative, even if it's

in our own heads. We don't have to sell it to anybody else

but for us it's a driving force of what we're doing

so it was a Romeo and Juliet scenario

of two lovers that were destined not to be together in life

but to be together eternally in death.

He's killed me, in other words.

We killed each other.

LAUGHTER

-We-we...

-We both jumped.

-We jumped together.

CHEERING

So we'd skate out into position and we'd turn and face each other

and, for us, the performance really starts here cos we're looking

really into each other's eyes and at that point we are

kind of talking to each other and calming each other down.

And from there we both go down, right knee down,

left knee down and then we have a moment that we always keep focus.

And we go into our first position.

Four counts and then we start moving our first leg.

Here, and right from here this becomes the eye contact,

we never leave eye contact from here, this point from here.

This is from where they're setting their fate from this moment on.

Creating the pact that we decided.

And, as you can see at the moment, nobody's blades are on the ice.

Jayne goes forward into an arch,

we go up into a lift and out of it

and now she's touched the ice. That's 4 minutes, 10 seconds.

And then off we go into the rest of the routine.

It's not the literal storyline that runs through your head,

it's more of a feeling.

The feeling of desperation

cos she knows something bad is going to happen.

But also it's the, the, the...

..the desperate love you felt for each other.

The emotion.

And that, erm, this is...

This is a very dramatic moment in your life

and we're heading towards something epic.

You couldn't not feel the tension of a piece like that

cos I think the whole,

the way the music is written builds its own tension.

And the way they created the piece to go with it

built its own tension.

So this move in part of our story is the point where

I'm getting tired and Chris is going to carry me

and help me along.

So this was the inspiration behind this move.

As you can see, we've got a new prop today with us,

it's the chair, because when we're skating

it's like being on a bike, you actually have the motion

but to actually do it stationary, it's very difficult

so I need a little aid here.

So as we go into it we go forward...

Jayne has to go past me.

Find the weight, balance, release

and then it all becomes on one foot.

So we've just come out of the lay lift

and in our heads the next part is that...

there's this look and this kiss of reassurance

that we're both wanting and doing the same thing and this...

This picture was taken and shown a lot around the world

but it comes to this point here and it's almost like a kiss.

It was a new thing to do something so intimate

and not smiley and tricky.

We weren't really there to entertain the public

as much as we had in the past,

like with routines like Barnum and Mack And Mabel.

This was a complete departure.

This was something that we wanted people to be drawn into,

but for a different reason.

I think in the Bolero we both learned the importance

of eye contact and that intensity that you need

with a routine like that to make it believable.

The focus between the two of them as they danced it.

They're in this huge arena,

and yet they only had eyes for each other.

It was just the two of them,

as though they were in a quiet place just on their own

and just dancing.

Once you were committed to that, really there was nowhere to hide.

You had to keep that... keep that momentum going.

That focus of attention to what they were doing

was absolutely brilliant.

When you go to the competition, it's all down to you.

It's all your own equipment.

You're in charge of your own equipment.

Let me tell you,

you're not going to let anyone else touch your boots and blades.

They are your own.

Whether it's from folklore or actual reality,

but you don't want somebody messing with your blades.

Not that I knew of it happening, but you always heard stories -

don't leave your blades in the dressing room by themselves.

These are the actual skating boots that I wore in the Olympics.

I used to save all my old skating boots, I wouldn't throw them away.

Especially not these.

I put a little label underneath that says, "Olympics."

They look sort of quite clean and shiny,

but they are definitely well worn.

These are the famous skate guards

that Chris always has to put in a certain position

before we skate.

Side by side, then mine would be side by side.

They'd be facing out towards the ice,

then they couldn't be moved until we came off.

Who was on which side?

I was on the right side, you were on the left side.

That's kind of strange, because normally I'm on this side.

-Don't question it.

-OK.

SHE LAUGHS

You know, when we got to the venue,

he would obviously have a look around and decide the best place

to put the guards when we went on the ice

that would not disturb anybody

and they wouldn't get trodden on or moved.

There's a lot going on in Chris's head.

There have been instances where the guards have been disturbed

and the performances haven't gone so well.

So...

..when something like that happens, even if it's once,

it's a superstition after that.

They've got to remain as they do.

