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This year’s Strictly finalists will be competing against each other for the coveted glitterball
After weeks of intense competition, the Strictly Come Dancing finalists are primed to take to the dance floor one last time.
Four celebrities are vying to get their hands on the glitterball trophy, in the show’s 20th anniversary year: Chris McCausland, JB Gill, Sarah Hadland and Tasha Ghouri.
Comedian McCausland, who is Strictly’s first blind contestant, has emerged as the bookmakers’ favourite to win after impressing both audiences and judges.
The grand final will be broadcast on Saturday from 18: 00 GMT on BBC One and iPlayer.
At the start of the series there were 15 couples. The remaining four are:
Chris McCausland and Dianne BuswellJB Gill and Lauren OakleySarah Hadland and Vito CoppolaTasha Ghouri and Aljaž ŠkorjanecThe finalists will perform three routines each in front of a live audience and the Strictly judges before the public votes for a winner.
Other highlights from the show will include the professional dancers joining singer Raye for a performance, and the full cast of 2024 returning to the dance floor for one last routine.
‘Scariest thing I’ve ever done’
Ahead of the final, McCausland said training had been “relentless”, but that he had also found he had “a lot more resilience and determination” than he knew.
“It’s been exhausting, and it’s been the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but I think it’s certainly been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” he said.
“And it’s probably the thing that’s going to have the most lasting effect on me in terms of my outlook on the world and life, and really the opportunities that I have.”
The 47-year-old and professional partner Buswell will perform routines including their waltz to You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers in the grand final.
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Chris McCausland is the BBC programme’s first blind contestant
The pair will also reprise their couple’s choice routine to Instant Karma by John Lennon, which they first performed last month.
During the dance, which went viral on social media, the comedian placed his hands over Buswell’s eyes as the room faded to black. The lights came back up moments later to show him spinning Buswell around on his shoulders as pyrotechnics flared in the background.
The pair received a score of 33 out of a possible 40 from the judges, with Craig Revel Horwood describing the “poignant blackout moment” as “absolutely spectacular”.
McCausland on perception of people with disabilities’Chris McCausland is an inspiration to students’Watch Strictly’s ‘spectacular’ blackout dance momentMcCausland was registered blind after losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa in his 20s and 30s.
He revealed his 11-year-old daughter was initi
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