BBC Strictly Come Dancing Chris McCausland's says sight loss was 'scary and embarrassing' as he's supported by wife and daughter

Chris McCausland has said he's hoping to bring a 'beautifully positive message' to the ballroom this week as he returns for week eight of Strictly Come Dancing.

It was revealed ahead of the next live show of the BBC One dance contest on Saturday night (November 9) that Chris and his professional dance partner Dianne Buswell will perform a Couple's Choice routine to Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) by John Lennon.

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Writing in his latest column for the Telegraph, the 47-year-old shared the meaning behind their upcoming performance. He wrote: "This week we have our Couple’s Choice, an opportunity to bring back some of that fun and wow factor that we’ve been missing over the past couple of weeks. It is also an opportunity to do something that is a little outside the box and with a little more of a personal meaning.

"Myself and Dianne will be dancing to Instant Karma by John Lennon, a song that I believe sends out a beautifully positive message that we are all as valuable as each other and that kindness should be the most basic of our traits."

He went on: "I am here on Strictly to try to show that more can be possible than many might think. I’m even surprising myself in that regard, but for me this song fits my purpose here perfectly, to try to show that we can all shine as brightly as each other if we only allow ourselves and each other to do so. Myself and Dianne will be hoping to shine brightly on the dance floor this Saturday night, and I’m looking forward to actually being able to smile this time."

As Strictly fans know, Chris is the show's first-ever blind contestant. The 47-year-old lost his sight because of retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease that causes gradual degeneration of the retina.

Liverpool-born Chris, who has hosted his own show on ITV on Saturday mornings, and has also featured on panel shows such as Have I Got News For You, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and QI, was 22 when he lost his sight.

Opening up about his condition, Chris told i News last year: "My grandmother had it, and my mum. Basically, I'd been going blind very slowly since I was born, and so didn't even really notice it happening. Like the frog in the pan of boiling water.

Sharing an insight into his experience of blindness, Chris explained: "They say that when you lose your sight, your hearing gets better. It doesn't. But you do pay more attention to it. So when you're sat at a beach resort, and you're hot, and you can't see what's around you, then you just end up concentrating on how hot you actually are. I suffer more for it."

But he did find his loss of sight very scary at first. Speaking previously, he said: "When it started happening, it was scary and embarrassing. I found myself in difficult situations because I was reluctant to ask for help. I knew I would never be on a level playing field with everyone else. My eyesight deteriorated significantly while I was at university, and the technology available at that time wasn't advanced enough, so I had to abandon my career path in web development."

After a brief role on the CBeebies show Me Too, Chris moved into stand-up comedy. Away from his public persona, Chris likes to keep his personal life private but what is known is that he is married to Patricia, and they have a daughter, Sophie.

Chris and Patricia met in 2005 when the former was performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and his now-wife was filming a documentary about the festival. Reflecting on their early relationship, he said on Gyles Brandreth's Rosebud podcast: "We spent a lot of time together when the camera wasn't running, socialising, going out and doing things, and we just had a lot of fun.

"We were very opposite, she comes across as very British but she's Brazilian, she came across when she was five or six. Her life is chaos in the way that Brazilian people are chaos. It's a natural attribute of their being that they are very proud of - they bring chaos to any room. The number of times she'll be talking in Portuguese to her mum and then I'll say to her, 'Are you okay? What happened there?' It sounds like they had the most horrific argument and they're just talking about what they're going to do that day."

But sharing why their dynamic works, he continued: "Full of energy, took me out of my comfort zone, and I think me to her, I made her laugh and was almost this calming presence in her life that she was attracted to."

And Chris also previously shared what his 10-year-old daughter thought of his Strictly stint. He wrote in his 'Strictly' diary for The Telegraph at the start of the series in September: "I showed my 10-year-old daughter a clip of the show and asked her if I should do it. 'No, Daddy,' she said. 'You'll fall off the stage and break your leg.' She's a joker at heart, but she's got a point."

Chris continued: "Not quite the ringing endorsement other celebrities get. But I've checked and there is no stage so the joke's on her..." He quipped: "I sincerely hope they will have wrapped the cameras in layers of foam just in case. I can see myself taking out three of them in a single foxtrot."