Strictly Come Dancing bosses have been dubbed "controlling" after they tried to gag Angela Rippon from revealing gory details of how she cut herself on the show. Broadcasting icon Angela, 79, slashed open one of her legs with a high-heeled shoe minutes before she was due to take to the ballroom floor on Strictly last year. But now her agent Sue Ayton - discussing allegations of bullying levelled against sacked dancer Graziano Di Prima - has told how "controlling" telly chiefs tried to stop Angela from talking about the incident so as not to damage the BBC show's "fantasy" world image.
Sue said on Radio 4 that the BBC rallied round to make sure Angela could perform live and the professionalism of the staff was "exemplary" but she added: "Angela was writing a column at the time for a newspaper and she wanted to include this because it was such a wonderful story how everyone had come together. "And we were told to scale this back, you are not to mention you cut your leg and there was blood. Well, why not? Because this is showing the BBC at their best.
We were encouraged to play down the fact that she had hurt herself so as not to puncture the illusion and fantasy. And I felt that was too controlling and the public would like to know some of that." Top agent Sue said she felt some stars were ill-prepared for the tough training regime of the show and she felt the BBC is to blame.
She added: "They need to look at the entry point and how people are prepared. This is terribly hard wo.