Michael Barrymore argues Strictly Come Dancing is "too controlled" and claims he would "get the viewers back"

Seeing as everybody these days has an opinion on Strictly Come Dancing’s struggle to keep viewers happy, I ask Michael Barrymore for his two cents.

“It’s too controlled and contrived,” he offers. “It’s not what people want any more. Because of years of people watching telly and learning about it, and social media, audiences require more. It’s too safe. When I was hosting Saturday-night TV, there was a bit of an edge. Producers have to be willing to take more risks.”

Could he do a good job of Strictly now? He laughs. “Well, I’d certainly get the viewers back.”

Not many people could promise that, but Barrymore speaks of what he knows. Forty years ago this week saw the launch of Strike It Lucky, a conventional family TV quiz show that turned into ratings catnip thanks to the host’s chemistry with participating members of the public.

“The game was a bit of nonsense,” remembers Barrymore, a former Butlin’s Redcoat who got the primetime gig after the producer spotted him on stage at the Royal Variety Performance. “I never met the audience or the contestants until we recorded the show, and the whole lot was totally improvised. That’s why the chats became more popular than the actual game.”

Why didn’t he want to meet the contestants beforehand? “It kept them on their toes, and me as well.”

The show, which ran for 13 years from its 1986 debut and at its peak drew audiences of 18 million, differed from today’s offerings. As Barrymore says, it was always unscripted, at his insistence. “I’d go off on tangents and, bit by bit, the camera crew got used to following me.”

It worked, he says, because, “like Bruce Forsyth, Larry Grayson and others, I’m a performer, not a presenter. We came from backgrounds in stand-up, where you’re working audiences all the time, so you learn what they want by trial and error. Not everything works, but I’ve never been frightened to fail.”

Plus Barrymore, unlike today’s primetime hosts, was out there on his own. “Not everyone needs another presenter to set up the next line, or for the chef to pop in and do something. But I just don’t think that they would risk building a show around one person any more either,” he reflects.

“Look what’s happened with Strictly. Why does Bake Off have four judges and presenters? It means if one of them gets cancelled, the show goes on. They can spread the risk.” He adds: “Behind the scenes, there are too many people making decisions as well. Nobody’s willing to take the hit if it goes wrong.”

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Despite his own well-documented cancellation amid scandal, tragedy and addiction, Barrymore has enjoyed a recent renaissance on social media, where he has 4.5 million followers on TikTok, averaging between 20 and 30 million views a week.

In a bigger surprise, many of those followers are younger people who would have no idea of his television history and for whom he’s simply a 74-year-old bloke living in Devon with his dog Lara, trying out his new waffle maker and other everyday capers.

What has he taken with him from his Strike It Lucky days? “I’m still performing. It’s just more real.” How real? Does he refer to his past scandals and sorrows? “I talk about all of that. I have complete freedom, and everything’s there.”

In another universe, Barrymore is Forsyth’s natural heir to primetime longevity and national treasure status. But he turned down The Generation Game and “anything else that wasn’t new” and says he’s much happier and busier now than he’s ever been. “I’ve always loved people, since I was a kid, and I love what I do, more today than ever before because I have experience.”

Still, if the phone suddenly rang and it was the BBC asking Barrymore to come back to their Saturday evenings? After many years of triumph, setbacks and fresh triumph, he calmly tells me, “I never refuse to look at anything.”

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