The Strictly Come Dancing 2024 line-up will be one for the history books, as BBC bosses have recruited the show's first-ever blind contestant, comedian Chris McCausland.
'If anybody out there is thinking - How the hell is he going to do that? - then rest assured that I am thinking exactly the same thing,' Chris says about the opportunity. ' I don't dance, I haven't danced, I can't dance, I can't see the dancing I will have to do. What can possibly go wrong? Okay, don't answer that…!'
The comedian describes the opportunity as 'unknown', having 'never watched it, for obvious reasons'. But that's not to say he hasn't got intel about Strictly Come Dancing from those around him. He says, 'My best mate's wife is obsessed with Strictly, so she is probably the best source of information that I
have. However, when she found out I was doing it she couldn't breathe properly and her head nearly
exploded, and she hasn't been much use to me since.
'It's not a world I've ever been exposed to and it's hard to understate how things that other people take for granted are unknown to me. It wasn’t until three weeks ago that I found out people get fake tans. Then I thought it was just one week, like a fake tan themed week. I'm trying to get as much information as I can but I'm learning as I go. I have no preconceived ideas so I'm learning it all.'
How will Chris be approaching Strictly Come Dancing as a blind contestant?
'I’ll take the show seriously but I won’t take myself seriously,' Chris says. 'If we can do something funny then I'm all for that. Maybe I can bring some visual comedy into the dances. I'll be up for having a laugh with the judges, [and] Tess and Claudia. I will be more in my comfort zone for those moments.'
Chris - a regular face on comedy panel shows such as 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Would I Lie to You? - was the first celebrity to be announced for the show's 22nd series, telling This Morning presenters Craig Doyle and Josie Gibson that the news was the 'worst kept secret there has ever been in British television'.
'I think it's been out there, it's been exhausting keeping a secret everyone seems to know,' he laughed. Chris, 47, also confessed that he feels 'massively apprehensive' about taking to the dance floor. 'I don't know what I'm getting myself into, I've never watched it, obviously. It's just some music. I don't dance, I have never danced. I grew up with headbanging and mosh pits,' he said.
Speaking from the This Morning sofa with the second named contestant, JLS hitmaker JB Gill, Chris said, 'I think I must be the first person to ever do the show without seeing a minute of it, for obvious reasons,' he said, adding that he likes to put himself out of his comfort zone.
Of how he's going to 'tackle the process', Chris admitted he has no idea. 'I don't know anything about dancing. It's going to be a learning curve,' he said with a smile.
Chris has previously called himself a bit of a mosher back in the day. Will he be bringing that to Strictly? 'I think what you're going to get from me is a certain degree of non-conformist dancing because I won't be able to see the precision of what I’m trying to achieve,' he explains. 'I think there's going to be, by default, a certain degree of my own version more so than other people because how precise can somebody be teaching me in four or five days. It would be so much easier to watch and see what you’re trying to achieve. We'll see, it might work in my favour. It might not.'
When quizzed on how Strictly has made accommodations for him, Chris says he's told bosses that they'll all figure it out as they go along. '[Bosses] have been really really nice and supportive. I’ve never watched the show, for obvious reasons. I don’t really know what the dances entail. I can’t see the dances, I’m figuring it out as I go along. I can’t tell them what I need, what works and what doesn’t, until I’m doing it. They’re just being flexible. The partner I’m dancing with is figuring out how to teach me how we’re going along. It’s a work in progress.'
How did Chris McCausland go blind?
Last summer, the Liverpool-born, Surbiton-based comic gave a wide-ranging interview where he opened up about his vision impairment. Chris went completely blind aged 22, owing to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa - 'a group of rare eye diseases that affect the retina (the light-sensitive layer of tissue in the back of the eye)'. People are born with the genetic disease - which makes cells in the retina break down slowly over time, causing vision loss - and there is unfortunately no cure.
Chris said, 'My grandmother had it, and my mum. Basically, I’d been going blind very slowly since I was born, and so didn’t even really notice it happening.'
Discussing his Channel 4 documentary, Wonders of the World I Can't See, Chris acknowledged that, unlike many other blind people who travel, he struggles to allow his other senses to compensate entirely for his lack of sight.
He explained, 'They say that when you lose your sight, your hearing gets better. It doesn’t. But you do pay more attention to it. So when you’re sat at a beach resort, and you’re hot, and you can’t see what’s around you, then you just end up concentrating on how hot you actually are. I suffer more for it.'
Globally, RP affects about 1 in 3,000 to 1 in 4,000 people. Last year, on Channel 4 game show Scared of the Dark - where the premise was surviving eight days in total darkness - formerLove Island star Chloe Burrows asked Chris about losing his sight.
'Yes it was painful,' he told her. 'I haven't been able to see for 20 years. When it started happening it was scary and embarrassing. I got myself into bad situations because I didn't want to ask for help. I will never be on a level playing field with everyone else.'
But Chris has a positive outlook, telling the i, 'I'm much more accepting of who I am these days – I’ve stopped having tantrums every time I spill drinks or bang my head on the door frame – and if someone said they could insert a chip into my retina that would give me back 10 per cent of my sight I’d just think, what’s the point? But a miracle to cure my blindness completely? Yeah, I’d consider that.'
In addition to his panel show appearances, Chris is also at the helm of an ITV Saturday morning chat show, The Chris McCausland Show, and also co-written and stars in Bad Tidings - a family comedy movie that will premiere on Sky this Christmas.
Was Chris McCausland born blind?
No. While retinitis pigmentosa is a disease people are born with, it makes cells in the retina break down slowly over time, causing vision loss in the process. Chris went completely blind aged 22.
Who is Chris McCausland's wife and does he have children?
Chris doesn't share content with his family on social media, but he and wife, a psychologist called Patricia, are parents to a young daughter called Sophie.
In a past interview, Chris said that the thought of having children 'terrified' him. Explaining why, he said, 'My dad, all the things he used to do with me as a kid, taking me to different places, and the time he put in helping me build things.
'You go, "How am I going to be able to do those things - I'm not going to be a proper dad, I'm going to be a half dad". That kind of really caused me a lot of torment in my head.'
He added that being a dad has 'been amazing'.
Millie Payne is a News and Entertainment Writer for Grazia. She has specialised in showbiz interviews, features, articles and roundups for over three years and loves combining her love for writing, talking and all things popular culture.