Caroline Quentin has called out the “humiliation” that she says some celebs on Strictly Come Dancing are subjected to by their professional dance partners.
The Men Behaving Badly star, who competed on last year’s series of the BBC dance show, said some of the pros “don’t care what they put their guests through”.
Speaking on the My Time Capsule podcast with Michael Fenton Stevens, Caroline noted: “Some of those people are so ambitious to do well that they don’t care what they put their guest through. They really don’t. There’s all manner of humiliations that go on.”
Caroline added that she and professional dancer partner Johannes Radebe, who she was paired with on the show, would likely be “friends forever” and that she “values him so hugely”.
Because of the pandemic, the actor also discussed how being isolated from the other celebs on last year’s show had affected her.
“We built a different kind of community,” she said.
“But I do think the isolation was one of the harder things about it, actually. Because you never had that opportunity to meet up and go for a pint...”
She continued: “I’m an outdoor person and I struggled very much with living in a bedsit. And I lived on my own, I found that difficult, I know Bill [Bailey] did as well, not being in touch with nature was hard for that period of time.”
Caroline also hinted that the show may have been affected by Covid-19 more than was let on.
“We only had one dancer go down with it,” she said. “I think there were probably other things going on, not that I know this, but I imagine there were other things with the wider crew and stuff.
“I’m sure people were not well and things but that was kept very much in its own bubble and dealt with and we were all sent back with a different pair of shoes on the next day and learnt another dance.”
While she was still on Strictly, Caroline revealed that her and Johannes had once come to blows during training.
During an appearance on This Morning, Johannes was full of praise for his celebrity partner, telling hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that she was “a fantastic student” who takes directions so well”.
Laughing, Caroline appeared surprised, saying: “It’s very nice of [him] to say that when we had our first barney yesterday.
“We’re both still slightly ‘ouchie’ from it, because I got a bit – OK, it’s quite hard sometimes to be told all the time by someone that is always genuinely right, it’s quite frustrating.
“I offered an opinion about a dance step, and I was entirely wrong but rather than back down gracefully, I just banged on about it.
“He just got really annoyed with me [laughs]. I was like, ‘Well I know I’m right about this’. And then about 10 minutes later I suddenly realised I was entirely wrong.”