Craig Revel Horwood adapts Strictly judging style over ‘bullying’ concerns

Craig Revel Horwood has tweaked his judging style as the pantomime villain on Strictly Come Dancing for fear it would now be classed as bullying and end in him being cancelled.

The Australian-born dancer and TV star, who is the only original judge on the Strictly panel, admitted he had softened his trademark “cutting” remarks amid heightened scrutiny of the show.

“I have changed my style of judging,” 59-year-old Revel Horwood told the Radio Times.

“I was really harsh 20 years ago. When I look back, I think, ‘Ooh, that’s cutting’.

“It would now be classed as bullying, and then I’d be cancelled.”

He confirmed he hadn’t changed his judging style through “fear of being cancelled”, but shifted towards a more constructive style thinking “more like a teacher than a judge”.

Revel Horwood said he used to be “very direct” with celebrities, but now chooses to “wrap the truth in a nice way”.

It comes after previous celebrities on the popular BBC One dancing show became outspoken about their treatment on the long-running series, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary year.

Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington made complaints about her 2023 professional dance partner, Giovanni Pernice – who has always denied the allegations.

The BBC apologised to Abbington after they assessed the complaints and upheld some, but not all, of those made.

Among Strictly’s new duty of care measures, chaperones were placed in rehearsal rooms.

“Things have to change,” Revel Horwood said.

“These dancers are world champions – they’ve been taught properly to win, and the only way you’re going to achieve that is by someone driving you. That’s embedded in their DNA, you can’t just change that overnight.

“That’s very different to a celebrity who’s a novice coming in. Celebrities are sensitive because they’re in the public domain. They’ve got reputations to protect and don’t want to be seen looking stupid.

“So it’s about having someone there in the room and guarding both the celebrity and the professional, and also encouraging the fact that it should be fun.

“They still need to be pushed, because we can’t get away from the fact that dancing is hard, but it’s a light entertainment programme as well.”

Revel Horwood also claimed he plans to publish all the negative comments and so-called death threats written about him over the years in a future book to “shame them”.