Abbington on Newsnight
Why did Newsnight let Amanda make a lurid claim that had ALREADY been dismissed by the BBC’s Strictly inquiry?
Amanda Abbington’s Newsnight interview was kept so secret that many BBC employees had no idea it was even taking place. There was no publicity, no clues. Even Giovanni Pernice’s team were unaware, managing to get a tip off only minutes before it went on air at 10.30pm on Wednesday.
Ms Abbington dressed and had makeup for the interview, black was very much the colour of choice.
Friends of the Italian ballroom star wonder whether that was because Abbington was always intending to further fan the flames of the row between the doomed Strictly pairing of 2023.
After a six-month investigation by the BBC into allegations of bullying of Abbington by Pernice, most of the complaints against the professional dancer were thrown out in the report they finally shared on Monday. But if heating up the row was her intention, it is fair to say Abbington’s appearance on Newsnight’s sofa, where she was interviewed live by host Victoria Derbyshire, had a considerable effect.
Pernice’s lawyers are furious at the Sherlock actress’s extraordinary claims of sexual misconduct on Newsnight. Abbington told Derbyshire she endured an ‘ongoing litany of being verbally abused, sexual innuendo, sexual gestures’ and ‘there was a 35-minute rant at me with him throwing his hands in the air and calling me names’.
Most shockingly, she added: ‘When I got a dance step right, he would outline his erection in his trousers and tell me that’s what my dance move had made happen, because I’d got it right.
‘The other sexual allegation was verbal. They weren’t isolated one-off incidents.’
Pernice’s lawyers watched her 18-minute interview about ‘one of the worst years’ of her life in horror, claiming that Abbington’s allegations are defamatory.
One source close to the scandal tells me: ‘If anyone thought the report was going to end all of this fall-out, then they are wrong.
‘After that interview, it seems to be just the beginning.’
Abbington’s claims have incensed Pernice and his lawyers at celebrity legal firm Schillings because, while the BBC report did uphold the allegation that the 34-year-old gestured towards his groin when Abbington had done something well and said words along the lines of ‘look what you made me do’, they found that there was insufficient evidence to find that he had an erection at the time.
In fact, I can reveal that BBC investigators said of her claim in its review: ‘No witness reported actually seeing an erection’ and ‘there is insufficient evidence to find that Giovanni actually had an erection at the time.’
It is understood that a witness, interviewed by the BBC, explained that they never felt Abbington, 52, was made to feel uncomfortable, and that she tended to be ‘in on the joke’ and would make similar comments back to Pernice.
Based on witness evidence, Abbington had not received the comments negatively.
In the Newsnight interview Abbington also claimed that almost half of her complaints were upheld, but Giovanni’s friends point out it was more than one third – with both sides claiming victory.
The figure of upheld complaints published in the report is six out of 17 – or just over a third.
A source close to Pernice says: ‘Amanda went too far, what is she doing?
‘She knows full well what was in the report, she kept referring to it during the interview, saying that she had a 30-page report with her in the studio which she said she and her lawyer are digesting.
Abbington keeps praising her fantastic lawyers, she needs to give something in return as they are representing her on a pro bono basis, that’s free to you and I.
‘Pointing to his crotch and making a joke is one thing, outlining an actual erection in the context of proven sexual harassment is literally false.’
Another friend adds: ‘When will she stop? Once again Abbington is destroying Giovanni in the media.
‘For months there have been stories in the papers of far more serious things Amanda says he did to her but none of them have been upheld, so what has she got to say about that?’
Abbington’s comments were all too much for Pernice to keep his silence and, just before midnight on Wednesday, his spokesman told me: ‘It’s disappointing that Ms Abbington would knowingly mislead the outcome of the report seemingly in order to further attempt to damage Giovanni’s reputation.
While Ms Abbington may not like the outcome of the six-month investigation, she should not seek to spread false and defamatory claims.’
It is perhaps understandable why the dancer – Strictly’s longest serving male professional until he quit in May after the inquiry began – was so cross.
A number of comments Pernice made to Abbington were upheld by the investigators as wrongful behaviour, including the phrases ‘you have such talent and you’re not using it’, ‘I don’t know how to ask you anymore’ and, ‘it has been four days now and I don’t know what to do’.
In one outburst, Pernice said: ‘I’m tired of it, if you want to look s***, I don’t care.’
Other complaints upheld include Pernice’s use of the f-word while teaching her how to do a routine and giving her negative feedback, including throwing his arms in the air and saying ‘f***’.
