Strictly’s Chris McCausland reveals reason his daughter, 11, worried about him doing BBC show
Chris McClausland may have been wowing the Strictly Come Dancing judges over recent weeks, but one person who wasn't so sure about him taking part in the show was his 11-year-old daughter Sophie. The comedian, who is blind, shone on the dancefloor this weekend as he and partner Dianne Buswell danced their Couple's Choice routine to Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) by John Lennon.
But sharing a clip before the performance, he admitted Sophie was worried he would "fall and break a leg". Chris said: "My daughter is like me — I think she uses comedy to maybe hide her true worries sometimes. She was joking, 'Oh yeah, you will probably fall off the stage and break your leg and ha, ha, ha'.
The star continued: "I do think there was a concern there. It is my job to look after Sophie and raise her. But I do think she does worry about me. But there is an anxiety of looking silly or making a fool of yourself and being embarrassed. Maybe she was a little bit worried about me doing that on the telly.
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"She is still nervous every week, but she has really got on board with it and she is embracing it now."
This weekend, Chris' performance with Dianne brought many in the audience to tears, as their routine featured a ‘blackout’ moment when the room went dark, and then the lights came on with Chris holding Dianne in a beautiful lift.
Before their dance, Chris had movingly talked in a pre-recorded video about his feelings about being blind since he was in his early twenties and signing up to the dance show. “My experience was denial, frustration, and you pretend you can see, you try and blunder through,” he said.
He then admitted he had been asked to do Strictly a few times before and had previously refused because he was initially scared of it. “To be honest, I realised for me to not do this is quite selfish, because I’m lucky enough to be in the position where I have the opportunity to represent people. It’s not that people with disabilities need inspiring or they need to see themselves on the telly, but I think everyone else does,” he said.
Following the dance, fans rushed to social media to complement Chris, and they described his dance as “beautiful and emotional.” One fan said: “I’m sobbing tbh,” while another compared the routine to Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice’s silent dance in 2021, writing: “The blackout was fabulous, as emotional as Rose’s silent dance.”
