'It's absolutely sick Brendan said that about Amy': Strictly insiders are furious at sacked pro Brendan Cole for slamming show and cancer victim Amy Dowden for cash. His team's weekly emails to me are eyebrow-raising: KATIE HIND

Every Tuesday morning, just before 11.30, an email drops into my inbox offering me the opportunity to ask Brendan Cole, the former Strictly professional dancer, what he makes of the current series.

It’s always tempting. Brendan, after all, has a reputation for a colourful and rather acerbic tongue. The New Zealander’s infamously brutal approach to critiquing his celebrity partners during his 14-year reign on the BBC’s flagship Saturday night show was evidence enough of that.

But in exchange for his juicy take on the programme and the crop of stars competing for this year’s glitterball trophy, there is a catch – the requirement to include a plug in any published interview for betting firm Sky Vegas, which is presumably paying the 50-year-old a handsome sum in exchange for publicity.

And his comments, which have been published by other newspapers, have sometimes been a little thoughtless, at best.

Earlier this month, Cole upset his former colleague, Strictly’s Amy Dowden, who lives with Crohn’s disease and has battled Stage 3 breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2023.

Rather than express his sympathy for Amy’s trying circumstances – and after she and her dance partner, celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton, were first to be booted from the show – he instead declared that she ‘hasn’t been up to the challenge’ of training a contestant.

‘I don’t think Amy’s been doing a very good job for the last few years, and she’s been out first for the last few years,’ he added. ‘One can do the maths on that. To be a pro on Strictly is a big job, and one has to be up to the challenge.’

Those who know Amy, 36, were furious with the jibe. As one told me: ‘It’s absolutely sick that Brendan is saying Amy wasn’t up to doing her job properly at a time she had cancer.’

It hasn’t gone unnoticed by the other Strictly professionals that Brendan is cashing in by trashing the very programme that made him famous back in 2004, when he won the inaugural series with newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky.

He was axed in 2018, when his contract was not renewed amid claims that he was ‘difficult to work with’.

But he’s far from being the only former Strictly pro to jump on the ‘trash for cash’ bandwagon – nor is he the only one being paid for his running commentary on the show by betting firms.

James Jordan, 48, who finished his seven-year stint well over a decade ago in 2013 – and is described by those working on the show as a ‘has been’ – has signed a deal with online gambling comparison site WhichBingo to write a weekly Strictly column. He is also well-known for being outspoken and has claimed in the column that the show needs a major shake-up, including to the line-up of judges.

Last week, Jordan also infuriated those closest to Amy when he came out to defend Cole, revealing his friend was ‘really upset when all the press came out about it’.

Writing on WhichBingo, Jordan said: ‘We’re on the bus together, and when I see stuff [in the press], I laugh because he’s a good mate and I’ll send it to him and say: “Oh look, they’re bashing you again.” And he’s like: “I don’t understand it.” ’

Amy took the opportunity to hit back at Cole on the red carpet at the Pride Of Britain awards this week, telling reporters: ‘Rather than him worry about what the headlines were saying about himself it would’ve been nice for him to call. He’s got my number.’ Grumbling about Cole and Jordan, one source close to this year’s show said: ‘They got sacked and now they’re bitter. It’s a disgrace.

‘Brendan and James are literally being paid by gambling firms to slate one of the show’s dancers. It’s very, very mean. Brendan has signed up to promote Sky Vegas. Every time he talks about Strictly they get publicity and Brendan fulfils his big money deal.

‘Strictly is under siege by Brendan and James, who appear to want to see the show off now they are no longer on it. Is it jealousy or pound signs that are behind this?’

As my source acknowledges, it is ‘probably a bit of both’.

As well as Cole’s derogatory comments about Amy, this week he accused Strictly bosses of ‘controlling’ the pro dancers by leaving them ‘uncertain’ about whether they will get a celebrity partner or not.

He also criticised the performance of pro dancer Nancy Xu, and blamed show veteran Aljaz Skorjanec for the exit of Gavin & Stacey actress Melanie Walters after he brought in an external choreographer to help with their Charleston. Cole suggested that Aljaz should have been capable of the choreography himself.

As a new host on the show, Josh Widdicombe has also found himself on the receiving end of Cole’s waspish observations: ‘Josh, who’s a very good comedian, is struggling to be funny on Strictly,’ he said. ‘I think they’re trying too hard to make it funny and it’s not working. It’s not gelling.’

Jordan is just as prolific with his insults. Just three days ago he slammed the judges as ‘predictable’ and ‘scripted’ and compared them to appearing in a pantomime.

‘Get the judges judging properly, not worried about upsetting people and trying to be too kind,’ he added.

He said Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey’s dancing had been ‘terrible’ and that reality TV star Dani Dyer was ‘overmarked’.

