Chris McCausland reveals why he almost turned down Strictly Come Dancing (again)

Strictly Come Dancing sensation Chris McCausland has spoken to Big Issue about why he turned down the show twice before finally saying yes. The top comedian has been the breakout star of Strictly Come Dancing this year. But, as McCausland revealed in an exclusive interview for Big Issue’s Letter To My Younger Self feature, he almost turned down Strictly again.

“I was asked last year and said no. Then I turned down the Christmas special. It terrified me. I thought it would be a disaster,” McCausland said, during a wide-ranging new interview in which also talked about his love of grunge music, how he navigated his teens as his eyesight was deteriorating, his desire to do more acting and how he wrote his first stand-up set while off sick from his job in a call-centre.

“If it was pre-recorded and something went catastrophically wrong, I could do it again,” McCausland continued.

“But when it’s live on telly there are no second chances. And because it was never something I could watch, I didn’t know what they even do. How good are they? How bad are the bad people? What are the moves like? I had no idea what a tango was because I can’t watch the others during the show.”

McCausland’s Strictly Come Dancing adventure continued on Saturday night with his Couple’s Choice dance to John Lennon’s Instant Karma. The routine included an astonishing blackout midway through to simulate McCausland’s blindness and received a rapturous response.

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McCausland and professional dancer Dianne Buswell came out of the temporary mid-song blackout spinning and twirling into the light, in a move that was symbolic of his journey. Because the stand-up ace revealed his fears about Strictly were not just about something going horribly wrong on live television – McCausland also worried that it could negatively impact his entire career.

“I’ve got where I always aimed to get in comedy,” he said. “I’ve built myself up in terms of being able to tour, being able to play theatres, being able to record a tour show for the telly, having my own show, making a Christmas film for Sky.

“The fear was that I will be so disastrous at this dancing that I would lose some credibility or be looked at sympathetically. Which isn’t good for comedy, you know?

“So there was a lot of risk involved. But in the end, they wore me down.”

Read the full interview with Chris McCausland in The Big Issue magazine, on sale now from Big Issue vendors across Britain.

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