Dancing on Ice bosses shake-up judging panel by hiring ex Strictly star Arlene Phillips for brand new guest role

WEST end legend Dame Arlene Phillips will join the judging panel of Dancing on Ice next week – 14 years after she was axed from Strictly Come Dancing.

I can reveal the top choreographer, who appeared on last year’s I’m A Celebrity, will be a special guest judge on the ITV show later this month.

The one-off appearance of Arlene, 78, will be the first time the programme has had five judges sitting on the panel.

A TV insider said: “ITV have been keen to get Arlene on board and have been talking to her for months about her guest slot on the show.

“She has decades of dance experience under her belt which producers wanted to draw on and enhance the panel even further.

“Plus, audiences will be thrilled to see her back judging on primetime TV, just as she once was on Strictly.”

On February 20, Arlene will join existing judges Ashley Banjo, 33, Jayne Torvill, 64, Christopher Dean, 63, and Oti Mabuse, 31.

She was given the chop from Strictly in 2008 amid suggestions she was too old at 64. At the time she was sharing the panel with Bruno Tonioli, Craig Revel Horwood and Len Goodman.

The outrage was intensified when the BBC revealed her replacement was former MisTeeq pop star Alesha Dixon, a former Strictly winner who was just 30 at the time and had a fraction of the dance experience.

Arlene was also one of the contestants on I’m A Celebrity last autumn, but was the first star to be voted off the ITV programme in December.

She spent 13 days in the camp at Gwrych Castle, North Wales, where she suffered in the chilly elements but afterwards insisted she had no regrets.

Arlene said: “I’d watched it for so long and it’s about overcoming fear.”

She was named last year as one of the potential names for the judging panel after John Barrowman, 54, was sacked from the show after two series following allegations he exposed himself on other TV shows.

But the full-time judging role went to Oti.

A spokeswoman for ITV said: “We’re looking forward to having Dame Arlene on the show – a very special, special guest for Dancing on Ice.”