Amanda Abbington reveals Strictly case is 'unresolved' and says 'no regrets' over complaints about Giovanni Pernice
Amanda Abbington has said there are still "unresolved issues" and has not ruled out taking legal action against the BBC after a review published this week upheld "some, but not all" of her complaints against former Strictly Come Dancing professional Giovanni Pernice, whom she was paired with during the 2023 series.
Appearing on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday, the Sherlock actress said: "There's a 30-page report that me and my lawyers are still digesting. There are still things in there that are unresolved."
The 50-year-old claimed that there was a "significant reason" that some of the allegations against Giovanni were not upheld, and that her team will be "investigating that further".
When asked if she is considering bringing a lawsuit against the BBC, Amanda responded: "I'm taking guidance from my lawyer, who has just been so amazing throughout this whole thing. She's been the driving force and has helped me, because there’s been times when I’ve just thought, is this worth it.
"I'm taking advice from her, and on a day-to-day basis."
She went on to say: "There were some very serious things that went on, and they were upheld by the BBC.
"There were breaches of all the codes of conduct within the organisation."
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Amanda also said she has "no regrets" about lodging the complaints, despite this year being "the worst of her life".
"I've been through a lot, women go through a lot, but it has been a very unpleasant, turbulent, relentless time in my life. I've had to deal with a myriad of horrible things," said the actress, who said she's received "hundreds" of death threats in the last eight months.
"The death threats and the rape threats and the abuse I get are horrible and soul-destroying and heart-breaking," said the mum-of-two.
"But I do get women coming up to me in the street saying 'you're paving the way for my daughter to work in a safe environment and not feel threatened or in any way feel that they can't speak out'."
Amanda also claimed she was not the only person to have complained about working with Giovanni on the BBC show.
She said she invited the former Strictly contestants to her home because "we wanted to make sure we weren't on our own thinking this had just happened to us".
Amanda said when they first met "we all burst into tears".
Earlier this week, the BBC apologised to Amanda and thanked her for coming forward. "We have assessed the complaints and we have upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made," the BBC said in a statement. "We want to apologise to Amanda Abbington and to thank her for coming forward and taking part. We know this would not have been an easy thing to do."
In a statement released on social media, Giovanni said he was pleased that some of the allegations "have not been upheld".
"It's over. It's finished," he wrote. "Six months, seven months of all of this. Seven months of reading everyday things in the newspaper and not [being] able to respond because I wanted to keep the confidentiality and privacy of the review, was a difficult time. It was difficult because, you know, reading stuff that was untrue, wasn't the nicest time of my life, let's be honest.
"But today im happy because, you know, at the beginning there were very very serious allegations thrown out at me but as in today, none of the serious allegations have been upheld. All the threatening, abusive, harassment behaviour allegations have not been upheld."
