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.

I’m not going to be able to watch, so am looking forward to the discussion here!

I missed the beginning!

It will be on 4 on demand but here's the summary:

Amanda complained about Gio within days.
Gio still refutes it all.
BBC still saying they take duty of care seriously.
Start of year - she made a formal complaint.
Krishnan saw her having a hard time on the show.
Subsequent aftermath: Death threats, rape threats, kill yourself, die of cancer, hope your daughter gets raped, hope your son gets stabbed, you're a snowflake etc
Amanda was never invited back to the final, didn't snub them.
Ongoing complaint means she cannot give the details - all the info is being gathered - she isn't allowed to give specifics.
She was verbally abused and shut down as she felt attacked. Couldn't do her job. In the group chats everyone asked about her.
Director general's general apology. Pleased he's acknowledged it.
Official reason for leaving was medical but was a relief.
A few messages from producers initially then nothing from them. No after care. She saw the show counsellor.
Stories started coming out/leaked.
She denied them as she didn't want to rock the boat.
7-8 hours in the rehearsal room - 50 hours footage is being blocked - she claims toxic behaviour will be on them. Producers' decision to film everything.
Producers came to her re the footage. Every Friday she says they apologised to her, having seen the footage. Aggressive and bullying.
She had to manage those things. Krishnan heard there'd been humiliating behaviour of a sexual nature (not from Amanda) not harassment but humiliation.
Her lawyer is challenging the blockage. Amanda and the lawyers cannot review it.
Past partners got in touch with her when it was announced they were paired up, saying they were sorry.
She spoke to two other contestants. Similar experiences.
She didn't decide to make a formal complaint for a while as she was scared (correctly) of the backlash.
Loss of earnings and emotional trauma - she does feel she is owed compensation.
Nobody has reached out to her from Strictly.
Pockets of moments where Gio was nice/could be nice but main situation felt toxic and unsafe.
He's called her mad and unstable.
Women voicing their concerns are not taken seriously.

Giovanni Pernice - cooperating with the review process. Says her latest allegations don't relate to her previous complaints.
Tim Davie (director general) - anyone involved in a complaint has a right to confidentiality/fair process. Don't speculate. Duty of care etc

Oof.

Regardless of the Giovanni outcome, the threats she's received are horrifying

I think her interview with Krishnan tonight and her interview tomorrow with Christine Lampard is to have her side put over in case the investigation (investigating themselves, how does that work?) covers up/says nothing to see here/exonerates Gio.
Yes, she also has a play to promote When it happens to you but I also think timing is everything and now, at least, she's been heard.

Amanda Abbington on Strictly experience – full interview – Channel 4 News
Full transcript here

Thanks to iwanttoretire on the AA thread

The interview was a really hard watch. I agree with her point that if people have nothing to hide they'd release those 50 hours of footage to her lawyer

Loss of earnings she does feel she deserves compensation …. Of course she does…

this is the full length interview (44 mins!)

The full 45 minute interview is on YouTube. The things I found most interesting:

Amanda acknowledges that most of the people have a great time on Strictly. She is still friends with some of the celebs and pros.

Krishnan loved being on the show but even he saw the Strictly counsellor a couple of times. (Lauren sounds like a really lovely pro.)

Amanda was delighted to get Giovanni but was immediately contacted by some of his ex celebs who commiserated with her.

She complained after the first week and the producers told her they would put cameras in the training room. (I'm going to guess that this was only when the regular film crew were not present because 50 hours of footage is not a lot considering the hours she put into training.)

Krishnan said he and Lauren were filmed for about 30% of the time. (Vanessa Feltz said she was filmed all the time and Alison Hammond that she was filmed three days a week, so I guess there has been some cost-cutting going on.)

The filming didn't alter Giovanni's behaviour. (This suggests he felt untouchable, or he had no worries because he had got away with the same behaviour before or he just didn't recognise the behaviour as bad.)

The producers reviewed the footage on a weekly basis and some of them apologised to Amanda for Giovanni's behaviour.

Krishnan and some of the other celebs and pros knew Amanda was unhappy and things were not right.

Amanda is not able to speak of the specifics of the allegations but Krishnan raised an incident of Giovanni allegedly sexually humiliating her which apparently he had been told about by somebody else.

Amanda did not snub the Strictly finale but was not asked back to do it. (She would have declined.)

Amanda is unsure if chaperones would make a difference. She said that there were people present when some of all this was going on and they were not allowed to speak. (I'm presuming this means the crew members who film the couples are not allowed to intervene with the rehearsals or weigh-in with an opinion; a bit like wildlife cameramen not being allowed to save the gazelle from the lion.)

Amanda is happy for the 50 hours of footage to be seen by anyone. Giovanni's people sent in a statement saying that the footage does not back-up Amanda's version of events.

