Sun BBC Smear Busted

A new series of Strictly Come Dancing will soon be upon us, which means one thing: that part of the press that lives and breathes Beeb-bashing is looking to play both sides of the field, kicking the Corporation for anything they can pretend is wrong with the show and its lineup, while simultaneously sponging off its popularity to flog a few more papers. The Mail has tried hard, but the biscuit has been well and truly taken by the Sun today.

So while the Mail has whined “Strictly who? It's the eve of the hit show's new series, but how many of this year's not-so-familiar 'stars' can you ACTUALLY name? These are the stars appearing in the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing … However, critics have suggested the line-up is lacking in major star power” (the article cites no critics at all), the Sun has accused the BBC of being in league with pornographers.

Well, if you’re going to pull a whopper, it might as well be a big one. Under the claim “Strictly Come Dancing Exclusive”, Sun readers are told “CHA CHA NUDEY CHOO CHOO … BBC use p**n train in hit show opener”. And, as the man said, there’s more: “MILLIONS of Strictly fans will watch a grand opening dance sequence on Saturday starring a steam train used in a hardcore p**n film called Nympho”.

Do go on. “But the train previously appeared on screen in a movie about a woman who has sex in a railway carriage with strangers”. Sadly for the Sun, they manage to pony up precisely no evidence that it was the same train. But they do know that “The BBC will be horrified to discover their flagship family show is now linked to p**n”.

Linked by the shock troops of Creepy Uncle Rupe, who wants to damage the Beeb? Not really horrified, I suspect. What else can the Sun offer us? “A source said: ‘The BBC prides itself on Strictly being good clean fun. Everything about it is safe and wholesome. So this will come as a horrible surprise’”. “A source”? Oh, just f*** off. “A source” means another Sun hack - or even the one that wrote this crap standing in front of a mirror.

I’ll go further: the scenes in the p**n film - previously the subject of much why-oh-why outrage by the Mail - weren’t filmed using either of the carriages of the “Strictly Express”, as any good railway nerd will be able to confirm. Indeed, the Sun finally admits “The train featured in one scene. It is not known to have been in any of the sex scenes”. No, because it wasn’t in any of the sex scenes. So the Sun story is crap.

That hasn’t stopped Managing Editor Stig Abell from enthusiastically Tweeting “Strictly Come Dancing uses p**n train for filming”, even though the train was not used for filming p**n. So what was the purpose of this lame hatchet job? Over to Jeremy Vine for a full and frank analysis: “For those unclear about the subtext to this frontpage, it is SHUT-THE-BBC-BECAUSE-THEY-USED-A-P**N-TRAIN”.

Yes, the Sun wants to milk Strictly to sell more papers, but the real purpose is to damage the Beeb. Just as Murdoch would have wished. What a bunch of crawlers.