So sad about Strictly.

[CurlewKate]

It's been part of our family life since it started. I really wanted to think it was as wholesome and joyous and life affirming as it looked, even though I knew it probably wasn't.

And there are celebrities that I feel differently about now because they didn't blow the whistle.😢

I was discussing this with my teenagers. I think while there is obviously an massive element of personal responsibility, the BBC also need to share the blame.

It's obvious that someone like Adam Peaty thrived on the 'difficult' element; he's know for pushing himself to excellence in his day job. Katya is a hard taskmaster and it seemed he respected this.

Equally, Annabel Croft absolutely needed someone like JoJo who could care for her while she was grieving. His kindness evidently brought out the best in her.

Leyton was used to pushing for perfection as his day job demands it.

Other people- and I'm just generalising; presenters, influencers, maybe found the culture a shock; and the BBC needed to think carefully about who they paired them with. It was evident that Anton always worked hard to show the celebs off to their best (even if they were rubbish)- he danced to their strengths. I would imagine experience helped him to do this.

If the BBC were aware that certain professionals could be quite 'intense' in their need for perfection/to win; it was their job to train them/explain that this method doesn't work with all guests. To intervene if it was getting unpleasant. And ultimately, not bring them back if they couldn't change the way they taught. And the people who review the footage surely must have seen something? You can imagine some dancers replicating the way they were taught with the celebs; and this was certainly not the correct way to behave in many situations.

There are three that have come to light: Rachel Riley who believes she has PTSD from the experience, Amanda Abbington who complained and received a backlash and now Zara who didn't feel able to speak out. You have to wonder how many more there have been, the show has been going on for ten years.

Not just on Tv, but many documentaries have been made over the years about bullying of children doing football or gymnastics with expectations over their weight and training regimens and some shown the door if the coaches don't think they are working hard enough ( or going to tell their parents about the abuse )
I can imagine it's hugely toxic on strictly and some of the dancers have been able to get away with all sorts because of who they are.
Seems the bbc hasn't learnt any lessons from its past and I bet a lot has been covered up

Seems to be a patten here of women being subject to this : have any of the men celebs come forwards saying similar things ?
I bet they were treated much better by their pro dancers who are mainly women

If I find out Gorka’s a wrong ‘un, I’ll be gutted.

Have you seen his and Gemma's reality show?

I don't feel he comes across particularly well!

Steve Backshall

Steve Backshall

What about him?

Claimed Ola bullied him about 10 years back,

Thanks

He complained about feeling bullied/overworked in training and was given a chaperone.
He had a certain amount of backlash including Ola's ex partners all sticking up for her.
He was eliminated very soon afterwards.
You have to bear in mind that he also had issues with his ankle iirc known about before joining the show.

Will Young, I would imagine, could also speak out about his experience but probably won't as the backlash he faced at the time was merciless and totally unnecessary.

That's just two male slebs.

Well, as per mumsnet law , I mentioned. that the female pros were probably better at the coaching and seems I'm wrong ( see below )
I bet it's more men than women who are more likely to be bullies, but im usually wrong..

The dancing level expected drives ever upwards, and it's become an endurance event rather than fun for amateurs.

It's unfair to rely on whistleblowers when anyone lucky enough to get the gig in the first place knows they are there to smile and rave about their co stars, not chuck poison in the well. It should be properly overseen.

I worked on it and was sworn to secrecy over things I saw and filmed in the training room. The BBC is a very cliquey place to work I'm not super y what's coming out.

The people who should have noticed and whistle blown are judges, presenters like Tess and Claud. They are bomb proof and should have been able to recognise the dynamic in play.

Celebs who weren’t ever going to win, but are rock solid in their own industry should also have been able to see and say- people like the newsreader who had a great time, but should have seen that some didn’t.

Sorry to be so bad at names.

Hi 80's, it's me sequins. I am not saying you are wrong. I'd imagine that the female slebs have had a harder time in general.

But I can think of the two men named above, who were accued of not being able to hack it.

Two men were also injured (Will and more recently, Nigel) and had to withdraw.

Not sure Anthony the boxer had a great time either.

Female pros with a taskmaster rep included Erin (unfairly), Oti (fairly), Ola and Karen. I have seen footage of the latter hissing every time her partner makes an error and she should cut that out.

That article is a lot of words that say not very much.

What did he actually do?

But would they have known? They didn't train together so they'd have only seen the other couples potentially on the Saturday, with lots of people around, where people might act differently.

The people editing the training clips would surely have had a far better idea of what was going on.

Yeah but you can expect to train hard without expecting to be hit and kicked.

I’m a bit sad about it too, I just thought it was Saturday night, light entertainment. I love the sequins and the costumes and the make-up etc but not if that’s what’s going on behind the scenes, how awful for Zara and any others that have endured that sort of behaviour.

What does surprise me is that no leak occurred at the time.
Whenever there is any whiff of conflict behind the scenes, it usually leaks.
Amanda and Gio - it leaked early. Michelle and Gio. Steve and Ola. Karen and Will. Brendan and Anastacia. Brendan and Lulu. Brendan and Sunetra (the latter wasn't claiming it was awful iirc, more she couldn't put as many hours in as he'd have liked).
How this didn't come out until now is what's most surprising.

This is it. I imagine it's hard work but Abbington was talking about crying and vomiting when she got home and the backlash was such that she didn't believe her own experience and had to be reassured by her husband.

Zara was hit, kicked and spat at as well as verbally abused. That goes beyond tough training.

Not sure an NDA will be broken if you spill the on a parenting forum!
Reregister as StrictlyInsider under a different email and tell us what you saw or do an AMA!

But how would Tess and Claud know? They're presenters on Saturday night, they're not in the training rooms. No doubt people behave very differently in dress rehearsals with people around compared to a private training room where they might forget they're being filmed.

The people who knew are the ones without power, who don't want to lose their jobs.