Blackpool's new skating spectacular is thrilling, gothic and novel

Sizzling heat and freezing ice can shape our imagination just like it formed our world - and in Blackpool it's a heady mixture that ignites your senses too. For those who have never experienced the seaside resort's Hot Ice show, or even know what it is, you're in for a treat. It's Dancing On Ice on overdrive, ramped up to 11.

Since the Pleasure Beach's Arena was built in 1936, Hot Ice has thrilled millions of visitors but the 2025 show, called XS, is definitely one of the most ambitious and spectacular. Its 30-strong cast includes Olympic and world champion skaters who perform backflips, triple spins, salchow, axel loops, flips, spins all to soulful and heart-stirring music and stunning costumes.

A single Hot Ice outfit can have up to 11,000 hand jewelled rhinestones on it. That's some sewing session.

And there are more than 250 different costumes required for each performance, while there's no exaggeration to say you will be visually dazzled by Hot Ice's 1000 lighting cues which take the team 200 hours to programme.

The cast hail from the USA, Ukraine, Netherlands, Romania, Japan, Germany, China, Canada, Estonia, Austria, Poland, Russia and don't forget the UK - with four from Blackpool itself; Nadia Craggs, Francesca Guerin, James Horrocks and Stuart Widdall.

Choreographed by the Hot Ice veteran, renowned skating coach and former skating legend himself Oula Jaaskelainen and his assistant Lynsey Brown - 'XS' is two hours and 20 minutes of exhilaration.

I've seen different productions over the years and some of XS's numbers have a real gothic feel, haunting scenes that stir the emotion - plus some pretty incredible acrobatics from Alexey Kofanov.

After Covid, Oula once told me how he tries to push Hot Ice to the limit every year, explaining: "We're reaching the limits of what can be done on ice in this show and we know you will not find a better night out in the whole of the UK."

This year the opening number 'XS' - with female skaters dressed like pink flamingos while the man donned in menacing hoodies - sets the feel for the whole show.

From there we switch to a romantic Paris scene in black and pink, before crowd favourites 'Desire' and 'Mesmerise' bring extravagant headdresses. A Swan Lake scene was like an homage to Matthew Bourne.

One of the darker numbers 'Baying at the moon' had a feel like Netflix's gothic sci-fi show The Witcher - while another felt like Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and her spine-chilling Manderley.

Another number felt like an homage to new film series Dune, and the popular James Bond-like number 'One Kiss' had a licence to thrill the audience from 1 to 10 - and then all the way up to 11.

* For more information, or to book tickets, please visit www.hoticeshow.com Shows take place from today until 13th September 2025 with tickets starting from £10.