Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has addressed the show’s “misconduct” scandal.
The dance competition show has been hit with several scandals in recent weeks as many professional dancers faced shocking allegations against them.
Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima left the show after they came under fire for their behaviour during training with their celebrity partners.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast ahead of the 20th series, Craig confessed: “I’m completely gobsmacked by the whole thing.”
“Of course I found out with the press because the judges are all kept separate from the contestants.”
“The only time we ever see each other is when we are in passing going to the studio so you don’t really get the opportunity to know what happens in the rehearsal room. It’s not part of our jobs.”
Then host, Naga Munchetty asked the dancer: “Have you ever thought about how you train? I mean, obviously you have danced, and that relationship …”
He admitted: “I know how I was trained and it was tough.”
“I had a Russian ballet teacher who used to have a cane and she would whack us with it. Just so you’re not pulling up from the thigh – doing a déboulés for instance to engage your hamstrings.”
“I mean obviously that sort of teaching wouldn’t be available today. Things have changed and come a long way in 40 years since I trained.”
Following the claims made against a number of professional dancers on the hit BBC show, the bosses introduced new measures to protect their celebrity contestants.
Last month, the Strictly bosses launched an extensive duty of care package for the stars of the new series.
Stars of the upcoming series will have access to various services to make them more comfortable.
These include on-call counsellors, cameras to film all training sessions, post-show therapy and chaperones.
Celebrities taking part will also undergo psychological testing to “ensure they are robust enough” to cope with the attention that comes with competing on the show.
Under the guidance of the BBC Duty of Care executive, new guidelines including training sessions and webinars will also be implemented across all of the network’s reality shows.
Speaking on these new measures, Craig admitted he was pleased with them being introduced.
He continued: “Training everyone is different, what they learn they carry on into the training room.”
“I think it’s a good thing they are bringing people into the rehearsal rooms, they are mediators.”
“We have chaperones in the theatre all the time, especially with children and younger people.”
“It’s a good thing to have a third eye on the whole situation,” he added.