Dancing on Ice legend Jayne Torvill confesses to 'real tears' during Emmerdale cameo amid 'first'

Before they return to the ITV show's judging panel in the new year, the pair donned their ice skates for a cameo role in the soap

Skating legend Jayne Torviall has admitted to shedding real tears as she made a guest appearance in Emmerdale alongside Christopher Dean. Before they return to the Dancing on Ice judging panel in the new year, the pair donned their ice skates for a cameo role in the ITV soap.

It was announced last month (November) that Torvill and Dean will be making a guest appearance after the Olympic gold medal winners reunited on ice to help a well-loved Emmerdale character with a marriage proposal this festive season. And new spoilers have revealed more about their appearance.

It starts before Christmas when Belle's left intrigued when Tom announces he has a secret plan to make her Christmas a memorable one. However, Tom soon beats himself up over his failed plans as Nicola announces surprise guests for the Christmas fair... Tom’s thrilled by the imminent arrival of Nicola’s special guests. meanwhile, hearing that Tom is a massive Torvill and Dean fan, Chas suggests to Belle that it would be perfect for a proposal. But back at the fair, Tom's devasted.

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Belle’s given food for thought when Chas pushes her to give the proposal another go but she's scuppered yet again when Sam drags her away for a birthday surprise. With Leyla’s help, Belle forms a new plan. And the next day, blindfolded Tom gets led onto an ice rink by Leyla.

He’s mesmerised when he sees that Belle has arranged a proposal with the help of Torvill and Dean. Belle’s elated when Tom says yes and as Torvill and Dean skate over, Tom has his fanboy moment.

Speaking about how joining the ITV soap for the romantic scenes came about, Christopher revealed: "We were at a function for ITV somewhere in London and all of the Emmerdale actors were down there and it was Mark [Charnock - who plays Marlon Dingle] who said, 'You should be in Emmerdale!'

"One of the producers at the time, Jane Hudson, was there and she said, 'Yeah, I think we could make that happen.'" Jayne said: "And she said, 'Would you be willing to do it?'"

And the moment they came together to film in Leeds was an emotional one for Jayne. "We hadn't skated together for eight months until today," she revealed at the time of our chat in November. "Because of circumstances... We had the summer off, I had surgeries, Chris was working and flew back just a couple of days ago. He's working on another show choreographing, he's been away for weeks and so I've skated a few times by myself when I was allowed to get back on the ice. But this was the first day... in eight months. I was very excited."

Christopher said [to Jayne]: "You had a little cry," to which she said: "Yeah I did. I had a tear. I'm usually known as the stone heart but I was just excited to get back on the ice."

And it was also a 'first' for the pair. "Years ago we did something for Coronation Street as ourselves but we didn't skate," Jayne said of appearing in a TV show as themselves. Christopher added: "This is the first time as us, on ice, in a soap."