- author, Ian Youngs
- role, Culture reporter
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The BBC’s chief has apologised to Strictly Come Dancing contestants following complaints about abusive behaviour on the show.
Tim Davie said he was “disappointed” to hear several celebrity contestants had complained about the way their dance partners were treated in rehearsals.
He warned that professionals on the BBC One show should not cross the line between competitiveness and “unacceptable behaviour”, but confirmed the show would return.
“There’s a certain amount of competitiveness and a desire to do well, but there’s a limit and you shouldn’t cross that line,” he said.
“We will never tolerate unacceptable behavior of any kind.”
Strictly professional Graziano Di Prima and Giovanni Pernice both quit the show following allegations over their behaviour during training.
Pernice denied the “accusations of abusive or intimidating behaviour.”
A spokesman for Di Prima confirmed that the dancer had kicked her partner Zara McDermott during rehearsals last year, saying Di Prima deeply regretted “the incident which led to me leaving Strictly” and that her “intense passion and determination to win may have influenced the way I trained”.
“I’m very sorry that anyone has had an experience that wasn’t entirely positive,” Davie told reporters on Tuesday.
“This is something we need to reflect on and we are sorry,” he added.
“Obviously we learned something especially about training room monitoring that we had to address.”
“In hindsight, I wonder if I could have done more,” he added.
Davie confirmed that despite the issues, the show will return as scheduled later this year.
Last week the BBC announced new measures, including having Strictly production staff attend all rehearsals to monitor behaviour.
There will also be increased training and two new full-time welfare producers, one each for the celebrity contestants and professional dancers.
Presenting the BBC’s annual report, he described Strictly as “a fantastic programme which has brought so much joy to so many people and has continued to do so for 20 years, both to those involved in the programme and to the millions watching at home”.
“Hundreds of people participated – professionals, contestants and crew – and it was an amazing experience.
“At the same time, if anyone feels something is wrong or wants to talk about their experience, of course we want them to tell us.
“I have no doubt that we are taking this seriously, that we are listening and that we are responding appropriately. I’m not going to speak about individuals, but the evidence of that can be seen in recent weeks.”
“So we hope that anyone who wants to talk to us feels they can.”
Davie added that the show’s support protocols and structures were updated last week and were “under review”.
This year’s celebrity participants will be announced in August.
“We have a great group of guys this year and I’m excited to get started,” he said.
More from the BBC Annual Report:
The complaint was first made by Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington, who co-starred with Pernice last year but left the show midway through the series.
She has since accused Mr Parnees of “unnecessary, abusive, cruel and spiteful”. Law firm Carter Luck said it had contacted the BBC about “numerous serious complaints” about Mr Parnees’ alleged behaviour.
He denied the allegations, saying he was “shocked” by them and that “totally unfounded” articles about him appear in the media every week.
Meanwhile, following the news that Di Prima has left this year’s squad, his final partner Zara McDermott said she was involved in several incidents in the training room and now finds it “incredibly painful” to relive them.
A spokesman for Di Prima said the kick was an isolated incident, adding: “He recognises he made a mistake and apologised at the time.”
Paralympic athlete Will Bailey is one of many celebrities to speak about his experiences on the show.
The table tennis player praised his dance partner, Jeanette Manrara, calling her “incredibly supportive” and “super professional”.
But he said the serious injuries which forced him to quit the show in 2019 “could have been avoided” and that the BBC had made him feel “overblown” when he later complained.
Bailey, who was born with arthrogryposis, a joint condition that causes severe arthritis, ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee when she jumped off a table during rehearsal.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday that the injury “will never heal”.
After the incident, he wrote to the BBC to complain and suggest that they should provide better support for disabled contestants, but said the response was “really disappointing”.
“It was like, ‘We’ve done everything we can, we support you’. It felt like we were making a fuss over something so small. That’s how it felt,” he told BBC Breakfast.
Bailey suggested more support was needed to help show professionals know how to work with contestants with disabilities.
“You’re thrown into a dance hall with professional dancers and made to lift tables and jump off tables and things like that. I think professional dancers could use more support in that respect,” he said.
Responding to Mr Bailey’s comments, Mr Davie said: “There is always an opportunity for people to come to the BBC and discuss ways to improve, but overall we have systems and processes in place and we are making updates and changes.”
