Strictly Come Dancing: The Next BBC Abuse Scandal?

BBC flagship entertaining programme Strictly Come Dancing is under intense scrutiny after allegations that some of the professional dancers are abusive towards contestants.

I say flagship, but it's relative really. It's just another BBC sack of shit in my eyes.

Anyhow, last week professional dancer Graziano Di Prima was dismissed from the show over unspecified allegations of "gross misconduct". Show insiders reported concerns about the Italian's manner with contestant Zara McDermott. It has now transpired that Di Prima kicked McDermott. He has admitted and apologised for the transgression, which was apparently caught on video.

A second Strictly pro dancer, Giovanni Pernice, was ditched from the show at the end of the 2023 series after one of his contestants, Sherlock actor Amanda Abbington, withdrew from the series early on medical grounds. She then requested video footage of her rehearsals with Pernice, with a view to allegedly seeking legal advice.

Former BBC journalist Fi Glover, who worked at the Corporation for almost 30 years, told The Sun that the BBC compels Strictly contestants to sign confidentiality agreements prior to their participation in the show.

Glover, now a Times Radio presenter, said: "They sign a contract that means that they show Strictly in a very positive way.

"I think it's been incredibly difficult for contestants to say things that we now realise they should have been able to say - which is that they were made to feel uncomfortable. And in these cases which are now emerging, there was really nasty physical and verbal abuse going on."

The Reverend Richard Coles, who was a contestant in the 2017, said that a Strictly insider once told him the show had a "dark heart".

Coles added: "I've spoken to contestants and also professionals about it. And I think no one has been surprised that this stuff has surfaced."

Reading around, it appears a lot of people had suspicions that verbal and physical abuse was going on behind the scenes of Strictly Come Dancing.

For all it was being discussed in hushed voices in darkened BBC corridors, it would appear that no-one has been brave enough to report their concerns to bosses for fear of the consequences. Now where have we heard that before?

It may well be the BBC's second abuse scandal of the twenty-first century.

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Further anti-BBC reading:

• Is The True Or Did You Hear It On The BBC?, by David Sedgwick (aff. link)
• The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, by Tom Mills (aff. link)