Will Bayley ‘made to feel Strictly injury was making mountain out of molehill’

Will Bayley has said he was made to feel he was “making a mountain out of a molehill” when he contacted the BBC about the life-changing injury he suffered during Strictly Come Dancing.

The Paralympic table tennis player said he suffered a serious injury while performing a jump in rehearsals for the programme in 2019, and claimed there was “no duty of care”.

He claimed producers were told the jump from a table during a routine was too dangerous, but he was encouraged to do it anyway, and after he was injured show bosses made him feel as though it was his fault.

Bayley has arthrogryposis, a condition which affects all of his limbs, and was also diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during childhood.

He underwent reconstructive knee surgery in January last year after he was forced to withdraw from series 17 of the popular programme in week seven after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.

Reflecting on the experience, he told BBC Breakfast: “Lessons can be learned, but I’m called being woke if I say something like that, or controversial, which is unbelievable, really.

“But I just think that’s not really a difficult thing to ask, I think it should be a priority.

“If the BBC are brilliant enough to get people with disabilities in, they have to really support those people, make sure that they’re safe.

“And it’s not like I’ve brought this up now, I’ve brought this up in writing as well, and I’ve brought this up many times… It’s just because the other stories have come out that mine has actually got listened to, but I have brought it up before.

“If someone gets an injury like mine, it will affect them for the rest of their life. I’ll never get over this knee injury, I have to deal with that.

“I just want to make a positive impact. If people listen, and try and take on board what I’m saying, it’s to try to get positive out of it rather than just be complaining for complaining’s sake.”

Bayley said he had a positive experience with his professional dance partner, Janette Manrara, but added that professionals could do with additional support when training contestants with disabilities.

He said: “Janette was incredibly supportive, hard-working. She had a will to win, like me. I thought we were an amazing team. I thought we got on so well and we were ultra-professional.

“We wanted to win and I wanted to win, and we went for the win.

“There are things that could have gone gone better. My fall, my injury could have been avoided, just because I think that maybe professional dancers need extra support in the training hall if you’re working with someone with a severe disability.”

He continued: “If it does help one person from getting a severe injury like mine, that is definitely amazing. I went through a really tough time mentally for about a year afterwards, I could hardly walk. It was so hard  to come back from that injury.”

Bayley said he outlined what could be improved in letter to the BBC but was disheartened by the response he received.

He said: “I got a response and I was in a bit of a depression when I read it back. I just found it really depressing. It was kind of like ‘We’ve done everything we can do, and we support you’.

“It felt like I was making a mountain out of a molehill. That’s how I felt that it was.

“I just hope it gets listened to now and some adaptions get made because of my story.”

The table tennis player is the latest star to speak about his experiences on the show following concerns raised about the treatment of contestants Amanda Abbington and Zara McDermott.

Abbington has described professional Giovanni Pernice’s behaviour as “unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean”. He denies the claims.

Graziano Di Prima has left the show over allegations about his treatment of Love Island star McDermott.