Strictly Come Dancing hasn’t even started yet this year, and already there’s drama.
Each year, a new batch of celebrities take to the ballroom floor to test out their dancing skills – often with mixed results. And while the line-up is still being announced, there’s another scandal brewing, this time over alleged “drug-related offences” committed on the show.
"Police are assessing the information and further enquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed," the Met police said in a statement, while the BBC said it had "clear protocols and policies in place" for dealing with the issue.
Earlier this month, BBC News launched an investigation into alleged drug use by two of the show’s stars, who haven’t been named, after a report was published by the Sun on Sunday.
“It’s a significant new development in the BBC’s recent string of crises that they have now got the police involved in investigating allegations surrounding Strictly,” a source told the Telegraph about the news.
“This is a very dramatic turn of events. Despite all the show and its team have been through over recent months, it’s hugely controversial that you’ve now got Scotland Yard detectives probing Strictly. This is their biggest prime-time family entertainment show, so it’s not a good look for the BBC.”
This follows on the heels of actor Narinder Kaur taking to social media last week for a tirade against the show’s decision to cast former Apprentice candidate Thomas Skinner.
“Apparently I was deemed too controversial for @bbcstrictly because they only hire quiet brown and black women that fit in a box,” she wrote on X.
“But you can be a white man AND be controversial and you’ll be hired on the spot! Hello Thomas Skinner!!”
“There’s only so much you can say in a short video, but I felt something many others have been feeling all day and that was complete shock and utter bewilderment – to see Thomas be announced in the line-up, considering all the rhetoric about how people with right-wing opinions are cancelled and not allowed on the BBC,” she added in a later statement.
“I’ve debated Tom on Good Morning Britain before, I supported his book release at his launch party, there is a huge disparity in what certain demographics of people are allowed to say and still get one show after another.”
Skinner recently raised eyebrows for meeting US President JD Vance for a BBQ – the pair having originally connected on Twitter – and writing about “something going wrong” with the UK.
After the announcement was made, he addressed the outcry. “They say don’t read the comments on social media,” he wrote on social media. “But I couldn’t help myself. I’ve had absolute pellets all day on my Instagram lost about going on Strictly… Why are some people so angry that don’t even know me.”
Vance himself even pitched in. “Hang in there, my friend,” he wrote below the post. “Remember that 90 percent of people attacking your family look like this.”
Kaur isn’t the only one to be upset about this year’s cast – which this year also includes celebrities like Alex Kingston, Vicky Pattison and former England rugby player Chris Robshaw.
In a post that’s since been deleted, the drag star Tayce wrote on social media, “guess I was too much” – despite winning the Strictly Christmas Special, that was a one-off episode, and she appears not to have been asked on for a full-length series.
Strictly is no stranger to controversy. In previous series, sparks have flown about the duty of care the show has towards contestants, inappropriate language and the infamous bullying scandal that hit the headlines last year.
This year’s series is set to start again on September 20. We’ll see what happens then.
The BBC has been approached for comment.