He was deeply superstitious about the guards.

He still is, to this day.

In some kind of way, those guards represented Jayne and myself.

We didn't want them disturbed

in that they were uniformly put together and stood together.

We didn't want somebody crashing into them

and knocking them all over the place,

cos in some way that felt like a representation of us on the ice.

As I say the words, I want to take them back cos they sound so silly.

Courtney Jones was a judge and a former World Champion -

very respected within the skating community.

His partner was Bobby Thompson.

For most of our career,

Bobby and Courtney have been mentors for us,

or gurus and part of our inner circle

that we would always discuss everything with.

But, also, Courtney was a fashion designer.

So it made perfect sense that he was going to design the costumes.

Chris and Jayne had very definite ideas of what they like.

So it was sort of...

We just sat round the table and said,

"Well, what about this and what about that?"

The costume was very much a cottage industry kind of thing.

We bought the silk for my top.

We dyed it so that it was what we call ombre effect,

so it got deeper at the bottom as it matched his trousers.

What we did was we got the material

and hung it in a bucket with a dye in it.

Every time we passed, we dipped it a bit further into the dye every day.

As the days went on, it got darker.

This is the famous spoon,

which had previously been used to stir the casserole,

stirred the dye every two hours for the crepe de Chine,

which was layered.

We just did it slowly, slowly, slowly to get this shaded effect.

Then it went away to be pleated.

In the end, I used a paintbrush on it

to actually deepen it even more.

I liked the colour of an iris.

For me, it was that colouring from the purple that shaded, ombred, up.

It's got the yellow or golden part in the middle of it.

I think that's where the colour scheme came from.

Jayne's was made of pure silk chiffon,

which in those days was really the only thing

that actually was suitable,

because the polyester didn't move as well on the ice.

When we first had them made, we took them to Nottingham Ice rink,

middle of the night,

and they turned all the house lights on,

because when I fitted costumes,

I did it from the back of the seating,

because they're not seen close up.

The person sitting rows and rows back has to be able to see the detail.

And so they started off ankle-length, almost, the chiffon,

and what I did was I had a large pair of cutting shears

and as they went through the routine,

I cut off the skirt so it didn't touch the ice.

So they went through all the lifts and movements they did

and slowly, as the hours progressed, we got shorter and shorter.

That's why it has a ragged edging to it - it isn't an even hem.

When you think you've got something made up...quite nicely,

then somebody comes out with a pair of huge scissors

and starts cutting slices off it...

But, um...the end product was that it really worked well.

So now, Torvill and Dean face the supreme test -

champions of Europe, champions of the world,

but can they now become Olympic champions?

The whole thing had been set up for this one number, you know.

Because we all got into the fact...

"There they are, British couple - got a smell of winning a gold medal."

We'd watch them dance their paso doble,

we'd watched them with their technical stuff,

and here it is - the final.

24 million - that's half of the whole population of Britain at the time -

is tuned in to watch this.

I was passing through this village

on the way to Cambridge

and I could see through a window the television was on

and I could see a family preparing.

And I thought, "I can't spend the rest of my life saying,

"I was in a car, listening to it on the radio."

I mean, how can you listen to ice skating on the radio?!

So I parked the car, knocked on the door

and said, "I'm sorry to be a complete nuisance,

"But I was hoping..."

"Come in!" They said, "come in!"

And that was the attitude -

everyone was waiting to see this great moment,

so the attitude was there, people were warm about it.

So I sat and watched the whole thing

with a family in a little village on the way to Cambridge.

The competitors that were in the top group

and Chris and I, Karen and Nicky, got on the same bus.

I remember it so clearly - it was raining

and I could see Jayne's reflection in the window, just in front of me,

she was sat in front of me, as we always did,

we sat near other or with each other.

But as I gazed at her reflection,

I thought, "I think I've got a tough day, but this...

"This is going to be life-changing."

There you are, travelling on the bus with your nearest rivals

sitting a couple of rows behind you.

And you always hello to them,

and...you know, there's not much conversation,

because...er, the Russians didn't speak much English and vice versa,

so, um...

But, yeah, again, a quiet bus with...a bit of tension in the air.

The routine was that we arrived at the arena.

We both walked in together, went to the separate changing rooms.

