Strictly Come Dancing '24 Thread 1 : Who will be our celebs and Pros?

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

Starting a new SCD thread for chat prior to the series as the last is about to fill.

These threads are usually helmed by @PolkadotsAndMoonbeams and I normally deputise, but I haven't seen her around in a while

This thread will discuss who has been chosen for the show, but not who has been paired with who as that's a spoiler for the first show.

This is a NO SPOILER thread

Get Ready To KEEP DANCING.

IMO, having people who are currently professional dancers as celebs is an unfairness too far. However, this idea that having ringers on the show is a newish development is totally false. They've been around since series two.

I don't like the story about senior pros being let go after this series. I hate to say it, but historically The Sun has had mainly accurate scoops on the goings-on at Strictly. Getting rid of pros who haven't been specifically accused of anything is arbitrary and, in this case, smacks of ageism and scapegoating. It's the producers who need sorting out. Treating the pros as if they are expendable is largely responsible for them taking that insecurity out on their celebs.

I love Richard and Marina but this is the one subject that I know more about than they do (from certain perspectives - obvs they know some of the behind the scenes people personally) and this bit below Is not true - in the first few years they were really open about the rows and stresses behind the scenes and the show was arguably better for it. Half the "shock exclusive footage" the tabloids are now touting was originally broadcast on ITT or in the pre-dance videos on Saturday night.

(hurrah for Apple Podcasts' transcription service)
"You have to accept that it is very, very, very, very hard to train to be a ballroom dancer. You have to accept that those couples are going to have arguments. When was the last time you ever saw an argument on Strictly?

You don't do it. And by the way, I understand why, because that's not what they want to have on their show.

People don't want to see this.

That's not the Strictly way. So they've never ever shown it.”

From The Rest Is Entertainment: Is Strictly Come Dancing In Trouble?, 23 Jul 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-entertainment/id1718287198?i=1000663032285
This material may be protected by copyright.

I thought that as well @EvilRingahBitch - but on the whole I think their whole piece was measured and balanced.

I suspect the switch to "everything is rosy and we're all best friends forever" is partly what's driving these issues. Firstly, there's a perceived shock that the reality is different to the perception. But it must be very hard to experience issues and feel like no one else is, because that's the image they've portrayed.

The interesting thing to me throughout all of this is that Laila felt able to complain about Anton's remark and it was dealt with. Steve Backshall felt safe to complain about Ola, and it was dealt with, and they had a chaparone.

At what point, did people (contestants, crew members) stop feeling safe to complain? THATS the real story. And it comes back to poor producers

I’ve just listened to that podcast. I think it’s true what Richard and Marina say; that having taken the dance level of the show to ridiculously high standards, and having not been totally open and honest about the brutality of the training required to get to those levels, it is going to be a very difficult task to dial it back down. A very difficult balance to be struck and I have no idea how the producers will handle it.

Claudia doing a little serious piece to camera at the start of episode one is not really going to cut it, is it?

Also, I think we the viewers have got used to seeing 10s being scored in week three and it will be hard to keep our interest if there is too much low level dancing. I think we all say we don’t mind it, but in reality, too much of it can be tedious. Equally, obvious ringers are plain unfair.

It’s too late to cancel it this autumn but perhaps they will make an announcement that this 20th year will be its last and that will
be enough to squeak it through. As Richard said, it’s unprecedented for a juggernaut show to make it to twenty years as it is!

Also, speaking cynically, maybe all
of this bad publicity will make more people tune in?

Maybe they could scrap the current chosen celebrities and return it to “the community” and exploit feature children or ordinary members of the public instead - as long as as rehearsals are chaperoned and they have a psychologist or two on hand?

Thinking about it, I wouldn’t mind seeing the modern equivalent of a butcher, a baker, a candlestick-maker all
being put through their paces. Plus an NHS nurse? A teacher? A paramedic? Choose them all from the same small village near Blackpool. And then have the grand finale at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom with a full quotient of nans and proud family members in attendance.

There you go BBC! Problem solved! 😀

Or … or ….

Maybe scrap the celebrities and focus on young ballroom dancers from different countries who are used to the level of training required and we follow their “journey” from leaving dance or stage school , let them feature in the show, and we follow them through the competition,on to their professional careers…

And the final series could be renamed “Strictly; the future”.

I've been touting Strictly Mum Dancing for years!
I think it would go the way of Strictly Dance Fever though and not last as long.
The people's Strictly had a tap dancer, a dance graduate, a musical theatre am dram, a zumba woman and two stans. They had all done something inspiring.
They all had glowing praise and the "ringers" got 40.
It was okay but nobody was a duffer per se.
It's considered okay to laugh at Les Dennis but I'm sure if it was John Doe, it would be deemed cruel.

