TV

Furious Strictly star slams judge for inappropriate comment

A line was crossed...

We’ve all heard of the infamous Strictly Come Dancing curse in which celebrities and their pro dancers fall for each other despite being in relationships.

But you may not want to mention it around one particular pro…

Furious Brendan Cole has revealed he’s got ZERO time for suggestions of hanky panky as it’s just inappropriate.

Read more: Strictly star struggling to fake it with partner

The dancer used his weekly Best magazine column to lash out at judge Bruno Tonioli’s comment the other week that EastEnders actor Davood Ghadami and pro partner Nadiya Bychkova’s quickstep was like a “race to the bedroom”.

Brendan’s issue? Well, a) that Davood and Nadiya are both in relationships and b) there’s no place for quips about the bedroom in a family show.

He raged: “I didn’t approve of Bruno’s comment to Davood and Nadiya the other week.

“If it was said about two single people, like Mollie and AJ, then maybe it would have been okay, but both Davood and Nadiya have partners and children.

“Strictly’s also a family show – imagine your kid asking you what ‘race to the bedroom’ means.”

That would be awkward…

And Brendan wasn’t the only one unhappy with Bruno’s off-the-cuff remark: ex Strictly dancer James Jordan also felt it was inappropriate given Davood and Nadiya’s relationship statuses.

He ranted to The Sun: “I found it disgusting — let’s not forget this guy is a married man with two children. Bruno may have been joking but they’re joking with people’s lives here.

“He’s dancing with a good-looking girl and producers are trying to make her out to be this maneater which again is extremely unfair on her.

“These people are married. It’s not right.”

Davood has been married to wife Isobel since 2010 and they have two daughters.

In a chat with The Sun before Strictly even started, he said: “I don’t believe in that ‘curse’.

“Certainly, from an actor’s perspective, we are put in intimate situations all the time. That’s what we do. So this idea of a curse doesn’t exist for us.

“We’re used to dealing with that level of intimacy in a professional environment. It’s just another version of that.”

And far from worrying, Davood’s wife Isobel is his biggest cheerleader!

He previously said on Strictly spinoff, It Takes Two, that Isobel cheered him on from the front row while he danced up a storm with Nadiya.

And when host Zoe Ball suggested it could be “awkward” to dance closely with another woman while your wife watches on, Davood insisted that wasn’t the case at all.

“She loved it, she was really nervous before for me,” he said.

“She thought it was really good and was really impressed. She’s seen me walk round the kitchen [doing the dance], but it’s not quite the same without Nadiya there.”

Read more: Strictly star takes a cheeky swipe at X Factor

Let’s hope Davood and Nadiya continue to impress Isobel with their latest dance; they’ll be doing a Viennese Waltz to Say You Love Me by Jessie Ware next weekend.

Good luck, guys!


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor