Strictly star Dani says X Factor feels 'staged'

Strictly star Dani says X Factor feels 'staged'
Strictly star Dani says X Factor feels 'staged' (Image credit: BBC/Ray Burmiston)

Dani Harmer says Strictly Come Dancing is beating rival show The X Factor in the ratings because the singing contest 'feels staged'. The Tracy Beaker actress boasted that BBC One show Strictly has 'brilliant people on the programme' who are 'true to what we are'. She told Digital Spy: "I think X Factor's kind of gone in a different direction. It feels a bit more staged, whereas we're true to what we are on Strictly. "We know that it's camp and it's shiny and glittery, and I think people like to watch that on a Saturday night because of all the crap that's going on in the world now, recession and all that rubbish." She added: "It's nice to watch something that takes you to a different world almost. And there's no kind of sob stories or anything like that, it is what it is. We're just going out there and trying to dance and making idiots out of ourselves sometimes." Meanwhile, Strictly Come Dancing favourite Denise Van Outen says her professional dance partner James Jordan has been struggling with their latest regime. "We are dancing to Walk Like A Egyptian and have to do all these head moves. He looks like a pigeon," she said.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.