Blind comic joins reality series where everyone's kept in the dark

Chris McCausland has signed up for a new Channel 4 reality show – where his blindness will prove a definite advantage.

In Scared of The Dark, eight celebrities will be sent to live in a bunker designed to block out any light.  Over five successive nights 50 infra-red cameras will follow the contestants as they get to grips with living in pitch blackness.

But it is something that comedian McCausland has already become used to – as he lost his sight in his 20s, due to a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

Also taking part will be boxers Nicola Adams and Chris Eubank, former footballer Paul Gascoigne, singer Max George,  TV personality Scarlett Moffatt, reality star Chloe Burrows and actress Donna Preston.

The show will be hosted by Danny Dyer, who said: ‘This is possibly one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever done in my career, and I have done a lot of mad things.

‘Throw in a bunch of celebs and make them do things with the lights off – it’s proper good telly. You’re gonna laugh, you’re gonna laugh some more and I promise you’re gonna love it.’

Overseeing the show will be clinical psychiatrist Dr Tharaka Gunarathne who said: ‘One of the hardest challenges the celebrities face is dealing with the unknown; their psychological sense of uncertainty is at an all-time high.

‘When you can’t see, your brain fills in the blanks and often imagines the worse.  When you switch off the lights your ability to stay safe is suddenly threatened and that is what makes this particularly frightening’

To leave the bunker, the celebrities must simply shout ‘I’m scared of the dark" and they will be escorted into the light.

McCausland regularly appears on Have I Got News For You and Radio 4’s The News Quiz , and has performed stand-up on Live At The Apollo show three times and also at the Royal Variety Performance. He made a splash in 2022 when a sketch he and Lee Mack performed when presenting at the Bafta TV awards went viral.

Made by:  MultiStory Media, from an original idea by Possessed,
Commissioned by: Tom Beck, Channel 4 head of live events with Phil Harris, head of entertainment and events.
Executive producers:  Glenn Hugill, Simone Haywood and Jon Cahn.

Published: 21 Mar 2023