The new series of Strictly Come Dancing started last night here on UK TV, amid a huge media hoo-ha regarding the replacement of long-time judge and dance expert Arlene Phillips with 2007 winner Alesha Dixon (pictured). Were the BBC being ageist as some commenters claimed? Were they trying to redress the overwhelming whiteness of the panel and meet their ethnic quota? Or were they just after another bit of eye candy to brighten the programme up for the blokes?There's no doubting that Dixon ticks all those boxes - young, black and attractive - but are any of these suitable credentials for joining a panel of judges whose job it is to critique a dancing competition? Judging by her performance last night, I'd have to say no. And judging by the reported reaction of the television audience, forum and chat room posts, and media critics in all their various flavours, I wouldn't be alone. Thousands of nos have been resounding up and down the country. Compared to the knowledge and experience of her fellow panel members - Craig Revel-Horwood (dancer, choreographer, theatre director), Bruno Tonioli (dancer, choreographer), and head judge Len Goodman (four times British champion Exhibition dancer, dance teacher and professional judge) - her single credential is having won the competition itself two years ago.
So having her comments restricted to knowing "how the contestants are feeling," enthusing about the way they relate to each other, and agreeing with the other judges tells us nothing more than we can see for ourselves.
Question is, will the BBC be big enough to admit their mistake, climb down, and offer Arlene her old seat back for the next series? Because for now, a lot of the sparkle seems to have gone out of Strictly, and putting more sequins on the costumes won't help.
3 comments:
Answer...no.
The BBC, or rather their ageist, uber-trendy young producers and researchers think they know it all... all it seems except the fee-paying public they are expected to serve. They'd get rid of Brucey in a shot if it didn't mean killing the show.
Annie:
Sounds kind of like what's happened at General Motors. For the last ten years we've been inundated with young fresh from university people who haven't a clue about the car industry. They come up with ideas that are implemented only to fail. The truth is that they were done before, and failed then too, but they're too young to have experienced that.
Don: one of my Google "quotes of the day" for yesterday - 'Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
- Sidney J. Harris'
Are there no more experienced managers around to tell them it won't work, or are they all fresh from Uni too? Pretty soon someone will come along with a fantastic new idea that'll revolutionise transport, and call it... the wheel.
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