Strictly’s sparkly, family-friendly veneer is now tarnished forever as BBC stands accused of covering up years of abuse
HOW immensely gratifying for Amanda Abbington.
For months she has been ridiculed, lampooned and, more sinisterly, issued with deplorable rape threats.
Whatever she may or may not have experienced, her decision to go public, to deploy £700-an-hour lawyers, unequivocally now appears the correct one.
By speaking out and making a formal complaint to the BBC, she has opened a can of worms — one that the Corporation has been at pains to keep firmly shut.
Today our national broadcaster stands accused of covering up years of abuse and gross misconduct on its flagship show Strictly Come Dancing.
News that Graziano Di Prima was TWICE issued with warnings following reports of excessive brutality to partner Zara McDermott, yet still given a shiny new contract, is deeply troubling.
In any normal workplace, it’s one warning — maybe a “management training course” — and then you’re out on your ear should you repeat-offend.
Not at the BBC.
Similarly, Graziano’s fellow Sicilian Giovanni Pernice — Sicilians eh?
Not a whiff of public scandal for years then two implosions in two months — has faced years of troubling rumours.
It wasn’t a case of hiding in plain sight.
Several former Strictly dance partners made it patently obvious that they had struggled with him.
Back in 2018, one of them, Laura Whitmore, literally went on the record in an article for the Huffington Post.
In it she wrote: “I was placed with a dance partner I was extremely uncomfortable with — and in the end I felt broken.
“I cried every day. And I really was broken, both mentally and physically, by the end.
“To the outside world I tried to suck it up and smile, and I did that to the best of my ability, but it affected me deeply.”
So was Giovanni pulled in for questioning? Apparently not.
Subsequent partners made their feelings clear too, and Amanda actually complained to the BBC during last year’s series — yet still the BBC did nothing, except also offer him another shiny new contract.
RUGBY IN A FROCK
Giovanni — who denies any wrongdoing — quit before he was pushed.
The BBC did not fire him.
If more emerges, further complaints about other pro dancers, it will surely be untenable for the BBC to continue with its most successful show in its current guise.
Perhaps, though, we, the viewing public, are part of the problem.
We want ten out of ten performances, high kicks galore and sexy salsas.
We don’t want Ann Widdecombe-esque donkeys being hauled around the ballroom floor.
But these magical performances — think Giovanni’s incredible performance with deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis — don’t come by holding your partner’s hand, and offering gentle words of encouragement.
They come with hours and hours of strenuous, back-breaking graft.
Ballroom dancing is so much more than fake tans and sexy Lycra.
It is a brutal sport — rugby in a frock, judo in a tux.
As you’ll have read in the previous two pages, Giovanni and Graziano both attended the Team Diablo dance school, which sounds unimaginably savage.
Dancers are tough by nature. Very few make it to the top.
Those on Strictly, the one per cent, have reputations to uphold.
It’s their careers on the line should they be landed with a snowflake partner who refuses to put in the hard graft.
No wonder tempers flare and things are said — or done — in the heat of the moment.
They’re used to dancing with fellow pros, not pampered celebrities who are in it to bolster their profiles and make a quick buck.
The BBC knows this.
To mollycoddle celebs, make them train, say, a maximum of five hours a day, would not make for good telly.
Whatever happens, though, only one thing is for certain — the veneer of the sparkly, sequinned, family-friendly show has been tarnished forever.
TIME TO GO NOW GARETH
CONSOLATIONS to the male Lionesses.
A disappointing result, and a subdued nation, but Rio Ferdinand hit the nail on the head when he said only victory on Sunday would have vindicated Gareth Southgate’s “conservative” (read: deathly dull, timid) style of play.
Gareth seems a lovely bloke, but with the wealth of talent at England’s disposal, surely it’s now time to give someone else a go – a manager who will play to win, not to not lose.
POOR Prince George must have been the only ten-year-old in the country not in an England shirt on Sunday night.
Still, the suited and booted young royal was also probably the only British ten-year-old with pride of place in a hospitality box in Berlin’s historic Olympiastadion.
So, swings ’n’ roundabouts.
ONCE upon a time Eminem was a pretty cool, if a tad controversial, bleached blond rapper.
Today he’s the double of Liza Minnelli’s late husband, David Gest.
NOMINATIVE determinism of the year: Zoe Hamburger has just been appointed Chief Restaurant Officer at McDonald’s.
Hamburger will be responsible for the company’s 1,450 British and Irish eateries.
Dark days ahead for the Filet-O-Fish.
MIGHTY TRUMP
IF a picture paints a thousand words, then this image all but sealed Donald Trump’s second term as president.
Love him or loathe him, the shot of a defiant Trump’s unprecedented courage in the wake of a terrifying assault not only of him, but US democracy, is impossible not to admire.
His physical, towering strength, and rallying roar in the heat of the moment is everything poor Joe Biden is not.
POLICE PRAISE
IN this column, I’ve been quick to knock the police.
From the tragedy of Sarah Everard to officers prioritising Twitter trolls over thefts, assaults and robberies, the cops haven’t been quick to cover themselves in glory these past few years.
But spare a thought for the poor police who, day to day, deal with unimaginable horrors.
This past week alone, officers have had to cope with dead bodies in a suitcase, and the unspeakable crossbow killer aftermath – sights no human being should ever bear witness to.
It’s not an easy job – and the force’s everyday bravery and stoicism should not be forgotten.
POOR Boris.
This meme, of the former PM with wife Carrie Johnson at the £250million “wedding of the year” in Mumbai, is currently doing the rounds on t’internet.
Brilliant.
FELLAS, THIS THONG IS THE VEST A MAN CAN GET
MEN, finally!
The “bodysuit muscle tank” is here – meaning those pesky vest crinkles are a thing of the past.
You can snap up yours, a bargain at about £40, from Sammy Menswear.
You’re welcome.