Danny John-Jules blasts 'dirty' Strictly Come Dancing, denies 'bullying' rumours

Actor Danny John-Jules has spoken out against Strictly Come Dancing after labelling the BBC competition show as 'dirty' and 'filthy'.

The Death In Paradise star did not hold back in a new interview as he denied allegations he bullied his professional dance partner Amy Dowden during his time on the show in 2018.

John-Jules competed on the sixteenth series of the hit dancing competition and found himself eliminated in week eight, just days after it was reported that he had allegedly left Dowden in tears.

Speaking on the My Time Capsule podcast he stated: "It's a dirty show on that level. On that level it's a filthy show. It's based on tabloid stories.

"The thing about Strictly is that it doesn't matter who you are, you're going into a well-oiled machine which at that time was the biggest show on telly."

The Red Dwarf star has now claimed he had been resented by the show's producers due to his work ethic, with the 61-year-old going on to allege that the producers had been behind the bullying allegations as a way to evict him.

John-Jules continued: "I already knew when I went in there what they were expecting of me. Because I wasn't giving them anything to chew on, they just went out there and made it up."

The Blade II star doubled down on his claim that the allegations were false as he added: "I said to everyone, 'What did I do then, what did I actually do that everyone was so unhappy about?'

"I don't know, nobody has actually told me. They came up with this cockamamie story about bullying basically — it was basically dog-whistling, that I was bullying my partner".

A BBC spokesperson responded: "This claim is categorically untrue."

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Elsewhere on the podcast, the actor also took aim at media coverage as he added: "What I want to know is why was a tabloid journalist backstage in one of the judge's dressing rooms?

"The first person I looked down on when I came out on the set that night when I was evicted was a tabloid journalist sitting right there on the stairway, having just come out of Shirley Ballas' dressing room."

He continued: "I've never heard of the media being backstage on any show except Strictly. That was the night I was evicted. I knew I was going home that night.

'So apparently after I got evicted I went into the bar cursing everybody saying I should have won, they're all idiots."

The Story Makers star stated: "My mother was there, 84-year-old mother, with my niece and oldest friends, and that's what [the newspapers] said I was doing. It's baloney, every word of it is baloney."

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