Strictly's Chris McCausland shares simple reason he turned to comedy as he spills on 'struggle'

Edinburgh Live

18-05-2025

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Strictly Come Dancing winner Chris McCausland has opened up about losing his sight and how humour gets him out of "embarrassing situations". The comedian, 47, joined Alan Titchmarsh for a chat over a cup of tea in the latest episode of Love Your Weekend (18th May).
Chris lost his full sight by the age of 22 years old due to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, but he has been unstoppable in show business, having won Strictly last year alongside pro partner Diane Buswell.
The funnyman has also appeared on many comedy panel shows, including Would I Lie To You, Have I Got News For You, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and QI. He has also appeared as an actor in Not Going Out, Me Too!, Moving On, EastEnders, and Bad Tidings.
(Image: ITV)
Speaking to Alan about losing his eyesight, BAFTA winner Chris explained: "My eyesight deteriorated from around maybe 25 years ago, you get used to it but you get used to the deterioration, there's never a point you can get used to it, this is what life is now.
"It's the things that you don't notice happening at the time, but the things that you can do one year ago that you maybe can't do in two years time.
"Especially when I got to kind of 18 to 25, that's when you know, all those years before, and still able to do everything you have always been able to do, but maybe want to strike a bit harder.
"But when you get to 18 to 25 that's when you stop being about to do things, like see in the dark."
(Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
He later added: "You just get used to it, and it's a mad thing to say but you wouldn't think that when it's happening, 'oh I wish I was blind now' because you want the sight that you have got. But when you get there, you know, it all starts working out. "
Chris is currently on a UK tour with his stand-up show Yonks! which has been well received.
Alan, 76, asked Chris if he uses comedy as a "weapon" for dealing with his blindness spurring Chris to confirm he uses humour to get him out embarrassing situations.
"It's a way of putting people at ease. It's a way of telling you're at ease," Chris said.
(Image: ITV)
"It's a way of dealing with embarrassment because you get yourself into all kinds of embarrassing situations, especially when you're pretending that you can see more than you can, because you don't want to accept that you are blind.
"You pretend you can see, not don't want the label of that, especially when you are 23/23, you want to be cool, you don't want to have that label.
"You try to struggle through the whole thing that people don't notice that you are, but you're unable to see as much as you are.
"So you get yourself into all kinds of situations and humour tends to get you out of them, so you do use it a lot."
Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh airs Sunday's at 9:30am on ITV and ITVX