Amanda Abbington claims BBC staff ‘abandoned her’ after Strictly complaints and brands Giovanni ‘liar’ over camera issue
AMANDA Abbington was seen getting emotional as she revealed no one from the BBC reached out to her in the wake of her official complaint against Giovanni Pernice.
The Sherlock actress was partnered with Giovanni Pernice last year, and lasted just five weeks before she dropped out on “personal grounds”.
Since then, she has lodged an official complaint to the BBC with the support of at least two of Giovanni’s other former partners.
The complaint has sparked an official investigation into the show and rehearsal practices, with Giovanni quitting the show.
On Channel 4 News on Wednesday night, Amanda spoke to to Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who was also on the line-up of last year’s Strictly.
During the chat, she claimed there is 50 hours of footage that she’s been blocked from seeing, and no one from the BBC have reached out to her in the aftermath of the show.
“Just be better, you know? It’s not hard,” she told him. “Just be aware of what’s going on, and then when it is going on, you see it’s going on, nip it in the bud. Don’t allow it to continue.”
She added: “I haven’t spoken to anyone from the BBC since Strictly, nobody’s reached out to me since Strictly, either through me or through my lawyer, nobody has…”
When Murthy told her BBC director general Tim Davie publicly requested people who have had a bad experience reach out to him, she added she intended to.
“Yeah, okay, well, I will then,” she said. “If he wants to talk, I’ll talk to him, I’ll tell him. I can tell him what happened in that room.”
“I don’t have any… I’m not ashamed of what I did in that room, because I didn’t do anything wrong in that room,” she added.
“I didn’t do anything wrong in that room. That courtesy wasn’t extended to me, just simple as that. And it could have been, so easily.
“Because there were pockets of moments when that did happen. That he [Giovanni] was nice and he was, you know, positive, and then that quickly ended and it became unworkable again. Disastrously unworkable, horribly unworkable.
“So, I know what I did in that room, and I know I did the best I could do. I know, I worked as hard as I could. I know that I put in 100% commitment to that.”
She also hit back at Giovanni’s claims that he wasn’t blocking over 50 hours of footage of time in the rehearsal rooms, alleging producers would often come and apologise to her after looking back through it.
She claims the footage shows her being “bullied” by Giovanni.
“I mean, you know, 50 hours is a lot of footage, and a lot of time spent in a room that was toxic,” she said. “In the first week, I raised my concerns to the producers, and they very quickly said…
“I mean, Giovanni said that he asked for the cameras, he didn’t ask for the cameras. I know that he didn’t ask for the cameras, because the producers came to me and said, ‘we’re going to put in cameras so we can view the footage at the end of the week and make an assessment and see what’s going on’.”
“Then every Friday after that, for the next sort of five weeks, I would get the producer saying on the Friday, ‘we’ve just watched the footage back, we are shocked and horrified. We’re so sorry’.”
She added that they would tell her to her face during camera rehearsal, rather than via text or e-mail.
“It’s out there. There is [footage], there is evidence out there, of what happened in that room,” she added. “And I’m not the one who’s blocking it.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “Anyone involved in a complaint has a right to confidentiality and fair process and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further on individuals.
“However, when issues are raised with us we always take them extremely seriously and have appropriate processes in place to manage this.
“As we have said before, we would urge people not to indulge in speculation.”
“More generally, the BBC and BBC Studios takes duty of care extremely seriously,” they added.
“Our processes on Strictly Come Dancing are updated every year, they are kept under constant review and last week we announced additional steps to further strengthen welfare and support on the show.”
Strictly's Full Scandal So Far
Strictly Come Dancing's scandal has been growing over the past few months, with several major players speaking out about what went on. Here are the key moments of what's happened so far
16th May: Giovanni Pernice sensationally quits Strictly Come Dancing after nine years on the show.
17th May: Giovanni becomes the centre of an official investigation after three former partners – believed to be Amanda Abbington, Laura Whitmore and Ranvir Singh – make complaints to the BBC.
16th June: Giovanni releases an official statement vowing to clear his name and denies any wrongdoing.
8th July: Strictly confirms Aljaz Skorjanec will return to the series, replacing Giovanni, after initially quitting the show two years ago.
10th July: Amanda Abbington launches fresh legal proceedings to get the rehearsal footage from her time with Giovanni, after allegedly he refused to release the videos.
13th July: Graziano Di Prima is axed from Strictly for “gross misconduct” after footage of his treatment of Zara McDermott is brought to the attention of the BBC.
Graziano quickly broke his silence, apologising for his behaviour in a statement and saying he “deeply regrets it”, adding his “intense passion and determination to win might have affected his training regime.”
15th July: Strictly bosses implement new duty of care protocols, including having a chaperone present throughout all rehearsals.
16th July: Zara McDermott speaks out publicly for first time. She states while the production team were “amazing to work with”, she found the rehearsal room “completely different”, confirming there’s footage of “certain situations”.
19th July: Anton Du Beke is put under the spotlight for his “1970s attitude” and treatment of female celeb stars, particularly after allegedly referring to 2009 partner Laila Rouass as a “p***” after getting a spray tan.
21st July: Paralympian Will Bayley, who has limb condition arthrogryposis, revealed he was encouraged to leap from a table during a dance routine, despite fears. The stunt caused an injury that forced him to withdraw from the show.
22nd July: MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace admits he broke down in tears and got a nasty stress rash on his face during his time on Strictly in 2014.
23rd July: Celebrity agent Melanie Blake claims she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed pro dancer while backstage on the show, and claims she witnessed ageism, rudeness and a rough treatment to the point of injury.
23rd July: BBC boss Tim Davie breaks his silence on the ongoing allegations against Strictly, saying he is ‘deeply sorry’, adding: “Hundreds of people, be they pros, contestants or crew have been part of it and had a brilliant experience.
“At the same time if someone thinks there was something wrong or they want to talk about their experience then of course we want them to raise that with us. Be in no doubt we will take it seriously, listen and deal with it as appropriate.”