Strictly Come Dancing 2024 has welcomed its first ever blind celebrity contestant.
The BBC competition, which has found itself in hot water due to complaints against professional dancer Giovanni Pernice, is back with a new crop of stars.
Among those hoping to follow in the footseps of Ellie Leach, Hamza Yassin and Rose Ayling-Ellis is Chris McCausland, a comedian and CBeebies actor whose appearance marks a first for Strictly.
McCausland is blind and lost his sight when he was 22 due to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa.
His booking follows Ayling-Ellis’s victory in 2021; the EastEnders star, who was partnered with Pernice, was the first deaf contestant to appear on the show.
He said of his appointment: “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…!”
A source told The Sun of McCausland’s participation: “Bosses are delighted by the signing and think Chris will be great on the show” as “he has a hilarious sense of humour and an infectious personality”.
They added that producers are “really keen to showcase disability on TV and are conscious of how important it is”, adding that McCausland “is determined to show it won’t hold him back on the ballroom dance floor”.
As well as being a comedian on panel shows from Have I Got News for You to Would I Lie to You?, McCausland hosts ITV Saturday morning series The Chris McCausland Show, and is known by younger viewers as Rudi, the market trader, in CBeebies show Me Too!. He also previously appeared on Channel 4 series Scared of the Dark.
While appearing on Scared of the Dark, he spoke openly about his experience of going blind, saying that “when it started happening it was scary and embarrassing”.
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He added: “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.”
McCausland, who is married and has a 10-year-old daughter, explained that he can “still see light and space” and has “an awareness of the space around me, not in terms of objects and things, but in terms of the room and whether there might be something in front of me.”
He also said at the time he does not want to “bang viewers over the head” with his blindness, stating: “It’s great that there’s people coming through who are able to represent disability while also having the experience to do the job properly. There’s no point fast-tracking performers on to TV before they’re ready.
“My attitude has always been to represent by not banging you over the head. I think the best way to represent a disability is to make people forget about it whenever possible. It’s always part of you.
“But if you can do a show where, say, 80 per cent of it isn’t about being blind, that makes it more impactful and funnier when you do talk about it. I believe in representation within the mainstream.”