How instructive to see the actor Amanda Abbington give an interview to Newsnight. It followed the BBC report in which it apologised to her, upholding some of her claims against Giovanni Pernice, the Strictly Come Dancing professional she was partnered with in the 2023 series, before leaving five weeks into the competition.

Abbington spoke about her time on Strictly, which she described as “an ongoing litany of being verbally abused, sexual innuendo and sexual gestures” (Pernice denies the allegations), and how she has not ruled out further action against the BBC. She spoke of receiving anonymous death and rape threats from people on social media since speaking out: “I’ve had to deal with myriad horrible things that have continued to happen, just for really complaining about…” She corrected herself: “Not even complaining – I don’t like that word – for alerting people to what I deemed and what people before me deemed as bad behaviour.”

It seemed a telling moment: why did Abbington recoil from the notion of complaining? In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of “complain” is: “to express grief, pain, or discontent”, or “to make a formal accusation or charge”. It seems clear, but is it more complicated than that – is it gendered? Does “complain” mean one thing for men and something very different for women?

Getting away from the actual Strictly allegations (what a stick of legal fizzing dynamite that continues to be!), it has been quite something observing the monstering of Abbington in certain........

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