Jason Gardiner has announced he is officially returning to 'Dancing On Ice' as a judge, but won't be toning down his harsh comments.
Despite being axed and replaced by Louis Spence earlier this year, the sharp-tongued dancer said he won't change his abrasive language: "They know what they are getting with me. They're inviting me back because clearly they miss that.
"I'm still going to be honest and give my honest critique, that's all I've ever done and that's what I will continue to do."
Jason Gardiner
Speaking at London's Ice Bar, the Australian - who once described watching swimming champion Sharron Davies skate as like looking at "faecal matter that won't flush", told The Huffington Post UK he doesn't think he's nasty.
"The terminology for me is interesting. You say 'nasty' and I say 'honest' and let's call the whole thing off," he said.
And he explained that his type of comments are needed to get celebrities to improve and create good TV: "If you don't have someone that is prepared to always be honest with what they see, then these shows run the risk of being very bland.
"From a contestant's point of view, the judge they will listen to the most is the harshest critic on any panel because they know when that person does give positive enforcement they really mean it.
"You have to give them tough love, it's the only way they are going to improve in the time that we've got... I can't be there and say they're absolutely brilliant."
Asked whether he was always this direct, or if it's a way he has become because of the way he was trained, Gardiner said: "Let me tell you something, the way I was taught was by the Russians - they are task masters.
"I am a walk in the park, I am a picnic on a summer's day with butterflies flying around in comparison to how I was trained. It's a tough world, it's an even tougher world to have a career and longevity in so you need to be toughened up. There's a lot of rejection and a lot of competition."
Gardiner began his professional career at 16 and said his experiences at dance school involved physical as well as verbal abuse...
"We're going back to the eighties when they were sill allowed to cane you and you used to get caned at the bar, welts across our backs and the backs of our legs. You can't get away with that now... Things like that and the humiliation, they'd always pick out the worst part of you, stuff that they knew was your Achilles heel. But once you overcame that it made you a better dancer."
Luckily this year's 'Dancing On Ice' celebrities, rumoured to include former 'Baywatch' babe Pamela Anderson, ex-rugby player Gareth Thomas, 'Coronation Street' actress Samia Ghadie, TV presenter Anthea Turner and former 'The Only Way Is Essex' star, Lauren Goodger, will just have Gardiner's feedback to contend with.
The 2011 Dancing On Ice contestants...