Strictly’s Risks: Stars Advised to ‘Turn Down’ Show After Scandals

Despite an appearance on Strictly once being seen as the key to revitalise a celeb’s career, signing up to the scandal-plagued show is now considered a risk. 

Ahead of the latest series hitting screens on Saturday it’s been reported showbiz agents have been advising their clients to avoid the BBC dance competition which can now ‘break careers as well as make them’.

The past two series have seen the show rocked by scandal which began when  actress Amanda Abbington accused dance partner, Giovanni Pernice, of being ‘abusive’ during their rehearsals. Allegations he denies. 

The same year, Graziano di Prima was sacked by the BBC after a video emerged of him kicking dance partner, the Love Island star Zara McDermott during a rehearsal.

Later Welsh opera singer, Wynne Evans, was axed from his BBC Wales breakfast show after using ‘inappropriate language’ during his Strictly stint. Before Jamie Borthwick was axed from EastEnders after his vile slur during the competition. 

Now amid reported of cocaine use behind the scenes and a drug probe being launched one talent agent close to the show said: ‘It just isn’t worth the risk for some people it used to be a no-brainer but now there is growing reticence’.

They told The Times: ‘It can break your career as well as make it, we are advising increasing numbers of our clients to turn down the opportunity’. 

It comes after sources claimed that the latest series said Strictly bosses had ‘struggled’ to sign talent.

The stars signed up to appear on the upcoming series further voiced their surprise at how quickly they were signed up considering it was many of their first times being asked. 

Vicky Pattison, who found fame on the reality show Geordie Shore, said: ‘I’ve never been asked before and I’ve always wanted to be.

‘So I went down there to meet them because I thought, if I get my foot in the door next year or the year after I would get to do it, I was expecting it to have a long tail.’

Dani Dyer, 29, the daughter of the Hollywood star and EastEnders actor Danny Dyer, also told the Mail of her ‘shock’ at being accepted onto the show so easily.

It can be revealed that BBC bosses were going to new lengths to sign talent as just three out of the 15 contestants had been asked to do the show before.

A source close to the show confirmed to the Mail: ‘Yes, the Beeb had to expand their roster as they were struggling to get talent to sign up for a variety of mitigating circumstances.’

A Strictly spokesperson said: ‘There was absolutely no difference to the casting process this year, both in timescale and the great mix of names wanting to take part.’ 

Alex Kingston, the theatre actress, also told this newspaper for a long time there was a ‘stigma’ around Strictly as it was not considered a serious signing for actors.

The 62-year-old revealed: ‘I’ve been asked to do it the past but my agent always said no because, I think, for a long time there has been a sort of stigma around Strictly.

‘If you’re a theatre actor, theatre actors don’t participate, which is silly. Just because I do Shakespeare, you know, Shakespeare wrote plays for the populists, he didn’t write for a certain level of society.’

Meanwhile Thomas Skinner has been at the centre of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing series even before the hit show kicked off. 

The former Apprentice star admitted last week that his ‘fling’ with aesthetician Amy-Lucy O’Rourke was a ‘moment of madness’ which saw him almost ‘ruin his life’.

Thomas cheated on his wife Sinead just weeks after their wedding in May 2022, which Amy-Lucy, 35, claimed lasted three months long in an interview with Daily Mail.

The couple, who share a son Henry, five, and two-year-old twin daughters, Roma and Darla, married in May 2022.

He told The Sun: ‘I had a fling. It was nothing more than that. It was the one time, it was a mistake. I woke up feeling absolutely terrible about it.

‘I felt so guilty. I told my wife. I let her down in that brief moment of madness where I wasn’t thinking, where I didn’t appreciate what I had.’

‘When I told my wife, I fully understood if she was to never speak to me again. No one else made me do what I’ve done. But it just shows something so brief could ruin your life.’

Thomas, who has become known for his social media videos and ‘Bosh’ catchphrase, met Sinead in a bar in London back in 2018.