It turns out celebs and pros have been privately filming one another in a bid to safeguard their reputations

WHAT do Strictly Come Dancing and Charlotte Dujardin have in common?

Besides the fact the latter would make an excellent pro on Strictly — whipping those preening celebs into action would be, well, horseplay compared to reported rehearsal room training methods — both have been undone by covert recordings.

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Amanda Abbington formally complained to the BBC about partner Giovanni Pernice’s ‘abusive’ behaviourCredit: BBC

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Both Strictly and Charlotte Dujardin have been undone by covert recordingsCredit: Getty

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A video of a police officer kicking and stamping on the head of a lying down man went viralCredit: Twitter
Footage of one of Britain’s most decorated Olympians cruelly whipping her steed rightly went viral and led to her withdrawing from Paris before she was pushed.

Other riders apparently fear being similarly undone.

And after 20 years of false bonhomie and “family feelgood” entertainment, the facade of Strictly has come crashing down thanks to secret tapes.

Because in a deeply toxic, Kafkaesque scenario, it turns out celebs and pros have been privately filming one another in a bid to safeguard their reputations, their futures and, perhaps, their very sanity.

After Amanda Abbington formally complained to the BBC about partner Giovanni Pernice’s “abusive” behaviour, the Sicilian, it transpires, has handed over to investigators a clandestine voice memo recording of his own — one taken without his partner’s knowledge but one which goes against much of what she has said about him publicly.

He believes it will exonerate him.

Similarly footage of Zara McDermott’s horrifying sounding training with pro Graziano Di Prima is what got him the axe.

Without that footage, which reportedly made investigators weep, he would still be on the show.

The whole thing makes for deeply uncomfortable reading.

Covert recordings in the workplace are a grey area HR-wise. But in the case of gross misconduct claims they are generally considered acceptable forms of proof.

More and more, colleagues are turning on one another — filming, screenshotting and memorising every rogue or errant comment.

Which is as much Big Brother as it is Big Bother, because where do we draw the line between office bants and a P45?

Last week’s Manchester airport drama is another example of where leaked video can be dangerously misleading.

Clips of a police officer kicking and stamping on the head of a lying down man went viral, apparently demonstrating yet more police brutality at a time when public confidence in police is at an all- time low.

The footage sparked a protest outside Rochdale police station, where hundreds of people gathered and chants of “shame on you” were heard.

Walking on eggshells

Yet over the weekend fresh footage of the brawl emerged — this time of the build-up and showing the officers being punched and attacked before they retaliated.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has urged people “not to rush to judgment”.

But that is the problem with today’s world; one where everyone is a walking CCTV machine or/and private detective.

Not only can we not say or do anything without fear of being caught on camera — like a massively unfunny You’ve Been Framed — we are all only a clip away from cancellation.

Tech means we are all walking on egg-shells. One screenshotted “gag” and it’s curtains. One bad-choice fancy dress party clip and it’s social Siberia.

Short of all going around with mini cameras on our heads, like little off-road Jeremy Vines, what is the solution?

Charlotte Dujardin has had her last waltz and Strictly is cha-cha-changed for ever.

Which, in the light of what we have discovered, is perhaps no bad thing.

But not even author George Orwell could have predicted this dystopian nightmare.

That’s the chunder of you, Serena