Just a matter of days after Alesha Dixon was crowned as the top celebrity dancer in the latest series of the BBC hit show Strictly Come Dancing, ITV's rival production Dancing On Ice is due to hit the nation's screens yet again.

With the line-up already having been announced, it seems clear who will and who won't still have their skates on in a few weeks time, with the divide between those making up the celebrity numbers and those in it to win it glaringly obvious.

Despite singer Gareth Gates' recent boasts that Maria Filippov, with who he has been paired, is "by far the best skater", the smart money has to be on Hollyoaks actor Chris Fountain.

Not only is he a young, athletic and theatre school-trained, just like Strictly Come Dancing's surprise package Matt di Angelo, but he was a regular ice hockey player before he devoted his time to playing troubled teen Justin Burton in the Channel 4 soap.

What's more, it has just emerged that this experience on the ice has already paid off as Chris looks set to be the only celebrity going into Sunday's opening show not carrying an injury picked up during recent practice sessions.

In comparison, singers Samantha Mumba, Gareth Gates and Suzanne Shaw – all of whom should be able to transfer their on-stage dancing skills onto the rink - have picked up numerous bumps, bruises and torn ligaments between them.

At the same time, it seems hardly to matter at all that cleaning guru Aggie MacKenzie is already being forced to wear a knee support after several hard falls, ex-Page 3 stunner Linda Lusardi has broken her foot or children's TV veteran Sarah Greene is in pretty bad shape as none of these ladies are likely to make it past the opening shows anyway, particularly with the likes of Jason Gardner, Robin Cousins and Karen Barber are all set to return to make the judging panel as harsh as ever.

Perhaps the dark horse of the competition and maybe worth a sly bet is former tennis ace Greg Rusedski.

Given that ex-England rugby player Kyran Bracekn took the title last time around, it could be the case that the adopted Brit's higher levels of coordination and athleticism fare better than the finesse of his music and TV-world rivals.

Commenting on the upcoming contest, coach Jayne Torvill, who will return alongside Olympic partner Christopher Dean, said: "We have a great mix of stars from the worlds of sport, radio and TV who have the potential to match some of the outstanding talent we saw on the first series."

Though this may well be the case, as with all talent shows these days, the competition really gets going a month or so in.

Until then, expect lots of falls and precious little high quality ice skating.