Why I fear Strictly’s getting too sleazy
SEQUINS at the ready! Strictly’s back this evening and I, for one, can’t wait. Ever since Brucie quick-stepped into our living rooms 11 years ago, I have been an unashamed addict.
The show’s magical mix of corny jokes, familiar faces, a liberal sprinkling of glitz and equal doses of hilarity and admiration have made it compulsive viewing.
Yet this year I fear for my beloved Strictly. Why? Because if the blizzard of pre-publicity is anything to go by, something has changed — and not for the better.
It’s not just that Brucie has gone and been replaced with Tess Daly, a woman with the intellect of an ironing board and a charisma lobotomy. Her lack of sparkle has been compensated for by the entertaining Claudia Winkleman.
Nor is it that this year’s contestants are so lacklustre. (I’ve never heard of most of them, and where are the more mature contestants we could identify with and chuckle at — the Esther Rantzens and Felicity Kendals, or Russell Grants and John Sergeants?)
No, the real difference is that all the Strictly pre- show gossip has been about sex, sex, sex.
First we have professional man-eater Kristina Rihanoff, who has proved herself incapable of keeping her hands out of the trousers of almost any man she tangoes with — and revels in the attention it has brought her.
Joining her is Russian pro- dancer Gleb Savchenko, a part-time model who freely admits: ‘It could get sexual . . . it depends who I am partnered with and what kind of chemistry there is.’ Which must come as a bit of a shock to his wife of nine years, Elena.
Small wonder many of this year’s contestants admit they had to check with their spouses first to make sure they were trusted to do the show.
Even the inestimably wonderful Jeremy Vine had to reassure his wife there was nothing untoward when he was snapped with Kristina. He was just focusing on his dance steps, apparently.
To top it all, Sky Sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher appeared in The Sun yesterday to declare: ‘I’m out to sex up Strictly!’
She says she has not ruled out a bit of horizontal cha- cha- cha with her dance partner. I do hope the producers have got a bucket of water waiting in the wings.
Why can’t all this cringe-making X- rated innuendo be left to the increasingly unwatchable X Factor?
What has happened to Strictly’s timeless charm? And above all, how did our much-loved family show turn into Strictly Come Cheating — a contest to see who’ll break their marriage vows first?