Donal MacIntyre has hit out at claims that his journalistic credibility is not being undermined by his appearance on ITV’s Dancing On Ice.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, MacIntyre explained: “I can’t imagine why anyone would think that learning from Torvill and Dean, two of the greatest cultural icons in the world, would be in any way demeaning.”

Asked what attracted him to the ITV1 skating competition, he replied: “I was shanghaied into this by my wife and two daughters. There is no, ‘Bring your Daughters to Work Day’ when your job is exposing criminals, so I was very keen to do a show where my girls could actually see Daddy at work.”