Harry's Blog

It seems the judges, producers and contestants involved in BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing are suffering delusions of grandeur. They would have you believe that the Saturday evening entertainment show is actually a serious dance competition¹.

The fuss over John Sergeant's poor showing by the judges standards - but not the viewing audience - is utterly ridiculous. Strictly is an entertainment show and Sergeant was entertaining the crowd. The viewers - the ultimate deciders of whether they are entertained or not - clearly love the man.

But the laughably stuffy judges and so-called professionals are up in arms about other celebs being hoofed off the show instead of loveable old John. And now it seems poor Sergeant has been pressured into quitting the show. So one of the most popular members of an entertainment show's cast has been forced to quit. Well done BBC.

Strictly is purely light entertainment. Nothing more, nothing less. It's a hugely popular show with high production values that has millions of fans. That's everything it is. It should not be ashamed of it. It's not really my cup of tea but that's not really important, I'm not the show's obvious audience. But what matters is that the members of the judging panel and the professional dancers need to get a grip and realise the reality of the programme they are involved in.

It's just a bit of fun.

_{¹Which in itself would hardly be the Nobel prize or the World Cup would it?}