Chris McCausland becomes Strictly Come Dancing’s first blind contestant

By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Entertainment Reporter

Comedian Chris McCausland has been announced as the first blind contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and will compete alongside JLS member JB Gill.

They are the first two contestants to be officially announced for the 2024 edition of the BBC dancing show.

Following the announcement, the comedian joked he had “never watched” the show.

McCausland told ITV’s This Morning: “I must be the only person who’s going to be doing the show without ever seeing it, for obvious reasons, because what’s the point in listening to people dance?

“So it’s a massive unknown to be honest. I like a challenge though, I like to put myself out of my comfort zone.

“It might be the best three weeks of my life.

“I’m not just being arrogant, I am blind.”

When asked about how he is feeling about taking part, he replied: “Apprehensive, massively apprehensive.”

 

He added: “This is literally 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.”

McCausland lost his sight because of 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.”

He explained that he cannot “see shadows” and will not be able to know where he is on the dancefloor, but said he “won’t know” if he can perform the routines until he tries.

His inclusion on the line-up has been welcomed by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), which said: “What a quick-step in the right direction!

“It’s brilliant to see greater representation of people with disabilities on reality shows. In 2021, Rose Ayling-Ellis (who is deaf) starred on Strictly, Ron Hall (who is partially sighted) and Tasha Ghouri (who is deaf) on Love Island, and Libby Clegg (who is blind) on Dancing On Ice.

“The positive impact this sort of representation can have is clear.”

The Liverpool-born comedian 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.

Gill, who was announced after McCausland, previously performed the jive with professional dancer Ola Jordan to Rockin’ Robin, on the Strictly Christmas special in 2012.

He said: “I did the Christmas special, it was great fun.

“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 the show with being part of JLS he added: “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.

“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.”

Asked if his bandmate Aston Merrygold had given him any tips after he appeared on the show in its 15th series in 2017, he replied: “We haven’t had a full debrief, I told him a couple of days ago that I was going to be doing the show, and he said it’ll be fine.

“But I’ll definitely catch up with him and just say is there anything that I can work on, anything that I can focus on?

“But the boys have always been supportive with anything that we’ve been doing.”

Gill has featured on five UK number one singles and a UK number one album as a part of the boy band, and went on to present the BBC’s Songs Of Praise, following the band’s initial 2013 break-up.

In 2020, JLS reformed with Gill returning to the band.

The announcements come after swimmer Tom Dean announced he will be appearing on the show after reaching the final of the men’s 200 metres individual medley in the Paris 2024 Olympics last week.

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 rejects the allegations and fellow dancer Graziano Di Prima has also left the show.