Strictly’s Chris McCausland reveals he almost became a spy after applying to MI5 “for a laugh” when his eyesight deteriorated before embarking on a comedy career.

Strictly Come Dancing star Chris McCausland has told how he almost became a spy after losing his sight due to a hereditary condition.

The 47-year-old comedian, who suffers from a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa that causes vision loss, made his debut on the BBC show on Saturday, where he dazzled fans not only with his dance moves but also his wicked sense of humour.

While Chris is known to many as a stand-up comedian, his career began on a quite different path as he came very close to working on M15.

Before turning to comedy, Chris found himself in the running for the most unlikely of jobs, having applied to join the Secret Service “just for a laugh” when his eyesight began to really fail.

Speaking in a resurfaced interview, the TV star noted that he did “pretty well” in the application process and even made it to the final 30, before being gently let down due to his eyesight.

Chris started out as a web developer before moving into sales when his eyesight deteriorated, but before landing his sales job, he threw caution to the winds and applied to be a spy.

Speaking to Radio 4’s Saturday Live, she said: “I started applying for crazy things, just for fun, so I applied to MI5. They need to recruit like anyone else. They have a graduate programme and they were looking for spies. So I applied.”

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but a spy is not a James Bond character. A spy is someone who directs agents, members of the public with information.

‘So you have to go out and meet them at certain places and exchange information, and that’s what they were looking for.

‘I applied and before I knew it, there were only 30 out of 3,000 left before they came to their senses.’

Detailing how he went through the process, he continued: “I went through a lot of different stages, from psychometric testing to a full-day assessment, where I had to analyse all this information and identify the threat and have a meeting with the surveillance team. I did pretty well.”

However, the star told how he was ultimately turned down for the role due to his visual impairment, and Chris recalled that he was glad he didn’t get the job.

He explained: ‘Basically, if there had been a bomb, it would have taken me a little bit longer to find out who had it.

“I don’t want to live in a country that gives me that job. Sometimes I think discrimination is perfectly acceptable.”

After almost landing a job with MI5 and working in sales, Chris soon embarked on a career as a comedian.

After trying his hand at comedy during a new acts comedy night in 2003, he soon became recognised for his humour after winning the Jongleurs J2O Last Laugh competition, before going on to gain recognition in other competitions.

His career soon took off, leading to a seven-year stint at the Edinburgh Fringe and an appearance on Live At The Apollo in 2018, before going on to make a number of television appearances.

Chris began losing his sight 20 years ago, between the ages of 16 and 21, due to retinitis pigmentosa, a condition which, according to the NHS, causes sufferers to lose their sight as the light-sensitive cells in the retina gradually deteriorate.

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of rare genetic disorders that involve the breakdown and loss of cells in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eye.

The NHS website explains that people with RP lose vision as the light-sensitive cells in the retina gradually deteriorate.

In a previous interview, Chris detailed how he didn’t realize he was going blind, as he had been that way since birth.

He said inews.co.uk‘My grandmother and my mother suffered from it. I basically went blind very slowly from the time I was born, so I didn’t even realise it was happening.’

He went on to compare the scenario to “the frog in the pot of boiling water.”

Strictly’s first live show started last week, but fans are already declaring him the winner thanks to his impressive skills and brilliant one-liners.

However, Chris recently admitted he was “terrified” of making a fool of himself on the BBC show after becoming the first blind contestant.

Chris confessed that he was nervous about signing up to appear on live television every Saturday night and was worried about how his disability would affect his performance.

He wrote in The telegraphI mean, how can I have confidence in my ability to do something when I can’t fully visually see what I’m being asked to do?

Before sarcastically adding: ‘Plus, put it on live TV, where the flaws are there for everyone to see and where the chance of generous editing is absolutely zero, and what could possibly go wrong?’

Chris, who shares 10-year-old daughter Sophie with wife Patricia, said the youngster was scared of falling off the dance floor.

“I showed my 10-year-old daughter a clip from the show and asked if I should do it. ‘No, Dad,’ she said. ‘You’ll fall off the stage and break your leg.’ She’s a joker at heart, but she’s right.”