More exhausting Strictly gossip for you, if you still care: Bobby Brazier and his dance partner Dianne Buswell are facing accusations of succumbing to the so-called “Strictly curse”. Following last weekend’s performance – an excellent, passionate Argentine tango which scored 32 from the judges – viewers were convinced the pair almost snogged on the dancefloor.
Buswell has previously been forced to rubbish rumours of a romance with Brazier. “It’s like acting, and we obviously did the dance the correct way if that’s what’s being said,” she told Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain last week. Her exasperation with the tediousness of the question was obvious.
She’s not alone. I, too, am fed up with having to read about the Strictly curse. It’s juvenile, surreptitiously sexist and year after year it spoils the show.
Tabloids (and plenty of viewers) are obsessed with who might be shagging who behind the scenes. As well as Brazier and Buswell, rumours are swirling about the relationship status of Coronation Street actor Ellie Leach and her partner, Vito Coppola. The evidence? Some pretty cosy Instagram posts, an apparent post-dance blink-and-you’ll-miss-it almost-kiss and the fact that Amanda Abbington (who pulled out of the competition for health reasons) called them “the most beautiful couple!” online.
It’s all rather puerile, playground stuff, isn’t it? It’s also toxic – especially when the “curse” is named so because it traditionally involves one party being unfaithful to their pre-existing significant other. It’s true that plenty of couples have found love on the show – Gemma Atkinson and Gorka Marquez, Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev, Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton – but it now doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, once you’re tarred with the “Strictly curse” brush, you’re automatically branded a cheater in the public consciousness.
Take Buswell, for example. She met her current boyfriend, YouTuber Joe Sugg, when they were paired together on the 2018 series. Now (presumably because she met her current partner, who has a similar baby-faced, enthusiastic persona as Brazier, on the show) viewers are convinced there’s something more than friendship going on between her and Brazier and she’s constantly having to answer questions about how Sugg feels about her relationship. He is “supportive”, for the record.
But any explanation she gives will never be good enough for those already frothing at the mouth over a potential Strictly cheating scandal. Buswell is being trolled on social media for her closeness with Brazier and is reportedly feeling very “down” about the situation. Brazier, meanwhile, is being inundated with DMs from girls who fancy him.
The EastEnders actor – who, let’s not forget, is only 20 years old – has accidentally been fuelling the rumours; or more accurately, his innocuous words of admiration for Buswell have been twisted. “I could speak about Dianne all day,” he told the Mirror at the Pride of Britain Awards at the beginning of October. “She’s just a diamond. You know what, I’m falling in love with her. She’s just great. I feel very lucky.” I’m sure Brazier didn’t anticipate the feral response his comments would court, but Strictly fans who are desperate for more than just some good dancing have latched onto his innocent sentiment like a starving dog with the last bone.
Of course, there wouldn’t be such fervour around the idea of the Strictly curse if there wasn’t a precedent – Strictly pros have been falling for their celeb partners for years. And who can blame them? It’s an intense environment and experience that only those two people can truly understand. The most famous and controversial recent example is, of course, comedian Seann Walsh and his professional partner Katya Jones who were pictured snogging outside a London pub while they were dancing together on the 2018 series.
He had a long-term girlfriend; she was married to fellow Strictly pro Neil Jones – the whole thing was a sad mess and culminated in the pair issuing a sombre apology on spin-off show It Takes Two. Sure, cheating on your partner in full view of the entire population is not a great thing to do, but the reaction, which amounted to a national scandal, was blown entirely out of proportion.
I know the backstage gossip of Strictly is exciting and often makes Saturday nights that bit more interesting. I too am guilty of over-analysing how close each couple stands next to each other and whether they hold hands just a little bit too long. But talk of a “curse” sucks all the joy out of what is supposed to be one of the best and most joyful series on TV.
At its core, Strictly is a very simple beast. Its ethos is guilt-free, family-friendly fun that appeals to our need to witness a “journey”, to watch people improve in a skill, to celebrate other’s talent – to pretend life is as uncomplicated as hitting the steps in a Charleston for two hours a week. It has real-life implications for the people we count on for entertainment, who we far too often discard once the Glitterball Trophy is lifted.
Judge Craig Revel-Horwood once said he calls the “curse” the “Strictly blessing”. It’s a perfect reframing of something that has become too toxic to be fun. If it continues, we shouldn’t be surprised if the pros – particularly the women – start to wonder if it’s all worth it. Having their romantic lives discussed in national newspapers year-in-year-out isn’t exactly what they signed up for. I certainly wouldn’t put up with it.