Strictly Come Dancing fix claims: Helen George claims BBC show was 'controlled'

'It is a dance show and a television show so there has to be drama and it has to be somewhat controlled'

Helen George claims Strictly Come Dancing is 'controlled' (BBC)

Call the Midwife's star and ex-contestant Helen George has waded into the controversy surrounding claims Strictly Come Dancing results have been fixed. 

She told The Sun, "It is a dance show and a television show so there has to be drama and it has to be somewhat controlled for it to fit the format. I don’t know what happened and I wasn’t privy to it.”

George was booted from the programme after she failed to impress judges and fans after her dance off with Coronation Street's Georgia May Foote in the quarter finals. She told of her departure, "I would have loved to have stayed of course and I feel like I had a couple of lovely dances in me still, but at the same point it is what happened and there is no point in begrudging it or getting too upset about it."

“It is TV and it is a show and I enjoyed my time on it. I was quite tired as well. It was quite nice to go home and sit on the sofa for a couple of days. Georgia did a lovely dance and they asked me to do certain things in the final in the dance off and I felt I did those and I felt it just didn't go my way on the night.”

Rumours that the show was fixed sprung up around the series' final, in which The Wanted's Jay McGuiness snatched the champion's trophy even though Eastenders actress Kellie Bright was awarded two perfect scores from the judges, including Craig Revel-Horwood's first of the series. 

This also follows claims from ex-contestant Jamelia that Peter Andre's standing ovation was 'faked by producers', and professional dancer Ola Jordan's departure from the show, believing that judges “over marked and under-marked” contestants on producers' requests. 

George did, however, state McGuiness was a "very worthy winner" for the show. 

She also defended the show's elimination tactics of combining 50-50 the votes provided by the judges and by the public, "It is a TV show and the public invest in it and they want to be part of it and they have to have shared ownership over it with the judges. The judges are there to guide and to take it away from the public (isn’t right) and the judges don’t always get it right; and the public don’t always get it right."
 

“It is an art form. It is subjective. That is why it is so brilliant and so exciting to watch and there is chemistry whilst you watch it. You love it and you hate it for all those reasons. And that is why after 13 series it is still going strong.”

The BBC have declined to comment on George's remarks. They had responded to Ola Jordan's previous fix claim with, “Any suggestion that the scores are "fixed" is nonsense. Each judge scores each dance independently, based on its merits and in their expert opinion.”

Call the Midwife aired its 2015 Christmas Special on BBC One on Christmas Day.