For the past ten years we’ve been told that this year’s show is so different, and you go there and it’s still the same. We have all been waiting for this show.”

So says skater Forrest Ryan McKinnon, who adds that anyone who thinks they know Holiday On Ice will be in for a surprise with Speed. The traditional kickline and pinwheel are being joined by circus skills, dancers, modern music, aerialists and motorcycles on the ice.

And McKinnon, for one, is loving it. He is one of the skaters taking to the ice on two wheels and he believes this show is the one that will really put Holiday On Ice back on the map.

“I have Attention Deficit Disorder so this show is perfect for me,” he laughs. “There is nothing boring about this show – there is always something going on.

“The director, Bart Doerfler, has done a lot of homework. He knows what will work and what will work better, and pushes us all really hard. He expects the best from us.”

McKinnon and co-star Melody Le Moal both rode motorbikes for the first time in this show, under the guidance of stuntman Jean-Pierre Goy, who has worked on Bond films and Christopher Nolan’s recent Batman trilogy.

“On the first day I didn’t know what I was doing,” admits McKinnon. “By the third day we were learning wheelies. Jean-Pierre told us we were going to learn in ten days what normally takes six years.

“At the end of the ten days Bart was asking if I could jump a ramp. Jean-Pierre told him not only could I do that but I could jump over Melody and her motorcycle, too.”

The motorbikes have been specially adapted for performance on the ice, with skaters being pulled along or doing triple jumps off the back – something McKinnon admits “you don’t see every day”.

The potential for accidents is there but McKinnon says the biggest problems for ice skaters tend not to be as obvious to audiences.

“The thing with accidents is it’s not about falling,” he says. “It’s more if you move wrongly and correct yourself – that’s when you pull muscles.

“We come in every day and check over the motorcycles before we do a show or rehearsal. Even on a day off I will come in ahead of the skaters, as we have to get the feel of the ice – the ice surface changes at every venue.

“The Brighton Centre is very small – it will be a little scary coming off the ramp, but when it’s more intimate you can do lots of things closer to the edges. It’s a different sort of thrill.”

Speed also features sections set in Las Vegas, Spain and South America.

But the other aspect of the show that McKinnon is particularly excited about is the circus skills section, which features a prop he brought to the show – The Death Claw.

“I’ve brought it from Minneapolis – it dates back to 1947,” he says. “It’s four rings together, all different sizes, which you jump through. The last time it was used was by the Ice Capades in 1983.”

McKinnon’s own obsession with skating began as a youngster after being taken to his first ice show.

“I was four years old,” he says. “I’m totally living the dream.

“This show isn’t just about the grandparents or the kids, it is for everybody. It’s so refreshing in this day and age. “It is of such a high standard. The skaters in this show are basically Olympic performers – they all started really young, got their craft and took it to the next level.

“It is the greatest ice show I have ever been in.”

  • Brighton Centre, King’s Road, Thursday, November 22, to Sunday, November 25. Starts 7.30pm Thurs to Sat, plus shows at 2pm on Fri, and 12.30pm and 4.15pm on Sat and Sun, tickets from £23, group rates available. Call 0844 8471515