Strictly Come Sleuthing: Arlene’s bid to find out why BBC fired her
FORMER Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips is carrying out her own investigation into why she was axed from the BBC show.
The 76-year-old choreographer was dropped from the hit series nearly 11 years ago and replaced by Alesha Dixon, who is less than half her age.
The decision by show bosses in 2009 sparked a massive backlash and renewed claims of ageism against the broadcaster.
But Miss Phillips, who was on the judging panel from 2004, has revealed she used Freedom of Information laws to access BBC documents about her controversial exit. Papers show the ‘chaotic’ build-up to the decision to drop her from the programme, although large parts have been edited out, she claims.
Speaking to The Sod’s Law Podcast with Daniel Rosenberg, she said: ‘Looking at the chaotic way that led up to it is shocking and actually most of it is redacted.’
Of her departure from the BBC, she added: ‘I didn’t leave and I never wanted to leave. It came as rather a shock actually.’ Miss Phillips
only found out she was being axed from Strictly when BBC Radio 5 Live phoned her and asked if she wanted to talk about being replaced by Miss Dixon.
She told the podcast: ‘From that moment on my life turned into, I don’t know how you can even describe it, like a car crash.’
The choreographer also feels she has never been given ‘the exact answer’ over why she was let go – aside from claims that it was about ‘refreshing the brand’. Miss Phillips added: ‘I think it was handled so poorly and that’s the unfortunate thing about handling something badly, is that you never forget those moments, the turmoil that you went through.’
She was one of Strictly’s original judges alongside Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood.
When she was dropped, Harriet Harman – who was deputy Labour leader at the time – branded the decision ‘absolutely shocking’.
Miss Phillips said she often thinks about establishing a counselling group for people that have become famous and then drifted out of the spotlight.
She said: ‘One minute you’re the focus of everyone’s attention and the next you are nowhere, you are pushed out of the way.
‘It’s really hard to deal with and I know what that feels like.’