Australian dancer Dianne Buswell won Strictly Come Dancing with comedian Chris McCausland last year, but she isn't fancying her chances of making it two wins in a row
Dianne Buswell joked she “isn’t going to make it” far in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing after winning the competition last year.
Australian dancer Dianne, 36, lifted the show’s famous Glitterball Trophy in December after being partnered with comedian Chris McCausland. The former Cbeebies star, 48, became the first blind contestant to take part on the show.
The pair won over both the judges and viewers as their friendship blossomed throughout the competition. Their waltz to Liverpool anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone won the BAFTA for “most memorable moment” earlier this year.
It saw the lights dipped at the start of the routine, depicting how Chris sees the world. Since winning the contest, their pair have gone on to launch their Winning Isn’t Everything podcast.
In their latest episode, Dianne recalled the time she was almost “hypnotised” by Whim Hoff. She described it as a “weird” experience, adding: “I don’t know if he’d have said to me act like a dog and I’d have done it, I probably wasn’t under that much, but was under enough for weird stuff to happen.”
Chris joked about Dianne’s willingness to get involved with the elaborate themes involved in Strictly. Contestants often find themselves donning unusual costumes, with Chris and Dianne even performing dressed as characters from Wayne’s World last series.
He replied: “I don’t think you need to be hypnotised for that to be honest. I literally think that Strictly could say to you this series, ‘Week five, your theme is Paw Patrol, and you’re going to be Skye”.
Dianne had a blunt assessment of her chances in this year’s competition. She responded: “Oh Chris, I don’t think I’m even going to make it to week three this year.”
Chris however had a more positive theory for Dianne’s next partner. He responded: “It’ll be interesting Di. It’ll be interesting. This is my theory, they’re not going to give you a project. I don’t think they will risk giving you somebody.”
The comedian also admitted he hadn’t “read one piece of news” before taking part in the hit BBC show. Dianne fired back: “That’s not hard to believe, you didn’t even know who Tess [Daly] and Claudia [Winkleman] were.”
Dianne first took part in Strictly in 2017 with The Communards musician Reverend Richard Coles. The pair went out in the second week as former Holby City actor Joe McFadden won the competition.
In the subsequent series, Dianne has finished second twice, first with her now boyfriend Joe Sugg in 2018 and latterly with EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier. Her other dance partners have included DJ Dev Griffin, comedian Robert Webb, singer Max George and radio presenter Tyler West.
Dianne says names rumoured to be entering the competition this year include former Love Islander Dani Dyer as well as Queen Camilla’s son Tom Parker-Bowles and BBC icon Stacey Solomon.
