'I cannot remember life before Strictly...it feels like this is all I've ever done'

STRICTLY Come Dancing fans will be well aware of the close bond Chris McCausland has with his pro partner Dianne Every Buswell week viewers have marvelled at how well the blind comedian has learned the routines without the normal visual cues.

- Nicola Methven

Having thought he would be out by week three, Chris, 47, reckons the whole process has been "terrifying", "incredible" and "bananas" and puts his success mostly down to Dianne's extraordinary teaching.

"It's been absolutely nuts," he laughs. "But I wouldn't change anything about it - or her." The past three and a half months, since the 20th anniversary series began, have felt like years, he says.

"It's the maddest experience of time in that the training days, they drag, because it's just relentless.

"But the Saturdays come around so fast. Usually when you do something like this you say, hasn't the time flown? But I can't remember my life before Strictly. It literally feels like this is all I've ever done." The Liverpudlian, who lost his sight 25 years ago, previously turned down Strictly several times.

Doubt

But now he thinks it has changed him forever. He says: "The fear was immense - it was terrifying. I like a challenge, I like new things but I need to know I can do good and represent myself, and other people, well. And there was a huge doubt about that." Having been persuaded, he discovered he had more resilience and determination than he'd realised.