When I arrived there in the evening, I just wanted to make sure

when I was in the communal changing room, like a hockey room,

that I sat in the same spot that I'd sat every day the past ten days,

and so it was important to me to be in that same spot.

So I wanted to get there early enough

that somebody else hadn't taken it, because they could well have done,

and if they had, I would have, in some polite way,

moved them out and taken my spot again,

because it was important, it was what I'd done every day

and you wanted to replicate that.

You didn't want change.

The leading five pairs in the competition

skate in the final pool

to decide the gold, the silver and the bronze medals.

They're about to warm up

as we go now to the Olympic Stadium and Alan Weeks.

ALAN WEEKS: Well, I'm sitting here, along with 8,500 other people,

not only in the seats, but I must say,

they're sitting in the aisles, the gangways,

they're standing around the back.

This building has not yet been as full as it is tonight.

In the warm-up, I went out and scuffed the ice up a little bit,

because fresh, clean ice is slippy

and when you're kneeling, I didn't want to slide around.

So if the ice is scuffed up a little bit,

it gives you a little bit more traction.

So, knowing the spot, I went in and skidded over it.

I saw Chris scuffing up the ice in the middle,

because he knew that's where we were starting

and he didn't want it to be too slippy.

So it was just a little...little ploy.

It was quite clever, I thought.

And a lot of competitors go out

and they practise moves from their routine.

At this point, I was trying to get every lift in

that was within my four-minute routine,

trying to do all the bits that worried me.

I glance over to Chris and Jayne - they were just...literally,

forward pushes, stroking round the ice

and they never touched.

So it already gave me that feeling of...

SHE GASPS

.."I'm panicking, but they're...they're so prepared,

"they don't need to use that warm-up as the rest of us did."

It was that last chance.

I think sometimes the other competitors

thought that it was a bit strange.

They thought we were maybe doing it to try and psych them out.

But it was actually more of a practical reason,

that we didn't want to get injured.

You never give way in the warm-up.

And I'm not the biggest guy, but I never give way.

You just learn to be strong and it's a battle

and you take your position on the ice and...you're in that.

You're in the top of the world, this is how you do it.

The Russians have a bit of a reputation -

they're going to do whatever they're going to do,

regardless of whom might be in the way

and sometimes even get hurt in a warm up,

which sounds silly, but everybody's doing their business -

going backwards, flying around - and BOOM!

That can happen.

And in our heads, we're so confident in what we're doing

that we don't need to do those practices.

We know what we're there to do.

And so, psychologically, I think, to everybody that was there,

that was watching, competitors, judges, even ourselves,

there was a certain confidence

in the way that we approached the whole aspect.

It's like, "We're not giving anything away until we perform it,

"until that music starts, that's when the performance starts."

-ANNOUNCER:

-Julie Blumberg and Michael Seibert...

HE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

..United States of America.

ALAN WEEKS: And it's Michael and Julie, from the United States,

who start this last session.

After we finished warming up, we were fifth to skate,

so that's going to be, like, 20 minutes later.

And that 20 minutes is a long 20 minutes when it's 20 minutes...

We stepped off the ice, put the guards back on,

went behind the stands,

didn't listen to anybody else's scores or watched their routines.

In our minds, it was about what we had to do

and not about watching others

and even to the point that if we were in a corridor

that was near enough you could hear the marks,

when the marks came up for the other competitors,

we used to cover our ears.

I didn't want to hear

that somebody had skated really well just before we were going out.

Um...and so, it was like, really, the caged lion moment,

of pacing up and down,

just...just wanting to be out there.

The main challengers to Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

Remember, this isn't a cut-and-dried situation.

Jayne and Chris have got to beat this couple in this free dance.

MUSIC PLAYS

It's almost gladiatorial, you know - you can hear the stadium,

you can hear the anticipation, and you're in the background,

warming up and getting ready.

MUSIC PLAYS

When I left the dressing room, I put on a tracksuit top...team top.

And it's not until you take that off and step onto the ice

that you take on the persona that your performance is all about.

That's when you feel that you're really...in the zone, as it were.

You've got the costume, you've got the skates on

and that's all you've got to think about and focus on.

