Phillip Schofield ended his introduction to this week’s show with the words “It’s time to kick some ice.” I got very briefly excited before remembering that – without even Take That to liven things up – this week’s show was probably going to be just as dull as previous outings.

This week the contestants had to skate with props, and Torvill and Dean, along with six of the professional skaters, demonstrated by performing their “exclusive routine” with canes. I found it a bit boring, actually, which didn’t bode well for the rest of the show.

First out was a foxy-looking Clare Buckfield. Incorporating a chair into the routine, Clare hoped to improve on last week’s highest mark of 27. The chair made me nervous, but she did brilliantly, integrating the chair seamlessly into the programme. There was a stumble and she landed a bit heavily at the end, so the marks weren’t as good as last week.

Most-improved contestant (in my opinion) Lee Sharpe had to skate romantically both with a broom and his stick thin partner. He was struggling with the romance aspect (as anyone who saw him on Celebrity Love Island will understand) so, in a move nicked from the last series of Strictly Come Dancing, Lee got an acting lesson. I’m not sure it helped. I didn’t think it was a particularly romantic routine but I enjoyed it and barely noticed the broom at all, which is sort of the point.

Emily Symons had a nightmare last week, nearly shearing her partner’s ear off with the blade of her skate. Including a hat in her routine wasn’t going to make things any easier and she had to leave training during the week for a cry. Funnily enough, she seems like such a sweet person that this fragility will no doubt endear her to the audience. And the revealing costume won’t hurt either. Skating to ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me,’ this was my favourite routine so far. Fun and sweet, but she still looks tentative.

Along with Clare, Kyran Bracken has been the highest scorer so far. His prop was a trolley suitcase and they skated, appropriately enough, to Hello Goodbye and it was brilliant. Funny without being too cheesy, great skating, excellent use of the suitcase and, as always, Kyran looked extremely confident. And it won him the first 6.0 of the series and the highest score so far – 28.

Last week Duncan James beat Lisa Scott-Lee in the skate-off and was shown saying, “Part of me thinks Lisa should be here instead of me.” When no-one contradicted him he floundered a bit, but recovered enough to say that he was “Doing it for Lisa” this week. And actually I think it might have been my favourite routine of the evening. It made me laugh, made great use of the umbrella prop and was basically confident and charming. Fab. And it won them their highest score so far.

At the end, Kyran was top and Emily bottom.

In the results show, judges Robin Cousins and Jason Gardiner mentioned their disappointment in Emily’s performance, but she was the first through to the semi-final, which meant that, again, a better skater was going home. Out of the remaining skaters I hoped it would be Lee. Duncan was next through, leaving Lee and Clare in the skate-off. The trouble with giving the judges final choice is that you can generally predict who they will put through. I couldn’t imagine they’d save Lee ahead of Clare, and I was right – they voted unanimously for Clare.

Dancing on Ice Week 1; Dancing on Ice Week 2; Dancing on Ice Week 3; Dancing on Ice Week 4; Dancing on Ice Week 5; Dancing on Ice Week 6