Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke has admitted he’d like to see Giovanni Pernice back on the show’s resident team of professionals in the future.
The Strictly duo have now appeared in two seasons of their travel show Anton & Giovanni’s Adventures…, with Anton recently returning for his fourth year as a permanent judge on the long-running BBC series.
Giovanni, meanwhile, parted ways with Strictly earlier this year after complaints about his conduct behind the scenes made by a number of his former celebrity partners led to an ongoing BBC investigation.
For his part, the Italian dancer has long refuted “any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour”, insisting back in June: “I am co-operating fully with the ongoing BBC investigation, which will determine the truth.
“As requested, I have stayed silent, but I am looking forward to the conclusion of the investigation and ultimately clearing my name and establishing the truth.”
This year also saw Graziano Di Prima leaving the show amid the BBC’s investigation, with Aljaž Škorjanec returning to the professional line-up after a two-year absence.
During a new interview with The Sun, Anton spoke about Giovanni’s departure, admitting: “I’d like to see him back of course, but we’ll enjoy Aljaž, and his new efforts on the show this year, and we’ll move forward.
“We get a whole new bunch of celebrities, and we go on from there.”
Of the wider Strictly scandal, Anton continued: “It’s one of those situations where I sort of feel like I’m on the outside looking in, because it’s about stuff that of which I’m not involved in, any more.
“You never want any bad press, if you like, or anybody to say anything negative about the thing that you love,” he went on to say, claiming he feels “sad” about the situation and has been “waiting for it to sort of get through this part and then get on with the new show”.
“Really, I think there’s been a sort of period of time now that we’ve been waiting for the new show to start so we can, we can get on with the good stuff, really.
“You’re always disappointed if somebody doesn’t have a good time,” he added. “And you know, you wish, you wish that they did, but it’s sort of one of those things, isn’t it? And then you just, you hope that, you know, 99% of people did have a great time. And you focus on that.”
The former Strictly pro returned to the judging team in Saturday night’s pre-recorded live show, alongside fellow panellists Craig Revel-Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas.
All 15 of this year’s couples are now in rehearsals ahead of the first live show of the series, which is due to air live on BBC One on Saturday night.