Nottingham, England.
Home of Robin Hood...
..Raleigh bicycles...
and writer DH Lawrence.
A city not commonly associated with the Olympic Winter Games -
until a trainee policeman called Christopher Dean
met an insurance clerk named Jane Torvill...
..and they combined to become
one of the greatest Olympic duos of all time.
We often refer to great sporting moments
in artistic terms -
"a masterpiece",
"a creative genius",
"a thing of beauty" -
raising sport to an art form.
There are events where artistic merit is
a key requirement for victory.
Some routines demand movement and inspiration
to impress the all-important judges.
The year is 1984.
The venue is Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
The temperature is cold.
Torvill and Dean were overwhelming favourites
to win gold in the Ice Dancing competition.
Ice Dancing is a discipline in figure skating that draws
from ballroom dancing...on ice.
Unlike pair skating, couples must perform spins as a team
in a dance hold.
Throws and jumps are disallowed.
Elegance, grace and beauty are key, but Torvill and Dean
wanted to take the art form to another level.
Basically, it's ballroom dancing in boots,
with blades...
on cold stuff.
Already world champions, the two British skaters wanted
to challenge the very boundaries of their sport.
When they took to the ice on Valentine's Day,
they presented a routine inspired by Romeo and Juliet -
a dance that was risky and innovative.
More than simply sport.
Judges assess performance on two criteria -
technical merit and artistic impression.
But this routine was something different for those used to
the ways of ice dance in the 1980s.
No bow ties, no show tunes, no dramatic set pieces,
just the haunting beat of Ravel's Bolero.
They had worked tirelessly
on the amateur circuit in Nottingham for years.
But they really picked up their pursuit of perfection
after the Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games in 1980,
where they finished fifth.
They then decided to quit their jobs
to concentrate full-time on their sport.
The results were spectacular.
With a series of innovative and dynamic routines,
the young British pair won every event they entered
for the next four years.
By 1984, Torvill and Dean were known well beyond Nottingham.
They had become a national obsession.
24 million TV viewers -
almost half the population of Great Britain -
tuned in to watch this routine.
When the two practised in an empty hall that morning,
the cleaners put down their brooms to applaud.
Now Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean
had the whole world watching, and nine judges to impress.
Nine judges to decide who would win the Olympic gold medal.
There it is, there it is.
You know, really a beautiful performance that was perhaps
not difficult, perhaps no changes, perhaps nothing.
You can criticise it from here to zero,
from here to the end of the week, but it was a beautiful,
emotional experience
and that's all that counts about this game.
Wonderful.
The technical scores were outstanding.
None lower than 5.9,
with three judges awarding Torvill and Dean perfect sixes.
The gold medal was surely theirs.
The audience awaited the judges' scores
for artistic merit.
..the marks for artistic impression
and they'll be in the same range, and across the board.
All the way across - that is a first.
All perfect marks.
Oh, we are so lucky to be here to see this.
This is wonderful.
Ten perfect sixes.
Every judge gave it a perfect score for artistic impression -
the first time ever in the history of ice dancing.
That's...just so beautiful.