Emily Herbert - Be Kind: A Tribute to Caroline Flack

BE KIND

On 20 December 2014, the twelfth series of Strictly Come Dancing reached its triumphant finale. A little-known television presenter named Caroline Flack had won. It was a massive triumph, catapulting her into quite another league and setting the scene for a glittering career which would make her a household name, afford her some of the most high-profile roles on television and present her with opportunities afforded only to a few. Caroline was to go on to lead an extraordinarily glamorous life that will remain in the public memory.

And although she already had a substantial amount of television experience before she took to the dancefloor to say nothing of a private life that had also attracted a certain amount of attention it really was Strictly that started it all. Many felt it was her finest hour and as she became the series winner, she had never looked better or happier. Paired up with the Russian Latin and ballroom dancer Pasha Kovalev, this had been by no means a foregone conclusion: other contestants included Frankie Bridge from The Saturdays, Simon Webbe from Blue, pop star Pixie Lott and Jake Wood from EastEnders, who put in a pretty impressive salsa early on. Nor was Caroline an obvious hoofer: to begin with, at least, she came across as faltering and nervous, with a very shaky cha-cha-cha as her debut.

But as the weeks progressed, a change seemed to come over Caroline, with her confidence and ability growing in equal counts. For a start, she was clearly enjoying herself, not always a given in these shows. Secondly, the public loved her. Beautiful, photogenic and sporting a gorgeous array of costumes, Caroline began to show an increased ability, a sense of rhythm and a screen presence that, while it had always been present in her television work, was increasing by the day. There was a nail-biting moment when she once finished in the bottom two, but Caroline rallied like the pro she was.

A rumba, a quickstep and a paso doble all impressed, followed by a jive in Blackpool that really knocked the crowds for six. In an unashamedly high-spirited performance, the couple danced to Elton Johns Crocodile Rock, Caroline dressed in a Union Jack dress and Pasha as a Buckingham Palace guard, complete with distinctive hat: they scored thirty-seven points that night, to the delight of the crowd. Judge Bruno Tonioli gave her a ten; head judge Len Goodman, giving her nine, said: If you are in the dance off this week Im going to run to the end of the pier and dive off naked. (He didnt.) You cant half flick, Flack. There was also a nine from Darcey Bussell and another from Craig Revel-Horwood, who commented, I thought you executed that with military precision. Judy Murray was the contestant to leave that week.

Indeed, the audience loved the performance: Carolines dress was reminiscent of the famous appearance made by Spice Girl Geri Halliwell at the 1997 Brit awards, clad in a Union Jack miniskirt that she later confessed shed made from a tea towel and which went on to achieve iconic status. And it was that image that Caroline put on Instagram the year after Strictly, when reminiscing about her time on the sequin-heavy show. I just loved it, she later told You magazine. I loved pretending I was a dancer every day, going to rehearsals in my legwarmers with my coffee in my hand. That was the bit I loved most the performance days were terrible and nerve-racking, to be honest. Not that it showed Caroline was getting so good that there was even speculation about a future role in a musical on the West End stage.

And, despite catching her dress in her heel a couple of times, her confidence continued to grow, culminating in a salsa in the semi-final that produced the top possible score of forty. She bangs, she bangs! screeched Bruno. Youre a super-charged engine fuelled by sex appeal! That was followed by another two scores of forty in the final, a cha-cha-cha to Can You Feel It by The Jacksons and a showdance to Angels by Beverley Knight. As if that were not enough, there was yet another forty for a charleston danced to Istanbul (Not Constantinople), originally written by Nat Simon and Jimmy Kennedy, making Caroline the first celebrity contestant to score the maximum forty from the judges in all three of her dances in the final and setting the record for the longest consecutive run of forty marks. And what really came through was how much she clearly enjoyed herself on the show: You dont feel bad when youre dancing, she once said. You cant feel unhappy; its impossible. Its such a natural way to release endorphins.

It had been quite an experience. There had been four couples in the last show: Mark Wright and Karen Hauer were the first to go out in fourth place; pop star Frankie Bridge and Kevin Clifton and singer-songwriter Simon Webbe and Kristina Rihanoff were the other runners-up. There were four Beatles, three musketeers, two Ronnies but only one winner on Strictly, chortled Len, over-egging it a little perhaps, but it summed up the atmosphere that night. Something special had appeared on the screen.

When she won everyone involved sounded nigh-on delirious. The cha-cha-cha to Can You Feel It, had an over-excited Bruno shrieking, My golden sex goddess! Angels prompted the audience to spring to their feet, with Darcy exclaiming, That was like watching a beautiful contemporary ballet for me, and youd be in my company any day (high praise indeed. from a ballerina of her status).

Caroline herself was euphoric: This has been the best experience of my whole life, mostly because of Pasha, but also because of the other contestants, she said in the wake of being named the winner. Im so lucky to get to know this incredible bunch of people.

The series was considered a triumph, regularly beating The X Factor in the ratings and peaking at 11.4 million viewers during the final. It had been a life-changing episode: I think all people whove been on Strictly like to talk to others whove been on the show and share their experience, she said afterwards. And its always exactly the same. You go through the same emotions. It never quite leaves you. Its always just here somewhere. Its a real magical thing to have taken part in. Its not so much a job its more of an experience.

Caroline also went on to call winning Strictly the biggest achievement of her life, but there was another element at play as well: it was the breakthrough that pushed her into the publics consciousness. She had a solid portfolio of television appearances and a couple of high-profile romances, including two Harrys Styles and Windsor. But this took her into a different league, that of much-loved national treasure and household name. It was one of the reasons that both grief and disbelief greeted her death less than six years later: how could a beautiful and vivacious woman, with so much going for her, possibly have reached such depths of despair?

But even at the time of her win there were signs that not all was well. For a start, Carolines personal life was in turmoil. And as she later revealed, she woke up the next day feeling desperately unhappy. I couldnt get up and just couldnt pick myself up at all that next year, she later said. I felt ridiculous, being so sad when Id just won the biggest show on telly. However, I felt like I was being held together by a piece of string which could snap at any time.

It is easy in the wake of a tragedy to say that people should have spotted sooner what Caroline was going through. Her arrest for the assault on her boyfriend, tennis player Lewis Burton, in December 2019, was the culmination of a tumultuous personal life; the threat of prosecution and losing (if possibly only temporarily) her position as the presenter of