Chris McCausland: ‘If Strictly is purely a dance contest, give it to Tasha’-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland has spoken about his shock making it so far in the series (Picture: BBC)

Chris McCausland has sent a defiant message to critics who believe he isn’t good enough to make the Strictly Come Dancing finale.

The comedian, 47, is competing on this season of the BBC dancing series with professional dancer Dianne Buswell, 35.

Tonight they will be hoping to make it one step closer to the Glitterball Trophy, with the other celebrities also in the running being Tasha Ghouri, JB Gill, Sarah Hadland and Pete Wicks.

Although many have been stunned by Chris’ incredible moves on the dancefloor and have thrown their support behind him, he’s also been subjected to trolling.

However it’s not affected him too much.

‘For me with this there are two types of negativity. There are people who believe this is purely a dance competition and get angry when anybody survives a week above somebody, they think is better,’ he told Metro.

The comedian has been competing with Dianne Buswell (Picture: Guy Levy/ BBC/ PA Wire)

‘I think Pete has suffered a bit of that and so have I but if it was purely a dance competition give it to Tasha at the beginning – she’s phenomenal.

‘There’s that and then others can be quite vulgar in their comments about disability and use words that went out of fashion in the 80s. It doesn’t bother me. I really don’t give a s***. It’s people who are angry because someone is better than they are, so I don’t give a f***.’

However, Chris and Dianne have largely been flooded with positive messages from viewers who rush to congratulate them after each performance.

‘It’s been overwhelming incredible and beautiful. It’s been part of what has made me feel like a success. I wanted to be able to represent not just people who are blind but people with a disability in a positive way that was “look what is possible” rather than what is not, and we’ve done that more than I had hoped we could have,’ he said.

‘A lot of the feedback we get is from people who don’t have a disability who have latched on to that message in a way that applies to them and their lives and doing something that scares you, putting yourself outside your comfort zone and challenging yourself and not dwelling on the negatives. It’s lovely we’ve been able to connect with so many people.’

He defiantly shut down trolls targeting them online (Picture: PA Wire)

Ahead of their first performance, Dianne was told by many people they believed the pair would be the ‘joke act’ this season but have since had to ‘eat their words’ after they proved it was possible they could be legitimate contenders.

But before agreeing to take part, Chris turned down the show several times, admitting he was ‘terrified’.

‘I didn’t think it was something I could do and wondered if it was a box ticking exercise and if I was a sacrificial lamb. Can the blind guy dance? I didn’t think I could. I didn’t know what I was getting into. I didn’t know how good the dancing was. If someone asks me to do a comedy panel show I can go back and listen, but this was so unknown to me that there was a lot of fear and I just didn’t think it was something I’d be able to do, but I shut it out,’ he explained.

However, Chris quipped he was eventually broken down and agreed because he ‘has no willpower’.

He initially turned down the show several times (Picture: Guy Levy/ BBC/ PA Wire)

After initially both believing they wouldn’t make it through the first few weeks, with one more live show until the final to go, have the pair considered the possibility they could win the competition?

‘I don’t think we’ve actually ever spoken about winning it. We are so focused every week on getting through every single dance and the week ahead that to us even the final still feels quite far away because we have such a task ahead of us but if we were to make the final obviously everyone has a chance at winning it,’ Dianne said.

Meanwhile Chris said he felt like they won the minute they were ‘consistent and challenging preconceptions’.

‘We had done what I wanted to do and everything else then became a bonus. I didn’t think we’d get to Blackpool and every week is an extra bonus,’ he shared.

Other stars in the semi-final are Tasha Ghouri, Sarah Hadland, JB Gill and Pete Wicks (Picture: Guy Levy/ BBC)

‘This has been a knackering and mentally draining experience, but it’s been fantastic. I think what we’ve been able to do under the circumstances and the messages we’ve sent out and how I’ve been able to represent people, I couldn’t be happier.’

Reflecting on how much Dianne has been able to teach him about ballroom dancing, Chris said it was ‘staggering’.

‘I never thought I would be here now or do things to the standard we have,’ he said, jokingly adding that throwing himself into the routines was easy because he had ‘no regards for health and safety or self-preservation’.

‘He always says to me “I don’t know who is braver. Me for doing the show or you for being my partner”,’ Dianne added.

Strictly Come Dancing continues tonight at 6.30pm on BBC One.

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