Dancing On Ice star Joe Swash broke down in tears during Sunday night’s semi-final show, while dedicating his second skate to his late dad.
The action-packed semi-final saw remaining contestants Joe, Perri Kiely, Ben Hanlin and Libby Clegg perform two routines on the night – the first, which included a 45 second solo skate and the second, which represented a personal moment to them.
Each star had to pick a song that was very personal to them, with Joe choosing Simply Red track Stars.
In an emotional VT, he explained that the song had been his mum and dad’s song, but his family now can’t listen to the track without turning it off after it was played at his dad’s funeral. Joe was 12 when his dad died.
Breaking down in tears, Joe explained that he wanted to make his family smile when they heard the song and give it back to his mum, without her feeling sad.
He said: ‘I miss my dad every day. There’s so many things that I’ve done and so many things I could have shared with him.
‘It’s a really emotive song and hopefully we can do it justice.’
Joe said that he found the VT ‘difficult’ to watch back, but it didn’t put him off as he scored a huge 38 points from the judges for the routine.
Head judge Christopher Dean told the soap star: ‘Who would have thought right at the beginning of the series that you’d be here at the semi-final.
‘Week four you came alive and suddenly you became the new Joe, you’ve become a performer, an entertainer and more importantly a skater.’
John Barrowman said: ‘Your confidence has grown and I can tell you right now that is a happy song to your family and your dad would be smiling.’
Ashley Banjo added: ‘You’ve taken something and turned it into something else.
‘You didn’t sacrifice content, it was real and it was heartfelt but you never lost Joe,’ while Jane Torvill said both of Joe’s routines had been ‘absolutely brilliant’.
Earlier on in the night, Joe had channelled his inner Rod Stewart and viewers saw him take to the ice on his own, before his partner Alex Murphy then joined him, to dance to song Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?.
The judges joked that they no longer felt ‘nervous’ watching Joe on the ice, with Joe landing 76 points in total on the night.
Perri topped the leaderboard with 78.5 points, Libby finished with 77.5 and Ben scored 74.5 overall.
Fans will now see Joe go head-to-head with Perri and Libby in the Dancing On Ice grand final, as Ben was sent home on Sunday night.
He had been in the skate off with Libby, but after she pulled out the headbanger in her skate off routine, judges voted in her favour and sent her through to the final.
Dancing On Ice continues on Sunday at 6pm on ITV.
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