As a result, Giovanni was told by the BBC that he didn’t adapt enough to Abbington’s needs.
Of the two complaints which were upheld of a sexual nature, one involved the dancer pointing to his groin and uttering a lewd remark.
He also told his dance partner that he ‘wanted to f*** her’ after Abbington had pulled off a great move in the training studio, leaving Giovanni impressed.
According to those close to him, this behaviour is in keeping with the deeply passionate perfectionist they know, who loves seeing his partners progress.
Abbington enjoyed the ‘banter’ and the BBC did confirm that, while it was inappropriate behaviour, the comments were made and received as jokes, humour and compliments about Abbington’s dancing.
According to the review, it was a two-way, consensual way of talking and behaving.
As for the future, Pernice’s lawyers haven’t ruled out taking legal action against Abbington.
Dressed in a white blouse, black woollen tank top and trousers, her short hair scraped back into a tiny ponytail, and as is customary in such interviews black makeup, a sombre Abbington told Derbyshire: ‘I’ve been through a lot, women go through a lot, but it has been a very unpleasant, turbulent, relentless time in my life.
‘I’ve had to deal with a myriad of horrible things.’
Derbyshire seemingly made no attempt to correct Abbington on her airing of claims which were not upheld in the report.
That is because, I’m told, she was not allowed to see the BBC’s report before the interview went live.
In fact, all there was time for was a short briefing by Pernice’s team, where she was given the necessary investigation background. Many will question why.
They may also question why Derbyshire gave Abbington a relatively easy ride.
One BBC insider tells me: ‘Amanda is a female victim so of course she has to be treated with kid gloves.
‘It feels like the BBC is definitely trying to appease her, they want to keep her happy, so they have been very supportive of her. Maybe they don’t want this to drag on.’
That the affair will be brought to the desired swift close now seems unlikely.
Abbington said during the Newsnight interview that she and her lawyer at Carter-Ruck are considering further action against the broadcaster, saying she was taking guidance on a ‘dayby-day basis’.
She claims that there is a ‘significant’ reason why some of the more serious claims were not upheld, though Derbyshire didn’t probe her on what that was.
However, recently, friends of the star told The Sun newspaper that Abbington thinks the BBC is a ‘boys’ club’.
Yet Derbyshire did ask her about an article by Mail columnist Sarah Vine, in which she wrote: ‘Women like Abbington are part of the reason other women who find themselves in genuinely awful and much more serious situations don’t get taken seriously.
‘Women who can’t afford fancy lawyers and who don’t get the opportunity to air their grievances with the likes of [fellow Strictly contestant and Channel 4 broadcaster Krishnan] Guru-Murthy.’
Friends of Pernice suspect that Abbington asked Derbyshire to raise the article as it gave her the opportunity to tell Newsnight viewers how women had, in fact, thanked her for her speaking up.
In the interview, she said: ‘I’m always shocked when women throw other women under the bus for standing up for something that is wrong, but OK.
‘I’ve had so many women come up to me since I made this complaint, thanking me for being brave enough to stand up and complain about something that was affecting me in a work situation.
‘And they have thanked me and said,“Thank you for giving me the strength to do it as well”.
‘I have had so many women coming up to me asking if they can give me a hug … I did it for the women that were before me, that had gone through the same thing in that work environment.’
Still, not everyone is convinced that Abbington’s decision to speak up been a good thing – especially Strictly staff, who say the programme now seems boring since the complaint.
One show insider says: ‘Strictly used to be such a fun show to work on, sometimes it was a bit risque but it was a laugh.
‘Now, thanks to her we are being monitored like naughty school children by the chaperones, it has gone all po-faced and the fun police are in town.’
If this gripping ballroom drama continues to rumble on, however, Strictly fans will certainly have plenty to keep them entertained.
One might have thought that after a six-month investigation, and the publication of a BBC report into the 17 complaints Amanda Abbington made against her Strictly Come Dancing professional partner Giovanni Pernice, the matter was over.
End of? No way. Far from.
It is not mischievous to suggest that Amanda was hardly vindicated, despite what her lawyers suggest. Only six of the original allegations were upheld, and one of them was for Pernice swearing.
Another was for him apparently telling the Sherlock actress she was ‘better than this’ when she mucked up during a rehearsal. I am imagining Amanda thundering through her pasodoble like an ox, as Giovanni wept on the sidelines, but is that fair?
