Chris McCausland is set to compete in the grand finale of Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night.
The comedian, 47, who hasn’t been able to see since his early 20s when he lost his sight due to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, previously revealed that he had turned the dancing competition several times because it was ‘terrifying’.
The funnyman also confessed that his daughter Sophie, 11, was initially ‘nervous’ for him in case he fell over and ’embarrassed’ himself.
Speaking ahead of the final he said: ‘She was terrified when I started this, because I think she could pick up on my nerves, and I couldn’t hide it.
‘She was so nervous for me, in case I fell over, in case it was embarrassing, in case I embarrassed myself.’
However, she is now his number one fan and wants him to win and bring home the glitter ball trophy.
Comedian Chris McCausland has revealed the adorable reason his daughter Sophie didn’t want him to take part in the BBC show
The funnyman confessed that she was initially ‘nervous’ for him in case he fell over and ’embarrassed’ himself
Chris confessed: ‘She’d say every Saturday: “It doesn’t matter Daddy if you go out because I think you’ve already won”.
‘And then it was when we got to the semi-finals she said “Daddy, do you know when I said it doesn’t matter? I’ve changed my mind. I think you can win this thing”.’
The Liverpool-born star also opened up about what he has discovered about himself since taking part saying: ‘Everything, just the fact that we’ve been able to do it, the fact that we’ve been able to pull this off, the fact we’ve been able to learn the dances and put on a show. It’s all surprising.’
Chris is the runaway favourite to lift the glitter ball trophy in tonight’s finale.
And there is one woman to thank for this: his beloved wife Patricia. She was the one who persuaded Chris to take part in the dancing show and will be there, discreetly, in the audience, cheering her husband on.
The couple welcomed Sophie in 2013 but being a father wasn’t something Chris was confident he could do.
He said: ‘The idea of being a parent and all of the things I was going to be unable to do properly, all the things my dad used to do with me as a kid, I thought to myself: ‘How am I going to do all of those things? I’m not going to be a proper dad; I’ll be a half dad.’ And that caused me a lot of torment in my head.’
However it was Brazilian-born Patricia Mazure who gave him the confidence, and they now live on a new-build private development in Surbiton, south-west London, not far from Kingston University where Chris studied computer engineering.
Chris who is partnered with Dianne Buswell is the first blind contestant in the shows history and is set to take to the stage on Saturday night for the grand finale
Chris admitted that his 11-year-old daughter would initially say that it didn’t matter where he placed in the competition, but now he is the favourite and she can see how far he has come, she wants him to bring home the glitter ball trophy
Chris’s beloved wife Patricia, pictured, was the one who persuaded Chris to take part in the programme and the couple will celebrate 20 years together in 2025
Friends say that initially Chris found parenthood ‘really hard’, but he soon discovered a way of making it work as a blind father. ‘My daughter knows nothing else but me not being able to see,’ he says.
‘She learned that she could point at things for my wife, and she put my hand on things with me. That’s how she learned to communicate with us.’
Chris also found a way round not being able to see Sophie. As a computer engineer, he movingly described how he’d been able to devise a way to ‘bring her image to life’ using AI.
He takes photos of Sophie and uses specialist technology to get a description of her and what she’s doing, as well as the expression on her face.
Chris and Patricia’s love story began when he was a fledgling young stand-up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005.
She was a TV producer for Sky making a programme about the festival. When the cameras stopped rolling there was an instant connection between them, and they were soon spending more time together back in London.
Romance blossomed and was cemented by a shared love of music. In fact, when Chris took Patricia to see rockers Pearl Jam in London’s Hyde Park in 2010 he vowed to himself that he would propose to her if the band played their favourite song, Black.
They did, and she said yes – right there in the middle of the gig – and the couple married in 2012.
Talking about taking part in the show, a friend of the couple told MailOnline: ‘Patricia always has faith in Chris. He was so worried about not doing his absolute best in the contest, but she never doubted his capabilities.
‘She is very private and does not crave the limelight, but don’t be fooled by her silence – she has been with him every step of the way. She is his rock.’
Chris also revealed that he uses specialist AI technology to get a description of his daughter and what she’s doing, as well as the expression on her face
Next year they will celebrate 20 years together.
Chris says of his wife: ‘We were opposites. I mean, she comes across very British, but she’s Brazilian. I don’t mean this negatively, but her life is chaos in the way that Brazilian people are chaos. It’s a cultural natural attribute they are proud of.
‘The number of times she’ll be talking in Portuguese to her mum, and then I’ll say to her: ‘Are you OK, what happened? It sounds like you’ve had the most horrific argument.’ And it turns out they were just talking about what they’re going to do that day.
‘She’s full of energy and took me out of my comfort zone, and I think I just make her laugh. I was almost this calming presence in her life that she was attracted to; it was something she didn’t have.’
Chris McCausland recently revealed he’s ‘worn down’ ahead of today’s final
Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell during the dress rehearsal for Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing on December 7
Tonight, Chris will take on Love Island star Tasha Ghouri, Miranda actress Sarah Hadland and singer JB Gill in the final.
He owes much of his success to his professional Strictly partner Dianne Buswell, who managed to tailor their training with Chris literally having to feel his way around moves, and picturing how a dance should look through description.
It wasn’t without mishaps, however: early in the series, Chris revealed how the Australian dancer had accidentally kicked him in the face during one training session when he didn’t realise her foot was coming.
Whatever she did, it worked: they haven’t once been in the bottom two (who face a dance-off each week), and with tonight’s vote down to the public – the judges’ scores are not taken into account – they’re tipped to win.
Chris and Dianne will re-perform their Couple’s Choice from week eight, which was danced to Instant Karma (We All Shine On), by John Lennon; and their final dance will be the waltz, with the song choice being poignant given Chris’s Scouse roots – the Liverpool football anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone, by Gerry And The Pacemakers.
The most magical moment was perhaps their American Smooth dance in Blackpool, where a dapper Chris, dressed in white tie, led Dianne with poise and elegance, winning a 37 out of 40 from the judges – their highest score.
Then there was his Wayne’s World performance, where he and Dianne dressed up as characters from the 1992 US comedy movie. The audience was in hysterics.
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