From glamour to grit – the gruelling challenges facing Strictly’s whingeing contestants

And so the row about Strictly runs on, with all manner of new allegations about horrid behaviour and sudden recollections of unpleasantness that happened the best part of two decades ago, and which mysteriously have taken this long to come to light. What on earth is going on?

A once harmless wholesome family entertainment show is now being presented as some kind of cesspit of cruelty, with calls on the Beeb either to shelve it or at least to rest it for a couple of years, before bringing it back with a whole new cast of dancers.

The allegations include kicking, spitting and verbal abuse and, of course, there’s no excuse for that. However you cannot escape the conclusion that a lot of recent Strictly contestants hail from the country’s something-for-nothing generation: they want the rewards without putting in the work and, when the going gets tough, they get whingeing.

Dancing at that level is extremely difficult: my personal great love is ballet, which makes ballroom dancing look like a walk in the park.

In the past few years ballet has also had to put up with its (un)fair share of complaints, with erst- while (failed) dancers whingeing that they were expected to be very thin (...you don’t say!) and that men sometimes put their hands where they shouldn’t (let me tell you now that if you don’t like being touched by strangers, dance is emphatically not the career for you.)

There have also been a number of allegations of abuse, so much so that one very talented choreographer took his own life a few years ago. It is a very, very tough profession, which is not so much a job as a vocation, which prizes excellence and dedication above all and which, as a result, has produced some of the very highest forms of art.

To a lesser extent the same is true of ballroom dancing. Anyone who has tried their hand (or rather, feet) at any form of dancing will know that it is really not just a case of jiggling along to a lively tune.

For starters, you must be fit enough to maintain extended periods of punishing physical activity.

Then there’s the minor matter of remembering the steps. Musicality is required, ie, keeping time with the music, something you don’t need to worry about if you’re a professional runner, say, or swimmer.

And then there’s theatricality, the aspect of putting on a show.

Every professional dancer on Strictly has lived in this world throughout most of their lives: it is second nature to them and they know the sacrifice and self-discipline it involves.

If they are then confronted with people who think that they can perform at the same level without the complete effort and understanding of what it really takes, can there be any surprise that tempers fray?

No, there’s no excuse for abusive behaviour, but past contestants on Strictly have spoken excitedly (and happily) about the weight they have lost and the fitness they have gained.

In other words, it was indeed very hard work.