Chris McCausland has been revealed as the first-ever blind contestant to take part in Strictly Come Dancing.
The comedian was unveiled on ITV’s This Morning show as the first official contestant for the 2024 series, and said: “This is literally the worst-kept secret there has ever been in British television.”
It had been widely reported that the 47-year-old would be joining the line-up.
He said: “I think it’s been out there; it’s been exhausting keeping a secret everyone seems to know.”
Asked how he feels about taking part, he said: “Apprehensive, massively apprehensive. I don’t know what I’m getting myself into. I’ve never watched it, obviously. It’s just some music.”
He added: “I don’t dance; I have never danced. I grew up with headbanging and mosh pits.”
McCausland lost his sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease, which causes gradual degeneration of the retina.
He said: “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.
“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? OK, don’t answer that.”
McCausland has hosted his own show on ITV on Saturday mornings, and has also featured on panel shows such as Have I Got News For You, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown and QI.
Swimmer Tom Dean also announced he will be appearing on the show after reaching the final of the men’s 200-metre individual medley in the Paris 2024 Olympics last week. However, the BBC is yet to confirm this.
The popular BBC dancing show has made headlines recently after a storm of controversy over the alleged treatment of contestants on the show.
The results of an investigation, launched by the BBC following allegations made about Giovanni Pernice by former participant Amanda Abbington, have not yet been published by the corporation.
Pernice denies the allegations and fellow dancer Graziano Di Prima has also left the show.
JLS member JB Gill became the second Strictly contestant to be officially announced.
Gill has had five UK number one singles and a UK number one album as a part of the boyband, and went on to present the BBC’s Songs Of Praise, following the group’s 2013 break-up. In 2020, JLS reformed with Gill returning.
He said: “I did the Christmas special, it was great fun.
“I did the jive and I feel like it was probably the most similar dance to things that I will have done in JLS, but I do feel like a lot of the styles, particularly the ballroom styles, are particularly alien to me.
“I’m not a trained dancer, I didn’t go to stage school growing up so it’s going to be a learning curve for me.”
Comparing Strictly to being part of JLS, Gill said: “I don’t think anybody is going to be prepared for the amount of time that is going to go into this, the rehearsals, tours and things like that, that I’ve done before, you know you’re learning a lot of different songs.
“But it’s going to be a different routine every single week, within three or four days, plus all the other stuff that’s going on.”
He added: “I know of people who’ve done the show before me and they just said, ‘prepare yourself, the body’s going to hurt and the mind is definitely going to boggle, because you’re going to be learning routines and trying to fit stuff around hours.’”