BBC apologises to ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ contestants

The BBC apologised on Tuesday to any contestant who had suffered a bad experience on Strictly Come Dancing after the long-running show was hit by allegations about the training methods of some of its professional dancers.

Strictly Come Dancing has been the BBC’s flagship entertainment show for 20 years, and the format has been sold around the world under the banner of Dancing with the Stars.

However, its reputation as a joyful and glamorous show, featuring celebrities paired with professional dancers to learn new routines each week, has been damaged by allegations of bullying and poor behaviour behind the scenes.

“I’m very sorry that anyone has had an experience on Strictly that hasn’t been wholly positive,” Director General Tim Davie told reporters. “I think that is something that we do reflect on, and I am sorry about that.” He said there had clearly been issues, specifically around training sessions, that needed to be addressed, and the broadcaster had introduced new measures to do so.

The BBC said last week that a member of production staff would be in every training session as a chaperone. That followed the departure of two professional dancers — Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima — from the show in recent weeks.

Pernice has denied any accusations of abusive or threatening behaviour. Di Prima’s spokesperson told BBC News the dancer had kicked his partner Zara McDermott, a presenter and media personality, last year, and had apologised.

Davie was confident the show would return in the autumn. “This show is about fun and entertainment primarily,” he said. “But you’ve got competitive individuals, often sports stars, others, professional dancers, who want to win.” It was incumbent on the BBC to manage that competitiveness, he said. “And if people go over the line, we have the systems and the processes to deal with that,” he said.