For those unfamiliar with comedian Chris McCausland, his appearance on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing will have come as a revelation. Many will already be familiar with his great sense of humor, irrepressible personality and his willingness to tackle anything.
Some may have seen him on Channel 4 reality show Scared Of The Dark, where the contestants lived in a house with no lights for eight days. Others may have tuned into BBC Radio 4 for You Heard It Here First, where he asks a panel of comedians to guess an object based on sound alone.
Programs like this are close to my heart, because of course the only thing Chris and I have in common is that neither of us can see it.
We certainly don’t share any dancing skills, as my two left feet have never done me any favors on the dance floor, which is why I would never agree to join Strictly.
As a politician, it was instilled in me never to put myself in a vulnerable situation – at least if I could do something about it. This is why I have declined to appear on Have I Got News For You on numerous occasions; and once the £25,000 I was offered for Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project. But for a comedian, taking such risks, as Chris has done, is second nature.
For those unfamiliar with comedian Chris McCausland (seen alongside Dianne Buswell in tonight’s show), his appearance on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing will have come as a revelation.
Many will already know his tremendous sense of humor from shows such as BBC Radio 4’s You Heard It Here First, in which he asks a panel of comedians to guess an object based on sound alone.
Lord Blunkett, who is also blind, served in Tony Blair’s cabinet for eight years, including a stint as Home Secretary
But what he does is more than captivating viewers with ingenuity and talent to achieve remarkable feats of mobility and creativity.
What he is doing, and what I have been trying to do myself for many years, is breaking down barriers erected by others, whose perception of what a blind person can do simply blocks reality.
It was the poet William Blake who wrote about “mind-forged handcuffs,” referring to the limitations we place on what we think is possible. And sometimes our own perception of what other people can achieve influences what they have the confidence to go for.
So just as Channel 4 has opened the minds and hearts of millions of people over the decades through its coverage of the Paralympic Games, showing what people with different forms of disability can achieve if given the chance, Chris is delivering the message that if you have the confidence to do it, you can accomplish it.
His partner in Strictly, Dianne Buswell, was quizzed by skeptics who wondered how she would handle the challenge. Her encouraging response was that the goal was not to “just win.” But given Chris’s popularity, the sky may be the limit.
I bet life hasn’t always felt like this for Chris.
Earlier I said that our loss of face is the only thing we have in common, but that’s not true, because I sense in him a tenacity, dare I say stubbornness – the kind that propelled me from a boy who learned to read Braille to a conniving councilor in Sheffield, up to eight years in Tony Blair’s cabinet.
Dianne and Chris perform the foxtrot on tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing, scoring 29 out of 40
Chris’s partner on Strictly, Dianne Buswell, was quizzed by skeptics who wondered how she would handle the challenge. Her encouraging response was that the intention was not to ‘just win’
From my earliest years I have fought against people’s perception when, against my parents’ wishes, I was sent to a boarding school for the blind at the age of four.
That’s how things went in those days. Expectations were low, opportunities limited, and liberation for today’s visually impaired youth in the form of audio technology would take a lifetime.
My lack of vision was due to the inability of my optic nerve to develop, so I have never been able to see anything beyond light or dark, which is where Chris is now.
He gradually lost his vision over time due to retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that affected young people I went to school with, and some of whom I am still friends with today.
For me, adapting to the world was as natural as anyone else dealing with the slings and arrows of life. I learned to read Braille, started calculating with tangible materials and even played with a soccer ball that clinked with ball bearings in it.
For Chris, losing his sight in adulthood was, as he has said, ‘frightening and embarrassing’, with asking people for help being a life skill he had to learn quickly.
Having the gift of conversation certainly helps. In his case to make people laugh; in mine to win them over to a cause, to convince them of my ideas. It is a dying art, no more demonstrated than at the Labor Party conference in Liverpool, where I found that the tyranny of the teleprompter inhibited a spontaneity in the way speakers responded to an audience.
What also helps is the willingness to embrace new technology, something I’m sure Chris masters much better than I do.
While apps on phones translate emails and text messages into speech, I tend to rely on my wife and others to read aloud what’s on a screen.
And social media, for all its ills, has opened up a world of social connections for children who can’t leave the house as often as healthy children.
The comic (seen at age 32) lost his eyesight in his early 20s, due to an inherited condition called retinitis pigmentosa
For the next generation, the exposure of people like Chris on primetime TV is invaluable. Role models really do matter and his presence in the nation’s living rooms will encourage parents and young people alike to think: ‘If he can do it, so can I’.
I grew up on a diet of Morecambe and Wise and The Likely Lads on TV, while also listening to Tony Hancock on the radio – entertainers who were all a joy to watch in their own way, but none that matched my circumstances .
When I was Minister for Education and Employment, I was keen to encourage those who had succeeded against the odds to pass on the message to children and families that access to higher education or opportunities beyond their own experience is just as good for them was like anyone else.
Seizing those opportunities requires confidence and ambition, but it is also about the willingness to just try.
That’s why Chris McCausland’s success matters not just for him or for the revival of Strictly – a particularly beleaguered brand at the moment – but for all of us who believe that every person has something to offer, and a way to make the world a better place.
