Blind comedian Chris McCausland has again wowed fans on Strictly Come Dancing, after his peformance with his partner Dianne Buswell on Saturday’s show, which was a part of “Musicals Week”.
The 47-year-old has been one of the breakout stars on this year’s show, stunning audiences with his timing, humour, rhythm and overall composure, despite his disability.
This week McCausland and Buswell danced a Quickstep to “You’re The Top” from the musical Anything Goes.
Dancing on board a pretend cruise liner, Buswell was ecstatic at the end of the dance, punching the air, clearly delighted with their performance and with McCausland, in particular.
Unfortunately, the judges weren’t quite as enthustiastic as Buswell and only gave the couple a score of 32, with Anton Du Beke calling the dance “So close to being wonderful but it’s not quite.”
However, it was clear from fans at home, that they believe McCausland deserved a lot higher.
“Chris, Wow! 9 from me. To do that dance blind, to move across the floor in perfect sync, light on his feet, never missing a step just wow!!,” said one viewer.
Another fan wrote: “That was out of this world!”
“I think that was Chris’s best dance yet!,” added a third.
Elsewhere, viewers were begging others to vote for Chris and Dianne. One pleaded: “This is the week Chris and Dianne need your votes.”
Another wrote: “Chris and Montell are getting my votes this week!”
A third added: “All my votes for Chris and Dianne tonight when the vote opens. Remarkable what they are doing”
Only Connect host, Victoria Coren Mitchell, took exception with the judge’s score, writing: “So close to being wonderful but it’s not quite” ??!! Words from another planet. @chrismccausland dancing might be the most wonderful thing that’s ever been on this show.”
“There’s a lot of denial and resistance to it, especially when you’re in your late teens and your early 20s,” McCausland told The Guardian this week.
“You’re always thinking you can do the things you could do yesterday and you’re always pretending you can see when you can’t.”
Sharing the shame he felt, he explained: “When you’re 20, 21, you’re embarrassed, you think everybody is staring at you. There’s a lot of shame.”
This is why McCausland said he was resistant to talking about being blind in his stand-up comedy routines, adamant that being blind was “never a sad thing”.
“I never talked about being blind on stage and I think that was maybe me trying to be ‘normal’.” he said.
