On Complaining to the BBC About Jingoism in Strictly Come Dancing

[danieldwilliam]

I was appalled by the opening dance routine of last Sunday's Strictly Come Dancing results show. I don't think light entertainment programmes are the right place for acts of remembrance and I thought the tone and quality of the performace was very questionable.

So I complained to the BBC. The text of my complaint is below.

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I am complaining about the Strictly Come Dancing - Results Remembrance Sunday opening dance routine on three grounds; inappropriateness of the programme, unsuitability of the artistic choice and poor quality of the delivery.

A family, evening, light entertainment programme is the wrong place for an act of solemn remembrance. Remembrance cannot be shorn of the context of years of violence that left millions dead, millions more starving, homeless, raped, maimed, driven insane or grieving for lost family and friends. It is not an act of light entertainment.

If we forget that we are pausing in our lives to remember an act of horror so that we may never again inflict it upon ourselves we risk repeating the mindless jingoism that lead us to the Great War.

The artistic expression of the opening dance routine was poorly judged. The routine was founded on jingoistic mawkishness verging on fascistic propaganda. It celebrated death and being bereaved in war as things to be yearned for and contributed to the growing militarism of our country. Becoming a war widow is not an act of noble, yet romantic, suffering to be aspired to as a public performance of the virtuous widow. It is a violent act that damages families emotionally and economically for generations. The romanticism of the death and suffering of war is a deeply questionable artistic choice.

And done so poorly. An awful rendition of 500 Miles, the lyrics ill-suited to the dance. The tempo of the music ill-suited to the lyrics. The cultural significance of 500 Miles, especially in Scotland, is one of exuberance and the scoring of tries. It is a song better suited to Comic Relief or Murrayfield.

All in all an failed piece of art, poorly conceived and delivered, that revealed some very unsettling militaristic and jingoistic sentiment at the BBC and which was disrespectful of those who have actually suffered through war and disrespectful too of the purpose of acts of remembrance; to remind us not to engage in war again.