Diane Towler

It was the legendary coach Gladys Hogg who brought ice dancers Diane Towler and Bernard Ford together as teenagers and taught them at the Queen´s Ice Rink in London. They went on to dominate the world of ice dancing in the second part of the 1960s as they won four successive World and European Championships between 1966-69, when they were well known for their “Zorba the Greek” free dance routine. In addition to their eight World and European titles, Towler and Ford also won four British titles in the same years, having finished third in 1965. They also took part in the ice dance demonstration event at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics.

Ford and Towler turned professional in 1969 and won that year´s world professional ice dance title. Towler later did ice shows in England and Russia, and after Bernard Ford went to live in Canada Towler took up coaching at Streatham and guided many future champions including Janet Sawbridge and Peter Dalby, who won bronze at the 1972 European Championships. Towler also coached her own twin daughters Phillipa and Candice, who were both British junior ice dance champions, while Phillipa was also four times runner-up in the senior national ice dance championships with Phillip Poole between 2006-09.