Only two people know the truth and both are claiming a moral victory. Ms Abbington says the report was ‘a vindication’, while Mr Pernice said he was ‘pleased’ it did not find ‘any evidence of threatening or abusive behaviour’.
And there the matter might have ended, two high-maintenance performers locked for ever in this fandango of utter farce – but that was before Amanda made further accusations against her former partner this week.
The actress made a surprise appearance on the Wednesday edition of BBC’s Newsnight.
She sailed into the studio like a vengeance-seeking crusader, but was dressed like a novice nun and had her expression set on full-throttle victim mode.
One minute she had a demour look and then a smile that verged on a smirk.
She was even threatening possible legal action. ‘I am taking guidance from my lawyer every day,’ she said, quivering with suppressed – I’m taking a guess here – excitement.
Even the memory of her Pernice-fuelled rehearsal room ordeal turned her eyes into bubbling pools of sorrow. It was a terrible sight to behold!
Up in the Clauditorium they would have been passing the Kleenex while the judges lifted their ‘10’ paddles and applauded the sheer bravado of this career-defining performance.
For Amanda, 50, went on to detail yet further allegations against Pernice – including claims of sexual misconduct, verbal abuse, sexual innuendo and sexual gestures.
According to her, he once ranted at her for 35 whole minutes when she got things wrong.
When she got things right, it was even worse. She claimed he even made a ‘shocking sexual gesture’ and ‘pointed to his groin’ when he was happy with her dance training.
Holy Stromboli! This kind of behaviour is perhaps entirely in keeping with a very retro idea of how a highly strung Sicilian ballroom dancing teacher might behave, had he missed his equal opportunity training and the entire last quarter century’s contribution to global emancipation.
And that is a pretty accurate resume of 34-year-old Pernice’s life to date. He is clearly no choirboy, but she is hardly singing the immortal Hallelujah herself. And there is something about Amanda Abbington’s belated affront that is also hilarious.
Why hasn’t she publicly mentioned this godforsaken trouser-tingling trauma before?
I’m sad she feels so victimised by her experience on a glitter-rich TV reality show, but her Newsnight attack does suggest she is going to carry on making bigger and bolder claims against Pernice until the mud sticks – or she feels better about herself. Whichever comes first.
Debbie McGee partnered with Pernice in the 2017 series – and she had nothing but kind words for him. ‘My Giovanni,’ she called him. ‘He got me through a lot.’
Her husband, Paul Daniels, had died 18 months earlier, weeks after being diagnosed with a massive brain tumour. McGee had nursed him though those final weeks, never letting him see her devastation. ‘I decided I couldn’t let him spend the last days of his life looking at me crying,’ she said.
For her, the brutal training with Pernice, plus the distraction of rehearsal and showtimes, helped to combat ‘the waves of grief’ that threatened to push her under. ‘It was just dance, dance, dance,’ she told me. ‘That was all I could think about.’
For Amanda Abbington, it was very different. Where Debbie saw challenge and the defiance of her limitations, Amanda only saw abuse and affront. That is not to say one woman’s experience is more valid than the other’s, but it is always bogus when one-note campaigners say: I’m not doing this for myself, I’m doing it for other people.
‘I’ve worked for 32 years as an actress in a job that started the #MeToo movement,’ Amanda said this week. ‘And I have never had to leave a job or had to experience anything like I did in that rehearsal room.’
The MeToo movement! Amanda has also claimed mothers have come up to her in the street and said thank you for making the world a safer place for our daughters.
May I repeat myself here – we are talking about how women are treated on a popular reality show, not what is going on in the streets of Iran or on Epstein Island.
Look. No one doubts training for Strictly is tough and difficult. Most contestants accept that.
They’ve seen A Chorus Line. The hit film Dirty Dancing taught them that nobody puts Baby in the corner. And, via Flashdance, they understood being a welder by day and a dancer by night equals wrecked hips for ever.
The professional dancers on Strictly, like all professional dancers, are a formidable crew, many of whom have danced their way out of poverty in tough corners of the world.
Amanda had a bad experience, and we have to take her word for it. But she has made her point, she has taken her scalp. Isn’t it time to move on and end the dance before it becomes a ridiculous witch-hunt?
I think Abbington is being given far too much airtime and surely in fairness and to show impartiality Giovanni Pernice should be given airtime by the BBC as not all the allegations were upheld.
Abbington will not settle with the apology as she is looking for a payday from the BBC