I think that's fair enough tbh - very few will touch her now and theatre isn't very lucrative. She was on the Inside no 9 finale and the Richardsons sitcom (playing herself both times in a self-deprecating/pisstake way) but I haven't seen her in anything else and the level of hate and vitriol against her is unfathomable.
Have you watched the interview or read the transcript?
She comes across as credible and that Krishnan is giving weight to some of what she says...says a lot.

I read she said that being in strictly was like being in the trenches.. so I really couldn’t take her seriously after that.

IIRC, Lauren has been a dancer on Giovanni's tours. I wonder if she had a few tales to tell Krishnan?

“We are cooperating fully with the BBC’s review process.
All parties have been asked to respect this process and to not speak to the media before it concludes. I don't believe Gio's side haven't been leaking things either. It's just she's got her interviews in first
We will continue to respect the integrity of the investigation and believe it is the right forum for all the evidence to be reviewed.
but Amanda can't view the tapes of herself?

“As part of the evidence-led review, the BBC has shared the allegations they have been able to substantiate with us.
This would imply they have managed to substantiate some of what she said?

They do not resemble Amanda’s latest allegations, given to Channel 4, in any shape or form.
That doesn't mean they didn't happen. Krishnan had heard things for one

Giovanni refutes any claim of threatening or abusive behaviour, and having provided the BBC with his evidence, is confident that the review will prove this.”
Footage would be good

They don't want Amanda and her lawyer having it because, as a pp said, they may fit the complaints around the footage, as opposed to finding the allegations on tape. But I have to say, that in itself is spurious: the footage is a contemporaneous record - as long as it isn't chopped and edited, it should reflect what happened in the training room on a daily basis. If the grievance is aggression, bullying tone, a lewd comment/humiliation, toe-stamping, the first two will be throughout the sessions.

If the producers apologised to her every Friday then it is a civil suit because they continued to let it happen and it didn't get any better.
If it is being yelled at a lot and why can't you get it right? then you live and die by your actions (it's why RuPaul insisted there's no such thing as a bad edit!)
Giovani allegedly was the same, whether the cameras were on or off, so if he felt his teaching style was acceptable, there'd be no case at all.

Having seen the interview with Amanda earlier and the whole Graziano thing (who ive never liked) i wont be watching SCD anymore.

Er, no. She and Krishnan joked that, as fellow Strictly alumni, they had 'been in the trenches together.' It is a common jokey expression, meaning that you have worked for a particular company or in a particular industry, much as 'working at the coal-face' doesn't actually mean you are a miner. 'Hello, Jeff. Goodness, I haven't seen you ever since we were both in the trenches at Lloyds.' That's what it means.

She actually talked about her diagnosis of mild PTSD and how she had been trolled by people inferring that she was comparing herself to Afghanistan veterans. She acknowledges that she meant no such thing.

I also think Will Bayley ought to have been compensated for Loss of earnings too, rather than the BBC only agreeing to pay for his operation.
Public liability insurance, surely to God.

Poor Amanda, just horrendous how she's been treated by giovanni, the BBC and the British public. This is tainting strictly for me, I must say.

What's the AA thread FailBetter? I searched but just got stuff where the last post was back in January. I don't know if I'm searching badly or if it's just a rubbish system?

So a medical issue perhaps made her miss a week which is allowed. But you can't miss another week and Amanda decided not to go back Into the training room and therefore withdraw.
She danced 4 dances I think.
I was disappointed at the time as I thought she maybe could have kept at it and to hell if she wasn't having that nice a time.
But that was just because I thought she was one of the stronger dances and I never like when someone leaves part way through!

I cannot understand why the investigation hasn't been completed yet. Clearly the BBC have the evidence - 50 hours or more of footage. Graziano was fired almost immediately. I know he admitted some of the allegations (although he denied others) but even if Giovanni is denying everything they have the video footage so why the delay?

I believe what she's saying. But I don't care myself if strictly is all lovely and nurturing behind the scenes.
The whole it takes up lots of your time and you need to put effort in.
Well lf course. Everyone has to probably try for 5 hours training a day.
My point is I think she wanted to have more of a laugh and got the opposite.
But me as a viewer I just want to see warts and all.

The problem is for years strictly is not honest about the hard going or not getting on amazingly couples.
That would be more interesting to me . Minus the abuse of course. Just real humans arguing would be OK.

Giovanno has always been treated like a God by strictly bosses.
I watched his show earlier in the year and with Lauren.
It was good but he loves himself and actually didn't dance too much!!

I'm not sure why Amanda didn't talk about Zara much. Maybe wasn't allowed. I thought it would have been interesting seeing her take on it..
Other than the where she now thinks people believe her. Like oh ok she said.