Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland admitted he was “terrified” of making “a fool of myself” when accepting the chance to take part in the BBC dancing competition – admitting his daughter had her fears.
The comedian – who is paired with Diane Buswell – took to the dancefloor for the first time on Saturday and left the judges and viewers stunned with their Cha Cha routine.
McCausland and Buswell scored an impressive 23 out of a possible 40, with Craig Revel Horwood scoring him a four, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas a six, and Anton du Beke a seven.
Whilst the comedian, 47, was thrilled with his first dance, he recently admitted that he was “terrified” of taking on the challenge due to his blindness.
McCausland started losing his sight 20 years ago, between the ages of 16 and 21, due to retinitis pigmentosa which sees sufferers lose their sight as the light-sensing cells of the retina gradually deteriorate.
Writing about his anxiety about the show in The Telegraph, he noted: “I mean, how can I possibly have confidence in my ability to do something when I can’t see the entirely visual thing that I’m being asked to do?
“On top of that, stick it on live TV where failures are there for everybody to see and where the chance of a generous edit is absolute zero, and what could possibly go wrong?”
He added that his daughter Sophie, 10, feared he’d fall off the dance floor and said: “I showed my 10-year-old daughter a clip of the show and asked her if I should do it.
“No, Daddy’ she said. ‘You’ll fall off the stage and break your leg’. She’s a joker at heart, but she’s got a point.”
McCausland also previously discussed with the Daily Mail that he had “no idea” why he was asked to do the show and quipped: “I have no idea! They asked what they could do because I’ve never seen the show for obvious reasons.
“I can’t even go back and watch it to see what it involves, how intricate the dances are. All we can do is figure it out as we’re going along because I need to be in it and doing it to see what works and what doesn’t.
“Everyone’s been really flexible, really supportive, and me and my partner are just figuring out ways for them to teach me and for me to learn.
“It’s a learning curve and hopefully the mistakes we make along the way will allow us to have a bit of a laugh, make some funny VTs and show the mistakes, because there will be a lot of mistakes along the way, I imagine.”
After his dance on Saturday night, Claudia Winkleman asked McCausland how he thought the dance went, leaving him to joke: “It’s nonsense. It is like someone sucked all the fun out of dancing and replaced it with terms and conditions.
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“Your legs straight, toes out arms straight, point your finger like that for some reason. It took me two weeks to do it with my mouth shut.”
Buswell interjected and added: “The thing is he is a very funny guy but he is such a hard worker, honestly, like, I commend you so much for how hard you work. To the point I had to keep adding stuff.”
“That cartwheel,” McCausland continued. “When she suggested it, I said, are you mad? She kicked me in the head one day! If there was any doubt I had more site than I was letting on, I did not avoid or anticipate it. I stood there and I took a foot right in the face!”
