BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Chris McCausland gives real reason for 'blackout' moment after 'disastrous' suggestion

Chris McCausland has revealed why he and Dianne Buswell opted for a groundbreaking 'blackout' moment during their latest Strictly Come Dancing performance - a move which secured them their place in another week of the competition.

The comedian is Strictly's first blind contestant and it was thought his latest routine, to Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) by John Lennon, featured a "poignant" moment to imitate his own experience with blindness.

But Chris has explained that while many ideas were had about how they could get their message across - including one which would have 'ended in disaster' - he and Dianne settled on the 'blackout' moment to show more than what the 47-year-old and others who are blind experience.

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Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday (November 11) after it was confirmed he and Dianne had made it through to the show's annual Blackpool special, Chris said: "Obviously [there were] lots of ideas - you see people online and they're saying, 'Wouldn't it be good t if Dianne wore a blindfold' and things like that but no, not really. It would probably be a disaster if I'm honest with you!"

He continued: "But this idea, I pitched this idea to Dianne of having it as a brief moment rather than something that was made more out of the idea and became maybe a gimmick. It wasn't to put Dianne into the dark. It was to put the audience into the dark.

"[It was to] really to surprise them so that what they saw at the end of the darkness was completely surprising and different to what they saw going into it and make them think, 'How the hell did they get into that?' because at the end we were spinning at quite a speed with her lying across my shoulders. When we went into the darkness she was standing in front of me with my hands in front of her eyes. That was the idea really, to surprise the audience and to put them into the dark."

After hearing back the judges' comments about his latest performance ahead of talking to Jonny Dymond, Chris said: "It's interesting listening back to the comments because you're a little bit in a world of your own after the dance. You've got all this release of nerves and relief of getting through it and then you've got these four guys talking at you.

"Sometimes it can sound a bit like the teachers on Charlie Brown. So to hear it back there and hear Shirley [Ballas] say I have 'no fear', I think I'm good at masking my fear because it's terrifying to do it on live TV when you've got no previous experience of it. Every week that we get through and we do a good job, I'm delighted!"

Chris also admitted that he'd been asked to do the show multiple times before he signed on the dotted line for the 2024 series and said his initial reluctance was because he 'didn't think he'd be able to do it' and as it wasn't a show he 'could go and watch' he didn't know 'what was expected' of him.