Chris McCausland addresses Strictly Come Dancing scandal amid claims he 'saved' show

Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland has addressed the controversy surrounding the show ahead of this year’s series.

The show was mired in controversy this year after Amanda Abbington made a series of allegations about abusive bullying in rehearsals. Some of the complaints relating to professional Giovanni Pernice were upheld, but he was cleared of the most serious.

It led to a number of changes to this year’s show, including the introduction of chaperones in rehearsals. But Chris, who has emerged as favourite to win this year’s show with professional Dianne Buswell, says he was unaware of the controversy.

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However the comedian, who will discuss his time in the competition on The One Show tonight, says the BBC have told celebrities to be prepared to answer questions about it. Although he says his own time on the show has been “great”.

Speaking to The Times, Chris said: “You can’t make a show like this and get away from the fact that you can look a d*** on live TV on a Saturday. So I don’t want to undermine anyone’s experiences, maybe people have behaved in ways they shouldn’t have, I don’t know, but my experience has been great.”

Some critics have argued that Chris, who is Strictly’s first blind contestant, could potentially have “saved” the show, emerging as a stand-out star alongside Dianne. Such has been his popularity that tickets for his stand-up show, which he will return to in the new year, have skyrocketed.

Although, he says it does bring “one or two idiots,” with Alan Sugar recently tweeting: “I don’t know when Strictly Come Dancing are going to run out of contestant gimmicks. I would not be surprised if they had a AI mechanical robot next year.”

Chris, 47, shared it, adding: “I am sorry my gimmick offends you oh mighty Lord. #YoureTired.”

Chris recently revealed his apprehensions about the show lead him to ask the same heartbreaking question to Dianne after every round. When asked by Heat magazine if he thought he would do so well on the show, Chris replied: “No. Every time we get through I say to Dianne ‘I got away with that, didn’t I?’

“It’s gone better than I thought it would, because I had no idea whether I’d be able to do it at all, which is partly, which is partly my doubt and partly the fear of doing Strictly. That first episode, to say I was s******* my pants is an understatement.”