Amanda Abbington raised bullying concerns about Giovanni Pernice just three days into rehearsals, she revealed today as the crisis surrounding Strictly Come Dancing deepens.
The Sherlock actress, 50, repeated bullying allegations again as she claimed there were several other female contestants who were ‘terrified’ of coming forward with their own bad experiences on the show.
Abbington suddenly quit the dance competition last October and since then has made a string of accusations about Pernice’s teaching methods, branding him ‘abusive, cruel and mean’.
She even claimed yesterday to have suffered humiliating bullying of a sexual nature in the rehearsal room.
The professional dancer has repeatedly denied the allegations and last night slammed Abbington for making ‘defamatory’ claims without any ‘evidence’.
Speaking to ITV News today she said: ‘Day three of the rehearsal I sent a text to the producer just saying he hates me and I dunno what I’m doing wrong.’
When probed on why she though Penrice ‘hated’ her from the get-go the actress said it was ‘because of the way [she] was being treated in the room’.
When Abbington sensationally exited the show on week six last year she cited ‘personal reasons’ before reports quickly surfaced that she had demanded footage of her rehearsals, claiming the show and Pernice had left her with PTSD.
It led the broadcaster to launch an official probe over claims of off-camera misconduct made by Amanda as well as other celebrities with the outcome of the investigation expected any day now.
Last night Abbington revealed she received texts from former dance partners of Penrice saying ‘I’m so sorry’ when it was revealed she would be working with him.
And now, she has repeated her claim that other women have also had awful experiences on the BBC One flagship shop but are simply too scared to come forward.
‘I think women are very scared to say something and stick their head above the parapet for fear of being not believed or being ridiculed or being told they, you know, they’re overreacting,’ she said.
‘I’ve spoken to, to several women who, who won’t come forward because of that, because they’re terrified of, of the fallout of what would happen if they did. And it’s, that’s not right.’
Abbington previously said she knows of ‘three other women’ who went through something similar during their Strictly experiences, adding their are ‘potentially’ more people coming forward.
The actress also clarified there are ‘five or six (other complainants) from what I can gather, but there’s three main people who’ve made complaints, mine’s the official one’.
Yesterday in an interview with Channel 4 News, Abbington claimed Pernice had tried to ‘block’ 50 hours of footage from being released after her lawyers requested the clips for ‘evidence’.
‘There’s 50 hours of footage that’s being blocked. You know, 50 hours is a lot of footage, and a lot of time spent in a room that was toxic,’ she told presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
‘It’s out there. There is evidence out there of what happened in that room and I’m not the one who’s blocking it. I’ve said anyone can watch it, but he (Giovanni) doesn’t want anyone to see it, which is quite telling if he’s got nothing to hide.’
The actress said that cameras were installed into her and Giovanni’s rehearsal studio after she raised concerns after the first week of practice with producers wanting to review the footage each week to assess what was ‘going on’ between the pair.
Producers allegedly told Abbington they were ‘horrified’ and ‘shocked’ by the footage they reviewed at the end of each week, but the actress said following her departure neither her – or her legal team – had been contacted by anyone at the BBC.
Due to the corporation’s ongoing probe Abbington has not publicly given any examples of Giovanni’s behaviour during rehearsals, however, branded him ‘abusive, cruel and mean’.
Yet a spokesperson for the dancer hit back and told viewers: ‘We would urge people to wait for the review’s conclusion and not to pay heed to these very serious and defamatory allegations that have no evidence in support of them.’
Ever since the claims first emerged Pernice has denied all of the allegations, claiming to have provided a dossier of evidence to the Beeb investigators and ‘remains fully confident in clearing his name’.
In an updated statement tonight, a spokesperson for the dancer said: ‘We are cooperating fully with the BBC’s review process. All parties have been asked to respect this process and to not speak to the media before it concludes.
‘We will continue to respect the integrity of the investigation and believe it is the right forum for all the evidence to be reviewed.
‘As part of the evidence-led review, the BBC has shared the allegations and there are none, nor any evidence, that resemble Amanda Abbington’s numerous and variable allegations.’
The dancer denies any claims of threatening or abusive behaviour, adding that he is confident the BBC review ‘will prove this’.
On Tuesday, BBC director-general Tim Davie apologised to contestants who had an experience that ‘hasn’t been wholly positive’, and maintained the show would return.
Professional dancer Graziano Di Prima left the show after allegations about his treatment of Love Island star Zara McDermott, while Paralympian Will Bayley said he suffered a serious injury while performing a jump in Strictly rehearsals, and claimed he was shown ‘no duty of care’.
A BBC statement said: ‘Anyone involved in a complaint has a right to confidentiality and fair process and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment further on individuals.
‘However, when issues are raised with us we always take them extremely seriously and have appropriate processes in place to manage this. As we have said before, we would urge people not to indulge in speculation.
‘More generally, the BBC and BBC Studios takes duty of care extremely seriously. Our processes on Strictly Come Dancing are updated every year, they are kept under constant review and last week we announced additional steps to further strengthen welfare and support on the show.’
has contacted the BBC for further comment.