Strictly Come Dancing crew faced shouting, screaming and insults, staff say

Members of Strictly Come Dancing’s crew faced “shouting, screaming and being insulted” while working on the BBC dancing show, according to a former member of production staff.

One runner on the show told BBC News he was called “stupid” for asking for a handover, and was screamed at by a celebrity, who got so close to his face he could feel his spit.

BBC News spoke to 15 current and former members of the programme’s crew about working conditions on the show and all of them wished to remain anonymous out of concern for career repercussions.

The corporation’s commercial arm BBC Studios said it does “not recognise these anonymous claims, nor will hundreds of production personnel who have worked with us”.

It comes amid a storm of controversy over the alleged treatment of contestants on Strictly.

The results of an investigation, launched by the corporation following allegations made about Giovanni Pernice by former participant Amanda Abbington, have not yet been published. Pernice rejects the allegations and fellow dancer Graziano Di Prima has also left the show.

Speaking of his experiences on the show, the runner, named as Oscar, said: “Producers would be drinking and partying, while everyone else was running around stressed out.”

He added: “It was bullying behaviour, I felt sick, and couldn’t sleep or eat.”

He said one of the celebrity contestants had made him feel “awful and helpless”, despite later apologising.

Oscar said: “He was shouting and he was so close up in my face, I had to close my eyes as his spit flecks were hitting me.

“The fact it was in front of everyone made me feel awful and helpless. People were stopping in the corridor to catch a glimpse of what was happening.”

Oscar left the show shortly after, describing it as the “final straw”.

In response to the allegations, BBC Studios told BBC News it was “sorry” if Oscar did not feel able to speak up about his experiences.

A former package editor on the show’s It Takes Two spin-off, named by BBC News as Jane, said fellow crew members experienced “verbal abuse”.

She said: “When you’re in the edit suite, you’re like a therapist.

“Crew would come in and tell me about their experiences as we cut their video tapes.”

Jane said junior crew members faced “shouting, screaming and being insulted, to an extraordinary level”.

She added: “Whatever mood the dancers were in would dictate how your day would go.”

BBC Studios said Jane’s comments were based on “rumour”, which is said was “not unusual in the industry, particularly around successful long-running shows”.

A choreographer, named by BBC News as Robert, who worked on the earlier runs of the show, added: “There’s a sense that you’re lucky to be on the show as it is one of the biggest in the UK, so you should put up with all the problems you might face.”

But another choreographer, named by BBC News as Katie, said the issues raised by her co-workers were not familiar to her.

She said: “I have never ever seen any of what is being reported.

“I have never had an issue with any dancers or staff, I love them and they are very kind and respect me lots.”

A statement from BBC Studios said: “The welfare and safety of our crew on each series of Strictly has always been, and remains, our utmost priority.

“We do not recognise these anonymous claims, nor will hundreds of production personnel who have worked with us through multiple series and across the two decades the show has been on air.

“Using our industry-leading initiative The Pledge on all our productions, including Strictly, we proactively encourage everyone on set to raise concerns of inappropriate behaviour via several avenues, including anonymously to an external third-party whistleblowing service independent of the BBC/BBC Studios.

“We act speedily when any issues are raised, and have thorough, effective, and longstanding processes to manage them – and we’re sorry if anyone didn’t feel able to talk about their experience on-set at the time.”