Three months ago, I had no idea who Hamza Yassin was. At the age of 36, I’m hardly CBeebies' target audience. Fast forward to Saturday night, and I’m slumped on the sofa, wiping away tears as the wildlife presenter and cameraman receives his feedback for his history-making Afro-beats performance. As judge Motsi Mabuse put it, “I never in my life thought I would see this on Strictly Come Dancing.”
For me, Hamza’s performance cemented why Strictly Come Dancing is the most inclusive show on television and why shows like Love Island are rapidly losing their relevance.
This is no box-ticking exercise. Back in 2017, the Paralympian Jonnie Peacock was the show's first disabled contestant. He proved any naysayers wrong when he made it all the way to Blackpool, a glittering achievement for any Strictly contestant.
The latest set pic for season two is fascinating.
The show's commitment to disability visibility continued, casting a second Paralympian in 2018, Lauren Steadman. Lauren was born without her right forearm and chose not to wear her prosthetic on the show to ensure her disability remained visible. This, for me, was one of the biggest moments as my best friend Sophie was also born without her forearm.
Sophie’s arm is not something I ever think of; in fact, I’m guilty of forgetting, resulting in a few awkward moments over the years. But, growing up together, I would be aware of when she felt self-conscious. I would notice how she hid her arm for photos or draped a cardigan on a night out. I don’t know if anyone else would have spotted it, but as a plus-size person, I’m hyper-aware to that feeling of just wanting to blend in.
I’d never asked Sophie at the time how she felt seeing Lauren, but I knew I wanted her perspective for this feature. “For me, when I saw Lauren on a show like Strictly, I just realised it’s okay, I’m okay, and I’m the same as everyone else,” she explained.
“I’m from a generation that never saw anyone like me. It was very rare that I even saw anyone out in public, and if I had seen Lauren on the telly when I was a little girl growing up, I would have had so much more self-confidence then.”
I knew what the visibility side would mean to Sophie, but I hadn’t considered the benefit of seeing Lauren’s capabilities as well. In all our years together, the only thing I’ve ever helped her with is tying her hair into a ponytail, but I know growing up, she wanted to prove she was capable of all the same things and more.
While I wish little Sophie had Strictly back then, as she says, that representation is still important to her now as an adult. “Seeing Lauren be sexy, be wanted in that way and dancing with a man […] When [I was] growing up, the reaction I expected to see was disgust.”
The actor “screamed” when he got the news.
Disgust and ridicule are two things that people with dwarfism face every day. All too often, they are dehumanised for ‘entertainment’ in films and television, but this year, another Paralympian, Ellie Simmonds, proved everyone wrong when she was partnered with Nikita Kuzmin. Seeing Ellie in her stunning sequinned gowns week after week was a reminder that dancing and prime-time TV really are for everyone and that representation really is powerful, especially if last year’s winner is anything to go by.
Who can forget Rose Ayling-Ellis? I know I can’t. I loved watching Rose every week, and it made me reflect on ways that I was excluding people in my own life. Ever since her spectacular win, I always add subtitles to all my social media video content. It takes me a lot longer, but it's not worth the guilt I feel if I don’t do it, especially after supporting Rose for all those weeks. It wasn’t just me that the actress had an effect on, though, as the bill she supported to make British Sign Language an official language in England was finally passed in January this year.
When boxing champion Nicola Adams and her partner Katya Jones became Strictly’s first same-sex pairing in 2020, the show had its highest first-day ratings in three years. The pair may have been forced to withdraw due to Covid, but despite the backlash from homophobic fans, Strictly stood by their decision and partnered Great British Bake Off Star John Whaite with my beloved Johannes Radebe in 2021. The result? The greatest Paso the world has ever seen.
This year comedian Jayde Adams was paired up with Karen Hauer after requesting to dance with a woman when she signed up for the show. And, once again, I was left crying on my sofa, watching her perform her epic flash dance routine in a leotard.
As a plus-size woman, it was a statement, one designed to prove that television and the dance space need to embrace body positivity as well. To see her dance around that stage without being covered up with a wrap dress was so cathartic for me and even more so to know that my mum was watching it with me.
“No one breaks my heart like Claire.”
Of course, this all culminated in Hamza’s epic Afro-beats performance, and you only need to read the comments on Strictly’s Instagram to see what it meant watching a Black man with knee-length locs dance his heart out on BBC1. “Proud of Hamza for bringing his culture to a wider stage, showing the incomparable beauty of the motherland,” read one.
Another person commented, “What a first bringing Africa to the Strictly dancefloor in such an exuberant way!” On the same post, another person wrote, “Thank you Hamza for bringing Afro beats to Strictly and wearing your locs with pride.”
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There's a joy I feel when watching Strictly that I don’t get from other TV shows. I always eye-roll to myself when people ask me why I don’t watch Love Island. It’s a question, I think, that can only come from someone who hasn’t had that feeling of alienation, that feeling of otherness.
Why on earth would I want to watch 10 societally beautiful men and women “couple up” on my TV screen, when it’s what I’ve spent my entire life watching from the sidelines? Why would I want to support a show that could make cause such seismic change but simply refuses to?
Yes, Love Island may have had their first deaf contestant in Tasha Ghouri, but it’s simply not enough. The argument for not including plus-size contestants is that they’d be trolled, but they wouldn’t be if the rest of the cast represented the diverse nature of the UK, like Strictly so successfully has.
Love Island’s tokenistic approach to diversity is reflected in the racism the Black contestants face every single year. You can’t blame your viewers for being prejudiced when you are perpetuating those beliefs by not representing anyone other than able-bodied, slim white people. *Slams head on keyboard*
Strictly Come Dancing proves that a long-running show with an older audience can change for the better. It can be inclusive; it should be inclusive, and our world would truly be a better place if more TV shows took a leaf out of Strictly’s book.
The importance of representation cannot be overstated.