Strictly bosses, meanwhile, are both cross and bewildered by the onslaught – so much so, that one source inside the BBC has lambasted the pair for being ‘very bitter individuals’. They are known as the ‘gruesome twosome’ in some quarters of the Strictly family.

‘These people really need to move on,’ says one BBC insider. ‘It’s pathetic. They are being paid by gambling firms to slag off a show they haven’t been on for a really, really long time.

‘There’s a lot of irony going on here. They trash the show, but it’s the only thing that is keeping them relevant, and they are still using it as a way to get an income, albeit from betting firms. It’s grim.’

After leaving Strictly, both dancers found themselves consigned to the reality TV circuit. Jordan appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, before returning to Strictly for an ‘All Stars’ series in 2017. Two years later he won ITV’s Dancing On Ice.

He also took part in Celebrity Coach Trip and played Dandini in a Cinderella pantomime in Chesterfield in 2024.

Like his friend, Cole also appeared on Dancing On Ice in 2022 where he came second.

The BBC insider points out, too, that Cole and Jordan – both of whom came under scrutiny for how aggressive they were with their celebrity partners – are currently on a dance tour called Vegas: After Hours alongside former Strictly pros Pasha Kovalev, Vincent Simone and Ian Waite.

Destinations include Stockton-on-Tees, Carlisle and Perth, and while tickets have sold well, they are hardly sell-outs.

‘It turns out there wasn’t much out there as big as Strictly for them,’ says my insider. ‘Though the tours do pay well, to be fair.’

They are also heading off on their own set of dance shows called Dance Rebels: Strictly Unleashed next April.

‘They’ve even got Strictly in the name of their tour,’ my Beeb insider adds. ‘They might despise the show today but it made them back then and they are still making a living off it now.’

Cole and Jordan aren’t the only ones playing this game.

Simone – who left the programme 14 years ago after his girlfriend Flavia Cacace dumped him for her celebrity dance partner, actor Matt Di Angelo – hit out at the show’s female dancers this week, saying only Katya Jones is creating ‘amazing’ choreography.

Like his former colleagues, part of the deal is that a gambling company, this time Paddy Power Games, gets a mention.

The 47-year-old also fired veiled insults at the new hosting trio. He said Emma Willis should be given more screen time while Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe should merely ‘support her’.

Then there’s Ola Jordan, the Polish professional dancer who impressed Strictly fans for nine years after arriving in 2006. She left a year after her now ex-husband James.

I can reveal that she has signed a lucrative deal with Mecca Bingo to share her views on her former show. While her insights tend to be more constructive than out-and-out criticism, she has also had her say on the new hosts.

‘It was a bit messy at times, with the links with Johannes Radebe for example,’ she said. ‘I think they just need to... make it a bit cleaner for next time.’

Discussing the backlash surrounding Widdicombe, the 44-year-old added: ‘I think maybe Josh Widdicombe is really nervous still, so I think we’re not getting that comedy as we would like to.’

For Strictly bosses, Ola’s new deal has come as a surprise – she has rarely put a foot wrong as far as the show is concerned, and I’ve never heard a bad word uttered about her.

However, after splitting from James after 22 years of marriage earlier this year, she has noticeably upped her profile on social media. ‘Perhaps she needs to earn some money,’ says my source. ‘Although it’s quite a shame, as she and James used to be the golden couple of the Strictly ballroom.’

For Strictly, having its former stars attacking it so publicly is the last thing it needs. It has recently shed viewers from the prime-time slot after presenting duo Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly quit (the latter after 21 years at the helm).

The highest ever Strictly audience was in 2020, when 13.2 million watched comedian Bill Bailey lift the glitterball.

But current figures are significantly lower. On October 10, there were five million viewers, while just 4.5 million tuned in for the results show.

The celebrity line-up has also been criticised for not featuring enough big names, with producers accused of focusing on stars who will attract a younger audience.

Sports influencer John Nellis and Love Island winner Cach Mercer – hardly household names for the Strictly audience – were both signed up in a move described to me as ‘the new-look Strictly’.

And with the show trying to look forwards, the prominence of commentators such as Cole, Jordan, Simone and Ola are distracting because they are a reminder of its past – which, at times, wasn’t always pleasant.

Few will have forgotten just how vile Cole was to broadcaster Fiona Phillips in 2005 when he described her as ‘pathetic’ and threatened to ‘duff her up’ during a rehearsal session.

Fans were also shocked when footage emerged from 2006 revealing that Jordan had called actress Georgina Bouzova a ‘lazy cow’ and telling her she had a ‘fat belly’, while adding that unless she had a broken rib he didn’t care how much pain she was in.

When she walked out of the studio at one point in tears, he followed, saying: ‘We’ve got no time for crying.’

As my source points out: ‘There has been a real effort to turn things around on Strictly after all the scandal. And now this lot have come along and dragged it all back up.

‘Haven’t they got anything better to talk about?’