When I'm putting on my skates -

and it happens every time, but certainly at the Olympics -

just at that point when you're tightening up before you go out,

you get this really tired feeling.

It's almost...you're plateauing, that you've all this anticipation,

and that last little bit before you go out and skate

or go out and warm up, there's a sense of...

HE SIGHS

..and really, your body feels heavy, you feel a bit sluggish, but...

I've come to realise it's part of the process,

you seem to get this level of adrenaline

that's been at a certain level and it plateaus,

but then it spikes again when you go out.

So I anticipate that feeling, knowing that when I go out there,

there's going to be a...a new breath of life there when you go out.

Betty, as we stood on the ice, ready to be announced,

would always tap us on the shoulder and say, "Skate well."

And that was her "good luck" to us, really.

We always felt good that she'd done that.

If, for any reason, she wouldn't have been there,

I think we would have felt strange.

She made a point of not saying "good luck" but "skate well",

because it's not about luck - it's about skating well.

ALAN WEEKS: They are four minutes away from Olympic gold

and the reason they're waiting is that, at the other end of the rink,

that little girl has picked up a bouquet

and is trying very hard to pick up something that was stuck to the ice.

She's a tiny little girl,

you can see how small she is alongside the barrier

and...my goodness, what a moment to come on the ice.

They usually have youngsters,

going around the ice, picking up flowers and this sort of thing.

I remember there was one little girl -

if my memory serves me right, they sort of looked towards her,

maybe...that cut a little bit of the tension,

which they must have been feeling.

Jayne, smiling at the little girl,

as she goes off and they await the announcement

to start their free dance.

I remember, stood there, that's that moment -

you go hand in hand, and it's all connected, you know?

It's all connected, it's all...alive. And, um...

..we just do a final glance and a squeeze of the hand.

We'd been waiting for that moment that was going to count -

that we were going to perform it and it was going to count.

-ANNOUNCER:

-Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Great Britain.

There's no turning back.

This...this is the time.

This is the moment.

We knew what we had to do. We just skated out to position.

We were very centred and calm, but when I think about it now,

the anticipation of all of that...

It almost takes your breath away.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It felt like I was looking down, watching myself.

Like we were in an altered state of consciousness as we were doing it.

MUSIC: "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel.

APPLAUSE

RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE

Once again, a roar of applause

and on the far side of the rink,

the people are standing and applauding.

The Union Jacks are flying around the ring but not only...

The very end was... There was that feeling of

so much excitement but at the same time, this huge sense of relief.

That really dramatic performance by Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

Ravel's Bolero...

In some ways, you kind of... there's a slight sadness

because you won't be doing that ever again and you know

when you've enjoyed something, you think,

"Oh, I want to do that again," and it was that kind of a feeling.

APPLAUSE

Still...they applaud.

I just remember going to take a bow

and then just a sea of flowers coming at me from everywhere.

I just heard this massive roar.

CHEERING

And I looked up and saw all the sixes.

It's right across the board.

That's it. What a marvellous, marvellous set of marks.

It was a full row of sixes and it was like...("Wow!")

This was just a phenomenal moment. I mean it had never, never happened.

People like that who do things really well

and appear to do it terribly easily are good to watch.

Do you know? I watched it

and I got so excited that when

those sixes started flying out, I jumped up and went...like that,

in euphoria, fractured my thumb on the wall.

When they just got clean sixes,

I mean, the whole family and I just

leapt into the air and I think I thought,

"That's fair, "That's right, they are the best.

"I have witnessed something that I may never witness

"again in my life."

Well, it's just once in a lifetime.

Very special.

That's it.

And now we can go straight back to the Olympic arena where

tonight, as you will well know, Torvill and Dean from Great Britain

have won the Olympic championship.

OLYMPIC ANNOUNCER: Gold medal Olympic champions

Jayne Torvill, Christopher Dean...

APPLAUSE

Once again, Jayne and Chris receive the plaudits of the crowd.

Cheers, roars, from this very mixed audience of all nationalities

around the world - everyone appreciating their skill, their art.

When we stepped on to the podium,

and the medal was placed round our neck...

Three times in European Championships,

three times in World Championships,

and along the way accumulated more maximum marks

than any other skaters.

Now, it's the most cherished prize in sport -

Olympic gold medals for the greatest ice dancers of all time.

NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS

..and the flags going up,

and the National Anthem playing...

That is one of your proudest moments ever.

They were playing the National Anthem,

you've got massive gold medal around your neck

which is... You know, it's the best thing ever.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

When it's round your neck,

that's when it's like, "Yes, we really, really, really DID win

"the gold medal, because I'm wearing it right now."

The charisma that they had on the ice

drew the whole country.

And drew anybody from other nations who was lucky enough to watch them.

ANNOUNCEMENT IN FRENCH

-ANNOUNCEMENT:

-Dear visitors, that will be all

for this evening's figure-skating competition.

I'm not sure what there WAS to ask them.

I mean, no interviewer wants to say, "How do you feel?"

but that's actually what the public...

They wanted to hear from them.

All I had to do was just stick a microphone in front of them.

But...they were still very shy,

and so I had to push it a little bit.

Can you look at me, you two, please?

Jayne and Chris, I think you must know that the reaction in the rink

has just been mirrored millions of times around Great Britain.

-On behalf of the people watching, many congratulations.

-Thank you.

Tell me, if it's possible, which emotion is uppermost in your minds?

I can't believe it.

I can't...

We'd...

We can't remember the skate.

-I just happened, it came and it went.

-So quickly.

There was none of this, none of the roaring away

at having been successful.

They had done what they'd set out to do,

so there was a quiet reaction.

You seemed so relaxed before you went on the ice.

I mean, you even smiled, didn't you, at the little girl?

Yes. I felt that I wanted to go out there and perform,

and I was happy there were so many people here from England

and from Nottingham especially.

-One or two from where you used to work.

-That's right, yes.

So many people from England and from everywhere tonight,

it was a great support. We really felt it.

What do you do now, in terms of a celebration?

Don't know.

-Go and find a quiet corner.

-I'm told there's a party at the Village?

-No idea.

-I didn't know that, no.

Most probably we'll just find a bed tonight.

'You really don't feel like doing it,

'but you have to do a press conference.

'You just want to go back and sort of share it with your team members.'

'After all that excitement, you've got to go to doping control.'

You've got this undignified moment of having to produce a sample,

so that kind of brings you back down to earth pretty rapidly.

I was quite dehydrated by that point, so it took a while

to produce the sample. Er...

And so there was lots of waiting around, drinking a beer or two.

I remember that at the end of the day, very long day,

it was probably about midnight,

we were the last people in the building.

We'd been the first and we were the last.

A very long day.

It's almost like you lived a life through that day.

And then it was the end of the day

and it felt like we were closing the door on it.

We're still on a high, and heading back to the Village

expecting just to go to bed,

and, um...we were told that Princess Anne was waiting

-to congratulate us.

-We thought that she would have gone by that time.

But in actual fact, she hadn't. She'd stayed and waited,

and so we... We got to meet her,

and she toasted us and congratulated us.

You never quite knew when people were going to turn up,

after successes like that.

Because, you know, everybody wants to celebrate.

It was... It wasn't too late so you could actually afford to

be able to do it afterwards, when they got back.

And they couldn't get hold of glasses so they had paper cups,

or plastic cups, and it just seemed... It was kind of...

I don't know, it was kind of special to do it like that,

because we didn't expect anything, really.

I was probably expecting to make a cup of tea and go to bed.

Like you do.

I don't think there was anything very much there. Um...

We're slightly better organised now,

but in those days, it was... SHE LAUGHS

I think going overboard for glasses and that kind of thing

would probably not have been part of the catering at that stage.

And anyway, parties usually happen better

if they're done on the spur of the moment.

And there was the champagne and everyone cheering,

and it was...the perfect end to the perfect day.

There aren't many moments like that in life.

I remember when Everest was conquered.

I remember when we won the World Cup.

There are just... There are a few moments like that,

and frankly, Torvill and Dean was one of those moments.

It's one of the most iconic moments in, not just Winter Olympics,

any Olympics.

It was a brilliant idea, and it was just brilliantly executed.

It's why they won a gold medal.

Here we are, 30 years on.

Which I find so difficult to believe.

Er...and people are still enraptured by them.

If that's not a definition of style, I don't know what is.

It's the final bow.

Quick, get the flowers! Come on!