Music to his ears
Chris McCausland has finally achieved his dream of hosting his own radio show – just don’t expect him to present a playlist of new music
CAMERA PRESS / Clara Molden
- Emma Cox
Published: Friday, 31 July 2026 at 10:37 am
The Chris McCausland Show is on Sundays at 8am on Absolute Radio. Add it to your collection
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As Chris McCausland sat in front of the microphone at Absolute Radio, launching his first ever radio show, he was buzzing with excitement. The jingle featuring his name went out, followed by the first song – which stopped the comedian in his tracks.
He explains, “The show goes out across the whole network, so whether you’re listening to Absolute 80s, 90s, or whatever, you’ll still hear my voice but the songs are different, so the music is chosen by our robot overlords. It did the little jingle, then it kicked into Primal Scream’s Movin’ On Up. And, if you know the song, you’ll know the very first lyrics are, ‘I was blind, now I can see…’ I did ask if someone was playing a joke on me. They were mortified, but I thought it was hilarious. Of all the songs to pick for the first show!”
McCausland, who was born with a genetic condition that caused his sight to deteriorate until he became fully blind aged 22, has for years been a prolific stand-up comedian and stalwart of panel shows like Have I Got News for You. Since winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2024, his career has gone stratospheric: and his new Sunday morning radio show, which he hosts with friend and fellow stand-up Jon Long, is a long-held ambition.
He says, “I’ve always been a fan of the radio, so to be part of people’s mornings is great. There’s a fine line between injecting energy into their Sunday mornings and being overbearingly annoying, so hopefully we get the balance right. I don’t do political or divisive material within my stand-up, and this is no different. People are waking up – they don’t want to be hearing about Nigel Farage. It’s just a fun bit of nonsense.”
With the show being on air from 8am, is he having to adjust to early mornings instead of long lie-ins and morning walks? “I’ve always been an early riser, and I’m 49 now, so I have to get up for a wee! If you’re up anyway, you may as well get dressed and leave the house. I get bored easily. I need to keep busy, and I like working.”
There’s a fine line between energy and being annoying
From an early age, McCausland remembers listening to talk shows and recording music from the radio onto mixtapes. He still loves the medium, finding it a good way to engage with his beloved sports, but it’s not just being blind that makes the radio so attractive. “I do rely more on what I’m hearing because I can’t see, but there’s also a lovely connection where radio can be the soundtrack to your life. The legendary Terry Wogan said the secret to DJing is pretending you’re talking to one person. It’s intimate, connecting with someone doing the dishes or driving their car.”
As well as using the radio to keep up on sports, McCausland is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to provide support. A former software programmer, he made a BBC documentary last year called Seeing into the Future, and technology advancements have been coming thick and fast even in the few months that have passed since he filmed it.
“My wife and daughter are away at the moment,” he says, “so I’m using AI to tell me what’s in the fridge and how to cook it. I can even hold up a shirt and ask, ‘Is this clean?’. It’ll say, ‘It’s clean but it could do with ironing’ and I’ll go, ‘I don’t care about creases,’ and put the shirt on. For accessibility, AI is the biggest game changer since the smartphone. I don’t have to rely on people anywhere near as much as I used to.”
Chris McCausland won Strictly Come Dancing with partner Dianne Buswell in 2024. BBC
McCausland also loves AI for discovering new music and he asks his phone to save the name of new songs he hears. An avid collector of vinyl records, he’s trying to expand his knowledge beyond his first love of heavy rock – although he admits his idea of “new” music doesn’t exactly extend to young singers and bands.
“The last ‘new’ album I bought was by Paul McCartney,” he laughs. “When you get to a certain age, you do tend to listen to the same artists. But I love radio for introducing me to music that passed me by. I was so into rock and grunge in the 90s, I missed Britpop, so I’m currently opening my heart to bands like Ocean Colour Scene.”
Does that mean he’s not a fan of Blur or Oasis, two of the biggest Britpop bands who have had huge comebacks in recent years? “I saw Blur at Reading once and they were really good, but not heavy enough for me,” he says. “I’m made up that the Oasis tour was so successful. I really like Noel [Gallagher], he’s so funny. I like the songs, but I don’t have an emotional attachment like a lot of people do. You need that to pay £250 for a ticket!”
Next month marks two years since McCausland won Strictly, and it’s all change with new presenters Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe taking over from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.
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“Josh is a mate of mine,” he says. “He’s quick and funny, but also very warm, and I think that’s what the show needs. Trying to replace Claudia directly would have been a mistake. Josh is such a different proposition that I don’t think people will compare him to Claudia in the same way they might have done if they’d got another female presenter. I think he’ll be brilliant.”
Authors
Emma Cox
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