I said no to Strictly Come Dancing many times says winner Chris McCausland

Kate Thornton sat down with the Liverpudlian Strictly Come Dancing winner and comedian in her latest episode of hit podcast, White Wine Question Time. The pair discussed Chris’s journey on the hit BBC dancing show and he explained how taking to the dance floor was definitely not his dream.

The 47-year-old said: “When I went on to that show, there was no point in me pretending that it'd been a dream. You know, you get people going on like, “oh, I've always wanted to be on Strictly. We watch it every week. We have strictly parties.

“I'd never watched it. What's the point? That was kind of what I said. What's the point in me watching people dancing and so I had to be persuaded to do it. I'd said no to it quite a lot of times because I thought it could be a disaster. And so, there was no point in me pretending that it was this dream to be on it.”

Despite his hesitation, Chris - who was the first ever blind contestant - went on to the win the show with his dancing partner Dianne Buswell. But, he says he doesn’t want to be seen as in inspiration.

He told Kate: “I've always wanted to be seen as somebody capable. You know, I appreciate that people have said to me, when you're doing Strictly, is this inspiring for blind people? And I didn't want that to be the message because I don't think it is.

“I think, you know, somebody overcoming obstacles to do something can be just as inspiring for blind people as it can for anybody. We all need inspiring to an extent. I don't think there's anything wrong with the word, I just don't like the word inspirational. You know, it’s a bit virtuous. But it's fine to inspire people. We all need inspiring in different ways.”

The comedian added that it was more important that he represented himself “capably” and “do a good job”.

Chris said his daughter thought it would be “impossible” for her dad to take part in Strictly. He explained: “She was terrified. She didn't think I could do it... She was so anxious about me doing [it]. And I think she fed off my anxiety because I was anxious, and I tried to hide it.”

He said that it took his daughter, Sophie, four attempts to watch his first dance with Diane but by episode she was “throwing cushions at Craig”.

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The Scouse star added that he finally understands what his daughter looks like, thanks to AI. “It’s been a game changer,” he said. “AI now has offered just such an access to information and visual information that I've never had in that I can pass it into photographs. I can even get a video feed running and talk to it, and it will describe things to me.

“I can put a photograph in and it'll tell me that she's stood there with a mouth agape in wonder, and her eyes wide, and she's the corners of her mouth are smiling, and she's doing a silly pose or whatever. And it's like these things in the photographs that you miss out on that are a little bit more, you know, a little bit simpler. But everybody else takes for granted.”