Giovanni’s payback and why BBC fears releasing ‘bullying’ report

It was a moment Giovanni ­Pernice wasn’t sure would ­ever happen again. With a new dance partner at his side, this week he returned to the rehearsal room, preparing to compete for another glitterball trophy.

But there’s one key change. This year Giovanni’s training will take place in Rome – where the ballroom star is getting ready to appear in the Italian version of the show, Ballando con le Stelle (Dancing With The Stars) – after some at the BBC spoke highly of him to the programme’s European producers.

It will be Giovanni’s tenth Strictly – but his first outside his adopted home of ­Britain. Giovanni, say friends, is ‘beyond happy’ and there’s a distinct feeling this is payback time for the dancer, after Amanda Abbington – his partner in the series last year – made incendiary claims that he bullied her while they were training together.

One of his friends tells me: ‘I guess you could look at it as a kind of sweet revenge. He was adored by Strictly viewers, yet he has gone thanks to Amanda’s claims – but, in his mind, it is all Italy’s gain.’

Amanda instructed famously combative lawyers Carter Ruck to represent her and formally complained in April, leading the Beeb to launch an investigation.

Giovanni quit – but not before hiring Schillings as his legal firm.

And while Strictly’s 20th anniversary series starts on BBC1 tonight, the outcome of the corporation’s inquiry remains pending. It’s been a tumultuous time, then, for the Sicilian-born star. But, say friends, he’s finding happiness again – on the dancefloor.

His partner in the Italian show is stunning 43-year-old singer and actress Bianca Guaccero – who posted a picture of the pair in training on her Instagram account to the backing music of Dirty Dancing’s (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life, writing alongside the snap: ‘The beginnin.’[sic]

‘Gio is having a great time,’ says a friend of the star. ‘He is so happy, it is his way of moving on from the whole sorry situation.

‘He is so excited that he can keep on dancing and what makes it all the more lovely is that it will be in his home country. [The past few months have been] absolutely horrendous for Gio. He has been stuck in limbo. This will be a lovely boost for him.’

Sources close to Giovanni, 34, say he is ‘really hoping’ to win the series – the ultimate response, he believes, to the claims levelled at him by former Sherlock actress Amanda.

‘Gio is so pleased that he has been able to get back to doing his thing, it’s testament to his strength of character. He could have buckled at any moment but he carried on and now he really wants to win.

‘He is determined he and Bianca will do their best and they are getting along great in training.’

Giovanni’s friends say it wasn’t easy for him to quickstep back into a rehearsal room. The last time he did so it ended with Amanda, 52, accusing him of being ‘abusive, cruel and mean’, which he denies.

She also accused him of bruising her foot, and in an interview with Channel 4 News in July, Amanda compared Strictly to ‘the trenches’ and suffered ‘humiliating behaviour of a sexual nature’ – which Giovanni also says is untrue.

None of its previous 21 series has begun under a cloud like this.

So what has happened to the BBC report into Amanda’s ­accusations? The investigation began in April but sources say the delay, is in part driven by BBC chiefs fearing that – whatever its conclusion – it will prove to be a toxic moment for the Corporation.

If Giovanni is exonerated they worry it will appear as if they are not believing a woman.

But if Amanda’s complaints are upheld, Giovanni could attempt to sue the BBC for failing in its duty of care towards him because celebrity contestants did not undergo psychological evaluation before competing as is commonplace on other reality shows.

There had been an expectation the BBC would inform the pair of the result of their investigation before the new series began.

The ideal moment would have been before publicity for the new series began in the summer. Now the Strictly team face the worst possible outcome: that all anyone will talk about during this series is the investigation.

If the verdict is delivered – and it should happen during the series which finishes a week before Christmas – it will become the entire focus of the current show.

‘It’s a nightmare for the BBC,’ said an insider who works there.

‘People keep saying it will be on this day or that. The truth is nobody knows. There is every chance they will decide to bury the verdict until next year which is far from ideal for either side.’

Since publicising her grievances, Amanda has apparently been contacting former contestants to see if they will come forward, too.

Several have: table tennis player Will Bayley claimed a jump he was trying to perfect for the 2019 series was branded ‘rubbish’ in rehearsals by his pro partner Janette Manrara. He says he severely hurt his leg while trying to do it better. The Paralympian said he was encouraged to leap from a table despite his concerns and those of his coach. Meanwhile, Laura Whitmore, ­Giovanni’s 2016 partner, said last month that things she tried to talk about during her time on the show eight years ago are ‘all coming out now’.

She said she had been ‘gaslit to make it seem normalised’.

It’s striking that this year the show’s producers struggled to entice female competitors, securing only six – and they don’t appear to be household names like Annabel Croft and Angela Rippon who took part last year.

Instead celebrities such as Tasha Ghouri from ITV2’s reality show Love Island have signed up, plus former The Only Way is Essex star Pete Wicks and JB Gill, who sang in the now defunct pop band JLS. Big names are limited to former England footballer Paul Merson, DIY SOS host Nick Knowles and singer Toyah Willcox.

‘We don’t anticipate such high viewing figures this year,’ admitted one employee.

Like the British Strictly, the ­Italian version airs once a week, and begins live shows a week after our version. It’s filmed in a far more glamorous location than Elstree studios in Hertfordshire – it’s set in a magnificent 19th century theatre at the Foro Italico complex in Rome.

For Giovanni, things currently look as sunny as the Roman skies above his training studio.

Bianca is a household name in Italy with millions of fans. She also appears to be single after her divorce from film director Dario Acocella, with whom she has a daughter, Alice. She and Giovanni seem to get on famously.

A friend of Giovanni’s said ‘he is thrilled with this partner and they are tipped to do well’.

It does seem, though, that Giovanni’s return was a close-run thing. Only last month it was feared the Italian show would not sign him until the BBC inquiry was over. It’s understood some within the BBC spoke up for Giovanni to say he was not a bully, rather ‘merely someone who wants to win.’

His Italian job will mean spending time away from his home in West London this autumn. ‘The change of scenery will do him the world of good,’ says one friend. It feels like he is starting something new but still doing what he loves.

‘If Amanda thought she was going to destroy him, she was wrong.’