Strictly is really scraping the barrel with Thomas Skinner ...Middle East

All wildly successful TV shows will at some point inevitably reach their peak. And then – because gravity exists in television, too – they will commence their descent. Invariably, it will not be a pretty spectacle, but who among us will be able to look away?

Which brings us, neatly if uncomfortably, to the new series of Strictly, and the announcement that its latest – and excuse me while I turn away a moment to clear my throat – “celebrity” acquisition is one Thomas Skinner.

Thomas who, m’lud?

A quick primer. Thomas Skinner is a 34-year-old businessman from Romford, who, we are informed, likes to use the word “bosh”, as in, um, well, as in “bosh”. (It’s GeezerSpeak; look it up.) Skinner, a “proud Londoner” by all accounts, appeared on the 15th series of The Apprentice in 2019, in which he was annoying in the way that only contestants on The Apprentice can be: too brash, too flash, with top notes of twit. He didn’t win, but did go on to become the kind of “entrepreneur” who dabbles in myriad ventures, Del Boy-style, because why not, bruv? He opened a gym (called Bosh), briefly ran a bedding company (called Bosh), and now we learn that he has political ambitions.

Celebrities are Strictly’s lifeblood, of course, and the more they grab the headlines, the better the ratings. Give or take the occasional Ed Balls or the odd Ann Widdecombe, the show’s producers have always seemed to know that what we crave most beneath the glitterball are familiar faces that are broad in their appeal, and largely non-threatening. Soap stars, perfect; comedians, even better.

Last year’s winner, Chris McCausland – the show’s first blind contestant – delighted us all so much that we could almost (but not quite) forget the scandal of Wynne Evans, whose obnoxious behaviour behind the scenes was, if we’re honest, pretty much commensurate with the behaviour we’ve come to expect of all TV personalities who happen to be white, male, intermittently hirsute, and fall within a particular age bracket.

But the announcement of Thomas Skinner feels genuinely problematical, the actions of a long-running show now scraping the barrel. Yes, politics is a broad church, and all opinions should remain freely aired among those that crave them – but on the dancefloor? In sequins?

Skinner, who is wildly popular on social media, is a big admirer of Donald Trump (see him on X grinning broadly in a MAGA cap), while more recently, for reasons not entirely clear, he enjoyed a barbecue with US vice president J.D. Vance. They looked very happy together.

 Politics is all about optics, something Skinner clearly knows very well indeed. Strictly could be the primetime making of him, and in doing so might give his opinions far more traction. He has posted that it is not “far right” to be “flying your flag and loving your country”, and that he cannot understand “people in this country who seem to hate it. Why live here if you can’t stand it?”

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We are sufficiently far into the 21st century to know precisely where this celebrification of political personalities can get us. Back in the late 1990s, Boris Johnson was merely a lo-fi Conservative MP and broadsheet columnist whose winningly buffoonish ways made him perfect guest material on Have I Got News for You? But Johnson was more wily than he first appeared. He used the exposure to his advantage, later becoming London Mayor and then Prime Minister, the “World King” of his own gaudy imaginings.

In a thoroughly grim way, the appointment of Skinner makes perfect sense for 2025. If Nigel Farage can go on I’m a Celebrity, then why not Skinner on Strictly? But it will change the whole mood of the show, and rid it of its conviviality. It will become something quite different.

For up to 12 long weeks, Thomas Skinner will literally have the floor. Make of that what you will, because he will, too.

Tommy Robinson next?

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