Flying in the face of the form book

7:39pm Saturday 29th March 2008

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IN THE battle to be a reality show winner, it does no harm at all to suffer injuries and have a cute child cheering you on in the final.

Poor Chris Fountain learned this to his cost in the denouement of Dancing On Ice (ITV1, Sunday), as plucky rival Suzanne Shaw stole the contest from under his nose.

Throughout the series, the routines served up by Chris and his professional skater partner Frankie have been the ones to excite and thrill, leading them to become hot favourites to win the contest.

But in Sunday's final the young swashbuckler was mugged by the required element. This involved being suspended in a harness to fly' above the rink.

It doesn't take a genius to realise that this was hugely in favour of the female celebrities, who could glide and pose gracefully in the air, supported by their strong male partners.

Being a stocky Yorkshire lad, Chris just looked ungainly and little Frankie struggled to help with his rotations.

Inevitably, Suzanne notched up perfect scores, which must have affected the viewers' perception of the respective talents of the finalists.

Sure enough, as her little son Corey provided manic support in the audience, the ex-Hear'say singer topped the phone vote.

To be fair, she was good in Sunday's show, but if I had to choose which of the two I would rather watch skate, it would be Chris every time.

Over at Casualty (BBC1, Saturday), Charlie has turned up again like the proverbial bad penny. Quite how he managed to walk back into his old job, after being made redundant, I have no idea.

Neither can I understand why he would leave a well paid position in a nice clean private clinic for the nightmare that is Holby A&E - and why wasn't he required to work a reasonable period of notice before leaving?

I reckon it served him right that he was bitten in the leg, while grappling with a raging thug in the department, on his first day back.

Karma's a wonderful thing!