Strictly Irrelevant

Readers may know that Trixy is something of a fan of Strictly Come Dancing so will understand why this really irritated me:

Viewers of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing have been accused of racism after the show's only black contestants were involved in a "dance-off".

Complaints have flooded into the BBC’s website in their hundreds since last weekend’scompetition.

The furore follows Rising Damp star Don Warrington and M People singer Heather Small coming bottom in the public vote last Sunday even though judges gave them more points than three white contestants.

I watched that and wondered how long it would be before there were cries of 'racism'. I've watched all the series of STD and I can't imagine how anyone would say that the viewers were racist, sexist, homophobic or any other words so loved by Quangos.

It wasn't too difficult to work out that Heather and Don were going to be in the dance off because it followed most results since the show has been going.

Couples at the top of the leader board don't go in the dance off because they have lots of points from the judges, even without the large numbers of votes they get from the public who vote for them because it's a dancing competition.


The ones at the bottom get votes because we British love an underdog so actually make the effort to call to 'save' them. If they have a personality or a large following this is even more influential because, like every single GMTV presenter who has been pretty dire but stayed in the competition for ages.

The ones in trouble are the ones in the middle of the leader board, as professional dancer Ian Waite commented on the show. This is because the dancing didn't hugely impress and the scores didn't evoke enough sympathy or concern from the followers to vote.

As someone who ballroom dances, Heather and Don's performances were rather dull. They didn't have the humour of John Sargeant's performance or the terrible scores, nor are they particularly well known. I wouldn't have known Don Warrington had he walked down the street next to me until SCD and I was not a fan of M People.

It really fucking irritates me when a programme I love, which encourages people to dance and keep fit, still cannot escape the equal ops brigade who aren't happy unless everything is monitored and patronisingly biased in favour of minority groups as if they can't cope without help.

Just bugger off, will you, and let us watch the show without some guilt if I chose to vote for someone who happens to be white. Because skin colour is really not something that strikes me as relevant when it comes to dancing.