Strictly Come Dancing ’s Craig Revel Horwood has said he hopes the ‘standards don’t drop’ on the show this year if professional dancers become fearful to criticise celebrities. The 59-year-old has appeared as a judge on the long-running BBC series since its premiere in 2004. However, in the lead-up to the show’s 20 th anniversary season, it has been clouded in controversy after concerns were raised about the treatment of contestants including Amanda Abbington and Zara McDermott , with allegations were levelled against several professional dancers.
However, Craig has now said he thinks dancers need to be ‘strict’ to bring out the best results . ‘I hope the standards don’t drop this year,’ he said. Join Metro's Strictly community on WhatsApp Want to be the first to get all the latest news and rumours from the Strictly dancefloor? Join our Strictly Come Dancing WhatsApp channel to keep up to date with all the behind-the-scenes gossip about your favourite pros, judges and celebrities.
Simply click on this link , select ‘Join Chat’ and you’re in! Don't forget to turn on notifications so you can see when we've just dropped the latest spoilers. Keep dancing! ‘When I’m teaching casts for shows in rehearsals, I still have to be quite strict. I think you have to be.
‘Can you imagine an Olympian getting gold with his or her trainer not being strict?’ He continued: ‘As far as saying, “Oh, that was really bad, you need to try it again”, I’m not gonna cry over that. ‘You just have to be able to take some criticism. Otherwise, we’re living in a world where no one is criticised, and it will become watered down and vanilla, where no one’s trying,’ he added when speaking to The Sun .
Throughout his time on the show, Craig has developed a reputation for being the harshest of the judges and often faces booing from the studio audience for his feedback. He has also given a score of 1 more time than any other judge. Reflecting on his own career, Craig said he believes some Strictly contestants would sue if they’d faced the same dancing training as he did.
After attending boarding school, the dancer said he could ‘handle it’, adding he would ‘never would have made it without criticism’. He added that if teachers ‘hadn’t told me my arms were terrible, way too loose and wild and out of control, I would still be wild and out of control’. Explaining how his Russian ballet teacher was ‘always touching my hamstrings’, Craig spoke about how many people were caned but it was part of the process.
‘It’s a really simple way of doing it, but if you do that in a Strictly class, you’ll be sued,’ he said. The drama surrounding Strictly began after Sherlock Amanda Abbington, who quit Strictly last year after five weeks, described her former dance partner Giovanni Pernice’s behaviour as ‘unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean’. More Trending Strictly confirms major new change 'for first time' ahead of 2024 series When is Strictly Come Dancing back for 2024? Dates confirmed Strictly Come Dancing 2024 pairings could be ‘revealed’ with glaring clue Strictly Come Dancing 2024 contestant's ‘ribs still broken’ weeks before first live show He has denied the claims and said he ‘looks forward’ to clearing his name.
Meanwhile Graziano Di Prima shockingly quit the programme last month over allegations he ‘kicked and hit’ Love Island star Zara. More celebrities have since criticised their treatment while participating in the series. This London borough is the best in the capital for first-time buyers The newly-crowned 'best' commuter spot is a city I'll never go back to You can buy a 30-acre island for less than a London three-bed Get paid to live on this idyllic European island – but there's a catch What I Own: We renovated our £590,000 Tooting three-bed but it's getting too small for us Strictly Come Dancing returns to the BBC later this year.
Got a story? If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.
co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you. MORE : Strictly Come Dancing star reveals hopes for tumour to shrink after ‘learning to live with it’ MORE : Strictly confirms major new change ‘for first time’ ahead of 2024 series MORE : When is Strictly Come Dancing back for 2024? Dates confirmed.
