Strictly winner says blind people don’t need inspiring

Strictly Come Dancing winner Chris McCausland has said he doesn’t think blind people “need inspiring”, after he made history as the first blind contestant to take part in the show.

“The biggest benefit to everybody you can make is changing people’s attitudes towards disabilities,” he told BBC News.

The comedian and professional partner Dianne Buswell won the 22nd series of the BBC One show on Saturday after beating 14 other couples to this year’s glitterball trophy.

McCausland, 47, was registered blind after losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa in his 20s.

He was praised throughout the series for defying expectations of what a blind person could achieve on the dancefloor.

He learned the dance moves by getting down on his hands and knees and feeling Buswell’s feet and legs, to understand what she wanted him to do.

“And sometimes she’d just have to pick one of my limbs up and put it where she wanted, like I was one of them bendy spidermen toys,” he laughed.

Both he and Buswell were figuring it out as they went along, he said.

“Learning the routines was a bit of trial and error really. Dianne hadn’t spent any time with anyone who’s blind even in daily life, and I’d never danced, so neither of us had a clue.

“She had to use a lot of descriptions. She had to use a lot more words than she’s used to when she’s teaching people to dance.”

Some routines were easier than others, he added, with the paso doble proving particularly challenging.

“You get four days to learn these routines, and on Wednesday she was still trying to explain to me what the posture was meant to be.”

McCausland, who was the bookmakers’ favourite to win on Saturday night, performed three dances with Buswell in the final.

Four days on, he said he was “still aching”.

“People say, ‘Doing Strictly, do you feel fitter?’ And I reckon I will be the fittest I’ve been in a long time, but at the minute I think I’m just recovering,” he said.

“It’s so full on, and the closer you get to the final, the more hours you have to put in. But it’s thoroughly worth it.”

The pair performed routines including their waltz to You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers in the grand final.

McCausland turned down Strictly twice before finally saying yes.

He joined after a difficult summer for the show, with a number of former celebrity contestants speaking out about their negative experiences on Strictly.

The BBC apologised to Amanda Abbington and upheld some of her complaints against her 2023 dance partner Giovanni Pernice, including those of verbal bullying and harassment, but cleared him of the most serious claims.

The corporation also introduced new duty of care measures, including putting chaperones in rehearsals.

McCausland said he had “no doubt” that people have found it difficult in the past, adding that there was “a lot of pressure” on both dancers and contestants.

“But I think the BBC have gone out of their way to listen to what’s happened and try and create a supportive environment,” he added. “I had no problems.”

They also reprised their couple’s choice routine to Instant Karma by John Lennon.

When they first performed it last month, it went viral on social media thanks to a “blackout moment”, designed to imitate McCausland’s experience with blindness.

They repeated the moment in the final, impressing the judges and getting a score of 38.

McCausland said the idea for the blackout moment was to put viewers and audiences into the dark, and to “surprise them” with what’s possible to come out of the dark.

“I had the idea and I hoped it was received in the way it was intended, and people loved it. They really connected with it. And I was delighted that it wasn’t seen as gimmicky. It was really appreciated.”

But he added that he doesn’t see himself as a “role model” for blind people.

“It’s changing everybody else’s attitudes to what is possible, raising people’s expectations, because that’s where the difference is,” he said.

After McCausland and Buswell topped the public vote on Saturday, the charity Sense praised his win, saying it would “lead to many more disabled people being included in the biggest TV shows”.

Step Change Studios, which offers dedicated blind ballroom classes, also welcomed it, saying McCausland had made “such a positive impact”.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of people wanting to join our blind ballroom programme – to the point that I can’t respond quickly enough!” founder Dr Rashmi Becker told BBC News.

McCausland said that was “lovely” to hear.

“I didn’t expect what we were doing to be appreciated to the level it has been,” he said.

“I never expected dancing to be emotional. I just expected it to be this entertainment show with dancing, and if you were good, people were entertained.

“I didn’t expect people to be moved and for people to cry – I didn’t expect to cry on it – so it’s just been so much more than I ever thought it could’ve been.”

McCausland will not appear on the Strictly live tour, however, because of scheduling conflicts with his stand-up tour, which kicks off in January and takes in more than 250 dates across the UK.

He’s also starring in Bad Tidings, a Christmas comedy-drama that airs on Sky Max this Sunday.

But he has not ruled out dancing again in the future.

“People are saying, ‘You can dance now’. I can’t dance now. I can dance with Dianne,” he said.

“So maybe in the future me and Dianne can do something together,” he added. “Dianne may be able to take me for a spin over the summer!”