Strictly finalist Chris McCausland’s devastating diagnosis that left him blind aged 22-Pierra Willix and Brooke Ivey Johnson-Entertainment – Metro

Comedian Chris McCausland was left blind in his early 20s (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)

Chris McCausland has charmed viewers since being cast on Strictly Come Dancing.

The 47-year-old is best known for his stand-up comedy work and playing Rudi in the CBeebies show Me Too!, and now he’s headed to the finals of the BBC dancing competition on Saturday night.

McCausland and his partner Dianne Buswell will be up against former Love Island star Tasha Ghouri and Aljaz Skorjanec, Miranda actress Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola, and JLS member JB Gill and Lauren Oakley.

But before he captured hearts on Strictly, he also appeared in Have I Got News for You, 8 Our of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Richard Osman’s House of Games and Not Going Out, as well as in the reality series Scared of the Dark last year.

But since hitting the dancefloor this season he’s also stunned fans with his dancing skills, as well as his quick wit.

‘I’m too knackered to care, mate!’, quipped the Liverpudlian after receiving criticism from the notoriously hard to please Craig Revel Horwood.

Aside from being a dancing novice, Chris’ efforts have been all the more impressive due to the fact he lost his sight more than two decades ago.

Who is Chris McCausland?

He has appeared on a string of comedy panel TV series’ (Picture: Ken McKay/ ITV/ Shutterstock)

Born in 1977 in Liverpool, Chris went on to study software engineering but after a stint as a web developer, he worked in sales for several years, during which time he started performing stand-up comedy.

He then put on shows at the Edinburgh Festival before appearing in a string of comedy panel shows.  

The comedian then also appeared as market trader Rudi in Me Too!, which aired from 2006 until 2016.

He’s also appeared in EastEnders and fronted travelogue series The Wonders of the World I Can’t See, which aired last year.

A few months ago, his Saturday morning chats how The Chris McCausland Show also launched on ITV.

A month later he was announced as one of the stars who had signed up to Strictly, becoming the first blind contestant to appear on the show.

How did the comedian go blind?

He was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa more than 25 years ago (Picture: ITV/ Matt Frost/ Shutterstock)

Chris was 22 when he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary condition that causes progressive vision loss due to the degeneration of cells in the retina.

This rare eye disease slowly diminishes the retina’s function, leading to a gradual loss of sight.

He previously spoke about the condition with the i newspaper and how others in his family were also affected.

‘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,’ he said.

Chris also explained how being blind impacted his other senses.

‘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,’ he said.

Ahead of the show’s premiere, Chris also said being on Strictly was both a challenge for himself and Dianne, who has never taught someone who is blind.

‘We’re just gonna have to figure it out as we go along. The production team are just being really flexible. My dance partner is figuring out how to teach me. And we are winging it. That’s the best way I think,’ he said.

Although producers initially offered to have a representative from an organisation teaching people with visual impairments help coordinate training between him and Dianne, he ‘didn’t like the idea’ and instead chose to ‘blunder’ his way through training.

‘In my opinion, the point of it is for my partner to learn how to teach me and me to learn a dance from her and that’s for us to figure it out together. We’ll make mistakes and we’ll have a laugh along the way and that’ll make for better VTs in the week, really,’ he added.

How much is he still able to see?

He is competing on the current season of Strictly Come Dancing with Dianne Buswell (Picture: Guy Levy/ BBC/ PA Wire)

When appearing on Scared of the Dark last year Chris also spoke about how he is able to ‘still see light and space’ and possesses ‘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’.

Reflecting on losing his sight, he also shared: ‘Yes it was painful. 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.’

Despite the obstacles, Chris and Dianne were given an impressive score of 23 from the Strictly judges after their cha cha cha on Saturday’s live show.

However, he did once admit he believed being on the show was unlikely.

‘I didn’t think I could do it because I literally couldn’t see what’s expected of me. And because I don’t watch it, I don’t have an attachment to the format,’ he said.

They are already emerging as favourites to win the series (Picture: BBC/ Ray Burmiston)

‘But I’d rather do something I had no knowledge of than make a show I knew everything about. I’m good at making comedy out of failure, but I’m going to take this seriously.’

Speaking about representing disability on screen, Chris also said he wanted it to be done subtly.

‘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,’ he said.

However, he did joke of his decision to sign up to the show: ‘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.’

A version of this article was originally published on September 18 2024.

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