Chris McCausland says he understands how some contestants ‘struggle’ on Strictly
By Naomi Clarke, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Comedian Chris McCausland has said he can understand why some people have “struggled” when competing on Strictly Come Dancing and how a “clash” could happen when contestants and professional dancers have different objectives.
The stand-up, 47, became the first blind person to win the popular BBC One dancing competition last year alongside professional Australian dancer Dianne Buswell.
Ahead of the series, the show was embroiled in controversy as the corporation conducted a review into complaints made by actress Amanda Abbington about the teaching methods used by her dance partner, Giovanni Pernice, when they competed together in 2023.
Abbington claimed she was subjected to a “toxic environment” and “inappropriate, mean, nasty bullying” behaviour during her time on the show, but Italian dancer Pernice “rejected any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour”.
He later welcomed the conclusion of a BBC review which upheld “some, but not all” of the complaints made by the actress against him.
There were no findings relating to physical aggression, but complaints of verbal bullying and harassment were upheld, the PA news agency understands.
Discussing the situation, McCausland told The Sunday Times magazine said: “I understand the idea of feeling emotionally pressured because you’ve all got different objectives.
“Some people’s objective might be to survive another week, whereas from the dancers’ point of view the objective is to succeed because that’s their profession; that’s what their reputation is based on.
“I can see that there can be a clash.”
The comedian added that he “can see how people have struggled with it in the past, because you’ve got to be tough”.
The comic recalled that towards the end of the competition, he was doing 15-hour days which left him “broken”.
“I mean, it was relentless. Physically I ached. I had lost weight. I’m probably fitter than I’ve been in ages but I was held together with tape at the end”, he added.
McCausland is currently on a mammoth stand-up tour which he had to add a host of dates to after his Strictly win due to “phenomenal demand”.
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Despite doing multiple performances in a day on occasion, he said the tour is “easy by comparison” as he is not doing eight hours of dancing.
The comedian, who lost his sight completely by the age of 22, won praise from the judges and public for changing perceptions on what people think the blind community was capable of doing after he completed lifts and intricate routines on the show.
He said his time on Strictly has helped him open up when he is now writing his memoir as he had to be “so vulnerable”.
“I’ve always been very closed off. I’ve always hidden emotions under the carpet – ‘Pull your pants up and get on with it’. Strictly certainly opened me up,” he said.
“If I’d tried to write this book a year ago I’d have been a lot less willing to explore emotion and feeling.
“I feel very comfortable with the vulnerability because the last four months have been so vulnerable.”
McCausland continues his Yonks! tour on Sunday at the Isle of Wight Shanklin Theatre with dates scheduled throughout the rest of the year and into 2026.