I love it Failbetter! 😀😀

It would be a sure hit! 👍

Also, inspired by your post, how about “Strictly Mum and Dad dancing?”

Thanks for the podcast link.
I wonder how many contestants they know personally?
I know Richard Madeley said he knew people who'd told him how it really was. That would explain why his daughter did DOI and why he chose the jungle instead. He knows full well his and Judy's marriage would be put under scrutiny.

Richard has been asked, I think, as has Marion Keyes. Both said they'd rather be superfans only (Richard has nystagmus although the rumour is they are having a blind contestant this year, so it wouldn't have ruled him out but he doesn't need the gig).

It was amateur when it first started but I don't think it was necessarily more gentle in practise, although Spangles wouldn't win it nowadays (Gaynor Faye said the same about DOI).

I liked the podcast. Richard comparing it with Gordon Ramsay/SAS reality was interesting (about the level of dancing being so extraordinary now that if you want that level, you have to do the brutal, military-style training according to one of the pros).

The flywheel effect of it being supposedly life-changing drawing vulnerable contestants was also interesting. Perhaps, you would put Ranvir and Helen into those categories but I thought most were in it for the cash/exposure/Autumn gig.

I still find Graziano's claim he needed anger management organised for him laughable. He'd have been better expressing dissatisfaction with the pressure placed on him rather than abdicating responsibility for his own lack of self-control.

Richard ought to know Strictly lore- I can't believe he's a fan of the show but doesn't remember the squabbles that used to be shown/exaggerated/edited for shits and giggles. He's wrong on that - people did like watching it - rubbernecking on Pasha's frustration with Chelsea's mobile phone addiction or Lulu giving Brenda the evils. Bad boys James and Brendan were expected to play up that role.

I think the newer era of fluffy positivity came in with Louise Rainbow.

@FailBetter I'd love to see Marion on it, but I think she knows she wouldn't be able to cope with the pressures.

I'm shocked by what Richard said about how they do psychological evaluations for "normal" people on TV shows, but not celebs, taking an approach of "you know what you're signing up for" - thats bloody shocking.

Apart from anything, these shows KNOW how "passionate" the fans are (and I say that loosely, meaning the trolls) - so their should be some sort of pastural care to make sure that the contestants can cope with that level of pressure.

I've said all along from the start - as soon as Amanda Abbington was announced, she was getting such vicious backlash from social media because of her previous trans comments, that she was ALWAYS going to be going into this with a negative perception of who she is. I do think if she's been diagnosed with PTSD from it, social media users will have contributed heavily towards it.

It definitely feels like a press pile on at the moment. Past issues like Steve Backshall were dealt with at the time and shouldn’t be dragged up now - the issue is that Graz was allowed to behave absolutely appallingly and nothing was done at the time. Def a production issue and those people who covered it up should be fired.

Telling someone ‘that was rubbish - try again’ isn’t bullying imo. I’ve heard that a million times from DDs sports coach and it’s water off a ducks back. There should have been a discussion about if the jump was safe considering Wills condition, and at the end of the day I do think he should have refused if he felt uncomfortable.

I hope it survives…I do think the ringers are a problem with driving up the standard too high

Interesting post.

I hadn’t twigged about Amanda and the trans issue.

Yes I was shocked too about the lack of psychological assessments for celebrities. I think Richard was saying that if you are in show biz as a profession, or are a professional athlete, it is assumed that you can handle yourself.

But thinking about it, many people go in to show business because they crave external validation from audiences. And as such could potentially be already vulnerable.

Add to that factors such as emerging from a nasty divorce (Helen) or a devastating bereavement (Annabel) and you are dealing with quite heavy issues.

And as you say, itsnotabouthepasta,
all of the tabloid and sm interest has ramped up massively in the past twenty years and it appears that the BBC have not kept pace with that.

I definitely think the duty of care should extend to help with sm trolling etc.

They (Will and his coach I think) apparently met with production staff before starting to make them aware that big jumps of any kind were absolutely not safe in any circumstances for Will and to get an agreement that he wouldn't be asked to do them. They agreed from what's been reported that he wouldn't have to do jumps. Then on the day he was asked he reiterated that it wasn't safe for him but it seems there were multiple people there telling him "you'll be fine, don't worry" and he felt pressured into doing it even though he didn't want to. Its all so sad.

You're right @Whatdoyouneedsonia32789 when you say this - "But thinking about it, many people go in to show business because they crave external validation from audiences. And as such could potentially be already vulnerable.

Add to that factors such as emerging from a nasty divorce (Helen) or a devastating bereavement (Annabel) and you are dealing with quite heavy issues."

They are actively seeking contestants who are in a vulnerable space, because it adds to the overall "journey" of the narrative they want to tell.

It also goes to the matching of the pairs. Helen or Annabel coming off the back of divorce/death would have been absolutely crushed and broken if they had been with anyone other than Gorka and JoJo.

My impression of Amanda was that she was someone who is relatively thin skinned, but also vulnerable in that she was coming off the back of her partner having life changing injuries. But I also think she's someone who is quite competitive and wanted to win and would have been open about that during the initial conversations (and she did have talent and I suspect could have made it to the final stages) - therefore, they would have paired her with a competitive pro, without taking due diligence into her vulnerabilities, hence it was a disaster waiting to happen.

I am just catching up to the thread and will listen to the podcast but I have to wonder just WHO will sign that dotted line in the coming weeks due to all the negative publicity

I think also different cultures, and having a pro where English isn't their first language, can make it even harder. It can be frustrating enough if you're struggling with a step even without that extra layer! If you're getting annoyed you can't do it, and the pro is struggling to explain it in different ways or with the same nuances as in their native language I can see how it could keep building up.

We all have to do cultural sensitivity training at work, and one of the things that comes up is how in Britain, it's most polite to be indirect. We apologise, say please/thank you/sorry/if you don't mind and smile a lot. In quite a lot of Eastern Europe this can come across as us being shifty and dishonest. Whereas to me, they might be direct to the point of it sounding rude.

So one teacher might say "I think you could do that better, try again" but another might say "that was rubbish, do it again". No difference in the intent behind it, but couched in different terms.

(Although of course there are times where people are definitely being rude and you shouldn't just ignore it because they're Russian or whatever!)

News items now saying that the established Pro’s may be replaced as they feel they are untouchable. Seeing as Brendon and James got the sack it feels like spin to move the blame away from the production team.

I still find Graziano's claim he needed anger management organised for him laughable. He'd have been better expressing dissatisfaction with the pressure placed on him rather than abdicating responsibility for his own lack of self-control

Well, yes.

But that's violent men all over, isn't it? Their aggression is never their fault, according to them. It's always their wives' fault. Or someone's fault. Or whatever circumstance's fault.

Never their own.

I hadn’t twigged about Amanda and the trans issue

That was the issue though, before the series even started.

Amanda got unbearable online abuse from the TRAs long before the series began to air.

I think that made her position untenable, even without Gio's bullying.

I also think she would have beaten Ellie Leach, and lifted the glitterball.

Ugh, no to showing rehearsal room arguments on the telly, it would be like Big Brother in Spanx.

I'm also anti the idea of getting real folk on it (although I'm aware of the irony of that, given that most years I've heard of three of the contestants).

Yep the TRA’s bullied her mercilessly on SM. Awful.

she was very talented and agree she could have gone far

Equally against it being ordinary people but having more honest training room stuff was good viewing.

Tim Davie has released a statement I will try and link

The Director General Speaks

news.sky.com/story/amp/strictly-come-dancing-the-line-should-never-be-crossed-says-bbc-boss-tim-davie-13183622

I actually think the opposite- this will be the year that all eyes will be on the pros and so nobody will be bullied etc.

I also think it might mean that the stupidly high standards might not be reached in week one, if they're not allowed to use the whip...

I agree though, that some might be put off as they don't want to be associated with it all

This is a really good point and something I have only seen mentioned here. They expect a huge amount from the pros - some of whom are relatively young - in a language not their mother tongue. And when under a lot of pressure from the producers. And on the other side, straightforward language can seem quite confrontational from a British perspective.

The only way I will countenance the show being cancelled is if they replace it with those repeats of Come Dancing from the 1970's which they aired on BBC Four a year ago. Hand on heart I have never seen anything so entertaining in my life.

I don't really like the idea of a civilian Strictly. The People's Strictly was really boring, it would be even crueller to expose regular people to the bear-pit of Strictly social media, tabloid intrusion and the judges' comments, and it would probably be too nicey-nicey and emotionally manipulative, basically a series-long Couple's Choice VT-fest.

They obviously need to detoxify the production team but, other than that, this scandal is being overblown. I also think it would be a mistake for Strictly to in any way address the furore on the actual show. Do it on The One Show if you must but nobody watches Strictly for sackcloth and ashes.