BBC legend's five-word verdict on Chris McCausland as star forced to return Strictly prize

Strictly: Moment Chris McCausland is crowned 2024 winner

Chris McCausland made Strictly Come Dancing history after becoming the first visually-impaired contestant to lift the Glitterball trophy.

The stand-up comedian, 47, broke down in tears when he was announced as the BBC show champion on Saturday night (December 14).

Former Strictly pro Brendan Cole, 48, shared his thoughts following the win alongside his dance partner Dianne Buswell, 35.

Speaking exclusively to Express Online on behalf of Sky Vegas, he admitted being "surprised" Chris was crowned the Strictly winner.

“I was, to a point, surprised to see him [Chris McCausland] win, because the dancing was pretty average – and generally people do want a good dancer to win," Brendan explained.

"I thought they're probably going to push it in JB [Gill’s ] direction, because that's the way the judges have seemed to want it to go throughout the series. I wouldn’t agree with that however, as for me, it had to be Tasha [Ghouri] or Chris [McCausland]."

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Strictly legend delievered his verdict on Chris McCausland's win (Image: BBC)

Brendan continued: “I'm pleased in that respect, because in my opinion, they [JB Gill and Lauren Oakley] have not been deserving of the marks they've been getting for the most part.

“Tasha [Ghouri] was the most accomplished dancer. She is the best celeb to ever do the show – but she has had a lot of dance training so you kind of expect perfection from her.

“From a non-dance point of view, Chris is the right one. It's a lovely story – being blind and having to do everything without visually seeing how to learn dancing, it's quite an amazing thing, he’s done very well.”

Chris - who was registered blind after gradually losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa in his 20s and 30s – made show history by being the first blind contestant to win the series.

Former Strictly pro Brendan Cole delivered his verdict on Chris McCausland's win (Image: Getty)

Strictly's Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell lifted the Glitterball trophy (Image: BBC) window.topArticlesScript="https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/js/dist/article-top-articles20241217.min.js" SUBSCRIBE Invalid email

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Following the show, the comic was gifted the coveted Glitterball trophy which he and Dianne lifted above their heads on the dancefloor after claiming victory.

However, as many previous winners have pointed out, the BBC keep hold of the original trophy and hand the winners a smaller version to take home instead - meaning Chris would have had to return the trophy gifted to him on the live show.

Bill Bailey, who won Strictly in 2020, described the size of the replica trophy as a grapefruit and previously revealed on Radio X in 2021: “A bloke came up to me from Production and asked for the trophy back.

“You don’t get to keep it. You just, you know, you can hold it, but you don’t keep it. They give you a little one, a little replica one about the size of a grapefruit. So he came over with a black bin bag."

BBC legend's five-word verdict on Chris McCausland as star forced to return Strictly prize

BBC legend's five-word verdict on Chris McCausland as star forced to return Strictly prize

BBC legend's five-word verdict on Chris McCausland as star forced to return Strictly prize

BBC legend's five-word verdict on Chris McCausland as star forced to return Strictly prize

BBC legend's five-word verdict on Chris McCausland as star forced to return Strictly prize