Giovanni may be off the hook but Strictly is irrevocably tarnished

The BBC’s investigation into Amanda Abbington’s allegations have cleared Pernice of the worst, but the show’s happy-clappy image is tainted

So after months of waiting, the BBC has finally announced the findings of its report into allegations by actress Amanda Abbington that she suffered verbal and physical abuse by her dance partner Giovanni Pernice while training for Strictly Come Dancing in 2023.
The result is not the shock outcome for either party that some had been expecting. Pernice has been cleared of physical wrongdoing, but the Corporation has upheld complaints of verbal bullying and harassment towards Abbington. Statements on behalf of both Abbington and Pernice suggest both parties now want to move on with their lives – although Abbington has been invited to a further meeting with senior BBC management.
The timing for this report strikes me as canny. Had the BBC announced it prior to the latest series starting, there would have been excessive coverage debating what this all means for the future of the celebrity dance contestant. However, by announcing it now that the latest competition has begun in earnest, they are hoping it will evaporate, overshadowed by the latest news of who is getting eliminated.
Certainly the outcome feels underwhelming – this is not ostensibly a disaster for either Abbington or Pernice, and the biggest story will be a slow-burn, as we gradually begin to understand just how the negative publicity around the report will affect their careers in the long-term. Certainly as a European, Pernice can expect his career in his native Italy to remain untarnished (he is currently appearing in the Italian version of Dancing With the Stars). After all, this is a country behind the times in terms of cancel culture, as its recent honouring of Johnny Depp at a film festival proves. Abbington has been doing some excellent acting work (notably on stage in When it Happens to You), but whether she becomes labelled as the Strictly row actress remains to be seen.
But the same cannot be said for the show itself which, as it reaches its 20th year, is clearly trying to pretend that it is not having some sort of existential crisis. The production has been at pains to show that the Strictly family is one big happy one, pushing notions of touchy-feeliness to the max which, even in its late Noughties heyday, it really never was, despite the fluffy nature of those early professional dancers like Anton Du Beke and Darren Bennett. The advance publicity for this year’s show was keen to suggest a love-in. Each celebrity was asked to sum up the show in one word or phrase, and the answers were “magical”, “legendary”  and “sequins” rather than “hefty kick”, “shouty” and “legal fees”. 
After the allegations surrounding Pernice surfaced (as well as those against Graziano Di Prima, who admitted kicking celebrity partner Zara McDermott and was removed from the show), the BBC announced that they were putting safeguards in place, and employees are now assigned to monitor couples during training. Yet if you watch the show, these gatekeepers are nowhere to be seen, and the emphasis in the video footage of the rehearsals is very much on professional dancer and celebrity goofing around, having larks. The idea of the professional hard taskmaster is seemingly a thing of the past, yet also unrealistic. We know they have to work miracles with lumpy celebs – and that is going to inevitably involve pushing them to the limits.
However, bad publicity sticks, and it feels ridiculous for the show to shy away from what has happened. Of course no one wants a weekly act of contrition, but most people watch Strictly because they love the rigour of dance, and the jeopardy of seeing people going up and down the leaderboard every week. We want tears and we want tantrums, stories of redemption, and spectacular falls from grace. The idea of a soft Strictly is plain ridiculous when its reputation is so irrevocably tarnished.
4/5