For many who are unfamiliar with the comic Chris McCausland, his look on BBC‘s Strictly Come Dancing may have come as a revelation. Many will already be conversant in his great sense of humour, irrepressible character and willingness to have a go at something.
Some might have seen him within the Channel 4 actuality present Scared Of The Dark, the place contestants lived in a home devoid of sunshine for eight days. Others might have tuned into BBC Radio 4 for You Heard It Right here First, the place he asks a panel of comedians to guess an object from sound solely.
Programmes like these are near my coronary heart as a result of, after all, the one factor that Chris and I’ve in frequent is that neither of us can see.
We definitely do not share a talent for dancing, for my two left ft have by no means completed me any favours on the dance ground, which is why I might by no means comply with Strictly.
As a politician, it was drummed into me to by no means put myself in a susceptible state of affairs – at the very least if I might assist it. This is the reason I’ve turned down, on quite a few events, showing on Have I Acquired Information For You; and, as soon as, the £25,000 I used to be provided to go on Channel 4’s The Friday Night time Challenge. For a comic, although, taking such dangers, as Chris has completed, is second nature.
For many who are unfamiliar with the comic Chris McCausland (seen with Dianne Buswell on tonight’s present), his look on BBC ‘s Strictly Come Dancing may have come as a revelation
Many will already be conversant in his great sense of humour from exhibits like BBC Radio 4’s You Heard It Right here First – the place he asks a panel of comedians to guess an object from sound solely
Lord Blunkett, who can be blind, sat in Tony Blair’s Cupboard for eight years together with a spell as House Secretary
However what he’s doing is greater than entrancing viewers with ingenuity and expertise to drag off exceptional feats of mobility and creativity.
What he’s doing, and what I’ve sought to do myself over a few years, is to interrupt down obstacles erected by others, whose perceptions of what a blind particular person can do merely will get in the best way of actuality.
It was the poet William Blake who wrote of ‘mind-forged manacles’, alluding to the constraints that we placed on what we imagine to be potential. And every so often, our personal perceptions of what different individuals can obtain impacts what they themselves have the boldness to go for.
So, simply as the best way Channel 4, over a few a long time now, has opened up the minds and hearts of thousands and thousands by protecting the Paralympics, demonstrating what these with completely different types of incapacity can obtain if given the possibility, so Chris is conveying the message that you probably have the self-belief to do it, you may pull it off.
His accomplice on Strictly, Dianne Buswell, was queried by sceptics who questioned how she would deal with the problem. Her encouraging response was that getting in ‘merely to win’ wasn’t the purpose. Although, given Chris’s reputation, the sky could possibly be the restrict.
My wager is that life hasn’t at all times felt like that for Chris.
Earlier, I stated that our sight-loss was the one factor we now have in frequent however that is not true, for I sense in him a tenacity, dare I say pig-headedness – the type that propelled me from a boy who discovered to learn Braille to a backbench metropolis councillor in Sheffield, to eight years in Tony Blair’s Cupboard.
Dianne and Chris performing the foxtrot on tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing, for which they scored 29 out of 40
Chris’ accomplice on Strictly, Dianne Buswell, was queried by sceptics who questioned how she would deal with the problem. Her encouraging response was that getting in ‘merely to win’ wasn’t the purpose
From my earliest years, I’ve fought towards individuals’s perceptions when, towards the need of my dad and mom, I used to be despatched, on the age of 4, to a residential boarding college for the blind.
That is how issues had been in these days. Expectations had been low, alternatives restricted and the liberation of the visually impaired younger as we speak within the type of audio know-how, was a lifetime away.
My lack of sight was as a result of failure of my optic nerve to develop, so I’ve by no means been in a position to see greater than gentle or darkish, which is the place Chris now finds himself.
He progressively misplaced his sight over a time period on account of retinitis pigmentosa, a situation children I went to highschool with had, a few of whom I’m nonetheless mates with as we speak.
For me, adapting to the world was as pure as anybody else dealing with the slings and arrows of life. I discovered to learn Braille, grew to become numerate utilizing tactile supplies and even performed with a soccer that jangled with ball bearings inside.
For Chris, dropping his sight in maturity was, as he has stated, ‘scary and embarrassing’, the place asking individuals for assist was a life talent he needed to study quick.
Having the present of the gab definitely helps. In his case to make individuals snigger; in mine to win them over to a trigger, to steer them of my concepts. It is a dying artwork, no extra demonstrated than on the Labour Celebration convention in Liverpool, the place I discovered that the tyranny of the teleprompter inhibited a spontaneity in how audio system responded to an viewers.
What additionally helps is a willingness to embrace new know-how, one thing I am certain Chris has mastered significantly better than I’ve.
Whereas apps on telephones translate emails and texts into speech, I are inclined to lean on my spouse and others to learn out what’s on a display for me.
And social media, for all its ills, has opened up a world of social connections to youngsters unable to go away the home as a lot as able-bodied youngsters can.
The comedian (seen aged 32) misplaced his sight in his early 20s, on account of a hereditary situation referred to as retinitis pigmentosa
For the following era, the publicity of individuals like Chris on prime-time TV is invaluable. Function fashions actually do matter and his presence within the residing rooms of the nation will encourage each dad and mom and kids to assume, ‘nicely, if he can do it, so can I’.
I grew up on a eating regimen of Morecambe and Sensible and The Probably Lads on TV, whereas additionally listening to Tony Hancock on the radio – entertainers who had been all joys to behold in their very own method, however none that spoke to my circumstance.
After I was Training and Employment Secretary, I used to be eager to encourage those that had succeeded towards the percentages to move on the message to youngsters and households that entry to greater training or alternatives outdoors their very own expertise was as a lot for them as for anybody else.
Seizing these probabilities requires confidence and aspiration, nevertheless it’s additionally a few willingness to easily have a go.
That’s the reason the success of Chris McCausland issues not simply to him or to the revival of Strictly – a very beleaguered model for the time being – however to all of us who imagine that each single particular person has one thing to supply, and a method of constructing the world a greater place.