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 20th 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.
‘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’.
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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.
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Strictly Come Dancing returns to the BBC later this year.
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