Costumes on the BBC’s family programme Strictly Come Dancing are too skimpy, one of the show’s finalists has said.
Natalie Gumede, a soap actress, said she nearly always sends her dresses back to the wardrobe department because they are too revealing.
“I turn up on Friday and see how much material is in the dress. Nine times out of ten I get some added”, she said.
Modest
“I prefer to be modest, to be honest”, she explained.
Gumede said the wardrobe department dress the participants so they will “objectively” look good, but “obviously, as a person you have to be comfortable”.
However, she said they “will always work with you on that”.
Sparkle
Mark Linsey, who is responsible for the BBC’s entertainment commissioning, said: “We are careful that not too much flesh is on show, but it is a glamorous show with plenty of sparkle and we wouldn’t want to have Strictly without that.”
“They don’t have to wear anything they don’t want to wear,” he added.
Strictly Come Dancing courted controversy earlier in the series, when finalist Sophie Ellis-Bextor and her dance partner Brendan Cole hit back at the judges who said their rumba dance should have been more passionate.
Married
Ellis-Bextor said: “When my husband saw it in training he liked it – to be honest a Rumba is not the kind of dance you do with someone you’re not married to.”
Brendan Cole told one of the show’s presenters he wanted it to be “clean and classic”.
Judge Darcey Bussell said she missed “sensuality” in their dance, and fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood said he “found it a bit cold”.
Suggestive
In 2011, the BBC received 325 complaints about sexually suggestive dance moves during the show, which is broadcast before the watershed on a Saturday night.
The routine in question involved ex-footballer Robbie Savage thrusting his hips and provocatively grabbing his crotch.