Craig Revel Horwood insists Strictly Come Dancing pros need to remain strict in the upcoming season of the BBC One show. The competition has come under fire ahead of its 20th anniversary as dancers Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima were both targeted with allegations of "abusive" behaviour backstage. While the latter has admitted to kicking former dance partner Zara McDermott once during a rehearsal, Giovanni has firmly denied all claims weighing against him and reports regarding his behaviour prompted the Beeb to launch an internal probe.
Despite this, Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood believes that criticism is an important part of the journey to the Glitterball as he feared the show's upcoming season would be too "vanilla" without it. After offering a subtle sign of support to Giovanni, 33, Craig, 59, told The Sun : "I hope the standards don’t drop this year", before admitting: "When I’m teaching casts for shows in rehearsals, I still have to be quite strict. I think you have to be.
" He added: "Can you imagine an Olympian getting gold with his or her trainer not being strict? As far as saying, ‘Oh, that was really bad, you need to try it again’, I’m not going to cry over that." Craig insisted that anybody in the competition had "to be able to take some criticism." "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." Craig recently urged BBC bosses to reveal the outcome of their probe around the abuse allegations targeting Giovanni and Graziano, but has claimed he believes other channels may be affected by similar issues. A verdict was expected earlier this week but has yet to be made public.
"We want the results sooner rather than later", Craig said, "It’s not just the BBC, though, is it? The BBC is in the public eye because of its public funding. ITV has the same issues." Since the allegations have been made, notably by Amanda Abbington who walked the Strictly dancefloor in 2023 before quitting after five weeks, the BBC has brought in more measures to protect celebrities, including a chaperone present "at all times" during training room rehearsals.
When asked what he thought about the move, Craig added: "All I can say is, first, chaperones are a good idea. Second, thank goodness things have changed. I had a Russian ballet teacher who used a cane to make us raise our legs higher.
" "You couldn’t do that now. A choreographer can’t even touch a dancer’s arm to put it in the correct place, but at least it means everyone feels protected." Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
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