KAREN Barber is a woman in demand. "I feel like I'm doing everything on double time.

"I got into Blackburn on a train at 5am this morning and first thing tomorrow I'll be heading back to London," she said.

It's no wonder Karen is so busy -- as well as her place on the new hit show Dancing On Ice judging panel, she and husband Steven Pickavance, a fellow coach at Blackburn, are responsible for training the celebrity couples and choreographing the routines every week.

The 44-year-old mum of two teenage girls, of Billinge, Blackburn, got involved in the show after being contacted by old friends, Olympic ice dance champions Torvill and Dean.

"My husband and I worked with Chris and Jayne for many years," she explained.

"When they were approached to do the show, they contacted us to be a support team for them. There's such a lot to do to choreograph 10 numbers every week and to coach."

The show -- likened to Strictly Come Dancing -- has already proved a huge success with 11.2 million viewers tuning into the first episode last Saturday. In it celebrities are paired with professionals to skate for viewers' votes with one celeb being voted off at the end of each show.

Karen and Steven have spent hundreds of hours training the celebrities, some of whom could barely stand on ice.

"We started in November with four weeks' intensive training," said Karen.

"We literally had to start from scratch. We've been spending 12 hours as day on the ice.

"We threw the coaching book out of the window. and in weeks they've learned what it takes others years to master."

Visitors to Blackburn Ice Arena may even have seen North West based contestants Sean Wilson (Corrie's Martin Platt) and actress Gaynor Faye practising.

Far from being fazed by the contestants' celebrity status, Karen says it made them easier to teach.

"They're the type of people who don't under stand the words 'I can't'," she said.

Karen is no stranger to success. In the prime of her skating career she and skating partner Nicky Slater (a fellow judge on the show) were ranked third in Europe and fifth in the world.

Fifteen years ago she and her husband moved to Blackburn to take up jobs at the Ice Arena, where she is now director of coaching.

One thing Karen is adamant will not happen is that she will achieve notoriety for being nasty, like X-Factor's Simon Cowell.

"I would never be like that," she said resolutely.

"Fame doesn't matter to me. At the end of the day I will still go back to coaching in Blackburn. My business isn't showbusiness, it's skating."