British actor Ryan Thomas, who played Raphael Humphreys on Neighbours in 2018, has been confirmed as a contestant on the upcoming series of Dancing on Ice in the UK.
Speaking on the Channel 4 show Steph’s Packed Lunch, Thomas revealed that he has already been taking some skating lessons as a family holiday means he will miss the first official week of training. The actor is best known for playing Jason Grimshaw on Coronation Street for 16 years and was also the most recent winner of Celebrity Big Brother. In the final series of the show on Channel 5, Thomas won following the infamous Roxanne Pallett incident.
The Thomas family are no strangers to reality TV. In addition to Ryan’s Big Brother win, his brother Adam is in the current series of Strictly Come Dancing and Scott Thomas took 3rd place in the 2015 series of Love Island. Ryan is not the first familiar Erinsborough face to take to the ice, Craig McLachlan (Henry Ramsay) appeared in the 2011 series of Dancing on Ice, Mark Little (Joe Mangel) lasted just one week in the 2019 series and both Denise Van Outen (Prue Wallace) and Jason Donovan (Scott Robinson) appeared in 2021.
Ryan’s Neighbours role saw him as a troubled love-interest for David Tanaka (Takaya Honda), with a number of steamy on-air scenes between the two. Raphael also held a secret as he was in Erinsborough looking for Paul Robinson, who he believed was responsible for his mother’s death in a fire in Brazil.
Ryan’s Neighbours scenes along with all episodes from 2012-2023 can be viewed now on Amazon Freevee or Amazon Prime Video, with Raphael first appearing in episode 7777. Dancing on Ice will return to ITV1 in January.