The UK media is in a frenzy, social platforms have gone into overdrive and the burning question on everyone’s lips – who do you believe?
Forget wars, presidential elections and a new prime minister, it is the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, which spawned Dancing With The Stars, that has become the water cooler subject tout jour.
For millions of fans like me, the Saturday night prime time show is the perfect run up to the Christmas season. It’s in the TV schedules same time every year and is a huge hit. For those of us that haven’t had enough of the series, there’s a Christmas Day special, followed by a nationwide live tour. And yes, I’ve been for the last 5 years – I don’t get out much!
This year should have been one of celebration as it marked 20 glorious years. But then came actress Amanda Abbington and claims that there is a dark underbelly to the sequins and spray tans we see on our screens.
Abbington, the former partner of actor Martin Freeman, who played Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit film trilogy, signed up for the show last year. She’s not exactly a household name but having apparently been made bankrupt, it was easy to see why she, like many others, would be lured by the fee that comes with the high-profile show.
And when she was partnered with resident Romeo, Giovanni Pernice. The good-looking Italian was always a favourite but won even more hearts after a stunningly choreographed and BAFTA award-winning routine with deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, which brought new focus to the hearing impaired and saw a huge surge in the public wanting to learn sign language.
But just weeks in, despite looking like they were possible contenders for the coveted glitterball, Amanda quit for ‘health reasons’.
Media leaks claimed she had PTSD from the show. Seriously? It’s dancing, scoffed me and millions of others.
But Amanda wasn’t going to let it lie. She campaigned to find others who had not been happy in previous years and before you know it, lawyers are involved, She claims Giovanni’s behaviour was: ‘ Unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean. I couldn’t sit back and let him do that to other people’.
The specifics will presumably come out in an investigation or court or both. Giovanni for his part has kept a dignified silence for now and, with other successful TV shows and tours in the pipeline, he decided to quit.
Since then a slew of celebrities, athletes and influencers, have come forward to complain about the terrible time they had on the show, going back more than 10 years.
One professional, Graziano Di Prima has been let go because he apparently kicked his dance partner and shouted at her – ever thought of anger management BBC? A Paralympian complained he was encouraged to jump off a table for a routine that left him in crippling pain – could he not have said no?
Meanwhile a wildlife presenter who thinks nothing of swimming with sharks says his petite female professional was rude and impatient and her choreography and tuition was tough. Errrrrr!
Of course I don’t condone bullying in any form but even from my armchair, I can see the hard work needed and demanded to make a show – from the dancers to the backroom staff.
Former MP Anne Widdecombe, who was a big hit when she competed in 2010, despite her lack of dancing prowess, said this week: ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have much patience, for two reasons. First of all, everything that you do when you are training is filmed and recorded, and there’s usually two people there, both sound and camera, but always at least one. So there’s already a third party in the room and it’s all on record.
‘Secondly, it’s the celebrity who is in control. You can say, sorry, I can’t do any more today, I’m worn out, I’ve had enough, I can’t do the thing you want me to do. These are adults’.
There are an awful lot of fans, like me, who are just a little bit tired of people wanting a great pay day to star on what is effectively a reality show, and then being upset that it’s actually quite a lot of hard work. And yes, I do want to say ‘Oh do grow up’.
After all, if it was so bad, why did most of them go on to the month long tour that follows?
The professional dancers are former champions, so competitiveness is in their DNA. Their feet will have bled, they’ll have had to follow strict diets, and can any of the celebrities they partnered have been in any doubt that they were embarking on a kind of dancing boot camp?
Making dancers out of people who, for the most part, have never danced before to produce great performances every week, was always going to be incredibly hard work. They had a huge spotlight and great career opportunities usually followed.
But now the sparkle of the UK show, which has been sold to 60 countries through the Dancing with the Stars franchise, has been tarnished.
Will I now find myself footloose on Saturday nights? Only time will tell.
