Chris McCausland's journey from salesman to Strictly winner

Comedian Chris McCausland has won the 22nd series of Strictly Come Dancing after beating 14 other celebrities to this year's glitterball trophy.

He has been praised throughout the series for defying expectations of what a blind person can achieve on the dancefloor.

McCausland, 47, was registered blind after losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa in his 20s.

But who is the man who has charmed viewers of the Saturday night dancing competition?

'I got the stand-up bug' McCausland was born in 1977 in Liverpool, but moved to south-west London in the mid-1990s to study software engineering at Kingston University.

After graduating, he became a software developer, but had to change careers when his eyesight deteriorated.

He told the i newspaper in 2023 that he had lost his sight completely by the age of 22, from a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which his grandmother and mother also had.

His condition means the light sensitive cells of his retinas gradually deteriorated until he could no longer see.

"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," he said.

His next job was in sales, which was "really boring stuff" and "just filling the time until I figured out what I properly wanted to do", he told the Liverpool Echo in 2016.

The turning point came when McCausland was 26.

"I got shingles and was signed off from work for two weeks," he said.

"I was bored out of my head and as a dare from myself I decided to have a go at stand-up."

That first comedy gig went so well that he got "the stand-up bug", he said, and he's been doing it ever since.

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He went on to compete in several new talent competitions and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe for six years between 2005 and 2012.

His TV career began in 2006 when he became one of the main characters in CBeebies show Me Too!, playing a blind market trader called Rudi.

Comedy producers also started recognising his talent. He appeared in Paramount series At The Comedy Store from 2008, and won a Creative Diversity award in 2011 for comedy, which was awarded by a panel of broadcasters including Channel 4, BBC, ITV and Sky.

As he continued to make his name, his inclusion on an episode of BBC One panel show Would I Lie to You? in 2019 prompted a debate about a lack of disability inclusion on British television.

He was no token booking, and his comedy skills also saw him in demand for shows including Live At The Apollo, Have I Got News for You and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

Meanwhile, other acting credits include episodes of Jimmy McGovern's Moving On and EastEnders.