Bosses were happy to make Chris McCausland time in the ballroom easier, but the comedian categorically refused any favouritism.

At 47 years old, the Liverpudlian star has made history by becoming the first blind man to take part in Strictly Come Dancing, with professional dancer Dianne Buswell on his arm. Chris McCausland has left BBC One viewers with their jaws dropped as his dancing skills have been unanimously praised by judges and TV fans, and many believe he has the potential to win the competition.

But ahead of his stint in the show, Chris told The One Show’s Clara Amfo and Vernon Kay this Wednesday (October 30) that Strictly bosses were expecting him to struggle on the dancefloor and offered him to keep the audience quiet to make his routines easier.

Before making the revelation, Clara asked Chris if the audience affected his dancing, to which he replied: “yes it does, because when you train, I have a sense of dianne around me, and the space around me. But when you get an audience making a lot of noise, it all closes in around you and I can’t really hear Dianne at all. So it makes it very different.”

Chris McCausland revealed bosses asked him if he preferred to keep the audience quiet during his performance on Strictly ( 
Image:
PA)

Chris confessed his first performance on the Strictly dancefloor came with “a lot of nerves” as he was “worried” he may not be able to dance. Fortunately, bosses were willing to make some reasonable changes to help him: “They did offer me and say ‘Would you like us to ask the audience to be quiet while you’re dancing so it doesn’t affect you?’”

“It was a nice offer”, Chris recalled, but he continued as he assured he’d refused: “I’d rather go out in a blaze of glory in two weeks than do eight weeks in silence.”

This comes after Chris issued a warning to Strictly Come Dancing bosses, after being the first contestant to dance last Saturday (October 26). Speaking to Fleur East this Monday, Chris said his latest dance was “horrible” as he claimed: “I don’t like going on first and if they put me on first again, we’re going to be having words. My routine went out the window.”

Chris then explained he was deprived of the privilege they were given – as he was due to launch Saturday’s show, he was unable to go through his dance again in a “little room”, where contestants wait their turn before dancing. “When you’re on first, you don’t get any of that. You have to be in a queue and when you’re in a queue, you think. And the more I thought, the more I realised – I don’t know these stands!”

And this was enough to make Dianne Buswell herself panic backstage. Shortly after, however, the pair were able to deliver a samba to Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees, which earned them a score of 26 – a far cry from the 35/40 they had received the week before. This week, the pair will tackle a new dance for their Icons Week performance to Rock and Roll All Nite by KISS. Will they avoid the dreaded dance-off?