Dancing on Ice: Was Perri Kiely's skate the greatest in the show's history?

2 March 2020, 09:54

Dancing on Ice aired its semi-final for 2020 on Sunday night (March 1), and it treated us to a truly memorable skate from Perri Kiely and professional partner Vanessa Bauer.

So much so, that Perri's Diversity colleague Ashley Bango was left in tears by the incredible performance after watching on as a judge.

During Sunday night’s semi-final, the remaining celebrities – Perri, Joe Swash, Ben Hanlin and Libby Clegg – performed two routines to get into the final.

The first saw them perform a solo skate for 45 seconds, while the second was performed to a song picked by them to represent something personal to them.

Libby danced to a piano cover of '(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles', inspired by a ballet dance at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in 2014, while Ben danced to Jake Bugg’s 'Lightning Bolt' – his wedding song.

Joe picked Simply Red track 'Stars', a song that always reminds him of his dad who passed away when he was 12, with frontman Mick Hucknall recording a video message wishing him good luck.

Finally, Perri skated to the music from the balcony scene from 1996's Romeo and Juliet, which is often played at the end of Diversity’s shows.

Perri and Vanessa won a standing ovation for their amazing performance, along with a perfect 40 points.

Ashley Banjo was visibly emotional after Perri’s skate, and he pointed out that the whole Diversity squad were in the crowd watching on, and that he was "proud" of Perri for how he has grown as a dancer.

Perri went on to reach the final, where he will take on Libby and Joe for the title.