ITV is banking on Torvill and Dean to win the Christmas Day ratings battle, with a drama about their victory at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

The broadcaster has scheduled the drama against BBC One’s EastEnders and Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas special, hoping that viewers will be caught up in a wave of nostalgia for the couple’s gold medal-winning performance of Bolero.

Poppy Lee Friar and Will Tudor will star as Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and the two-hour film will chart their “private, intense relationship”. It is written by William Ivory, the screenwriter behind Made in Dagenham.

While ITV tries something new, BBC One is sticking to a tried and tested formula. Its Christmas Day line-up includes special editions of Strictly Come Dancing and Call the Midwife, with the 2016 live-action version of The Jungle Book as the showpiece family film.