Strictly Come Dancing's Anton Du Beke says Chris McCausland dancing is best thing he's seen on show

Anton Du Beke has described the performance of blind star Chris McCausland as “the most brilliant thing I have ever seen on the show”.

Bookmakers have Chris, 47, and professional partner Dianne Buswell as the odds-on favourites to lift the glitterball trophy. And show judge Anton thinks he is putting on a remarkable show.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature festival, Anton, 58, would not initially be drawn on who would win the show this year, but when Chris’s name was mentioned his face lit up.

He said: “I think we made a mention of it in week one how he can’t see but can dance like that.

“Now we don’t talk about it because he wants to be judged like everyone else. But I have to tell you, he can’t see and he is standing on sofas and jumping off things, perfect timing.

“He is making it look a bit easy if I am honest. It is just so extraordinary I find it difficult to put into words, really, how gripping it is.

“And what a job Dianne is doing, I would have kept him in hold and gone to the side and I would have gone forward.

“She has said ‘off you go’. Just brilliant. Really, the timing is exquisite. His sense of rhythm is phenomenal. I have to tell you I think it is the most brilliant thing I have ever seen on Strictly Come Dancing.”

Addressing the audience he added: “It is up to you who wins, I have no say.”

Chris and Dianne, 35, wowed the judges last weekend dancing a Wayne’s World-inspired jive during the show’s popular movie week.

The pair also went on last week to discuss how training had gone so far. Chris opened up, sharing: “It’s mentally draining. There’s a lot of description and sometimes I have to get on to my knees and feel what her feet are doing.”

With a touch of humour, he added: “She has got muscles in the lower part of her legs that I didn’t even know existed.

“Sometimes as well, she gets on her hands and knees and just picks my leg up and puts it where she wants. It’s like I’m one of those bendy Spider-Man figures.”

Chris was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when he was 22. It is a genetic disease that progressively erodes vision.

Speaking to promote his new novel A Dance For The King, Anton went on to say he was disappointed when he joined the Strictly panel and realised he only had around 15 seconds to critique each dance.

He said: “We have 15 to 20 seconds to judge and I was mortified when I first heard this. I thought I am going to give all my knowledge, y’know hold yourself, form and stride, the hair. But I struggle to get started in 15 seconds. Once I start I can’t stop.”

He would not be drawn on the recent report into the behaviour of some professional dancers on the show but insisted he always tried to take tea breaks with his celebrity partners when things got tough.

And he admitted when he was still a pro on the series he realised timings on the show were tight between each dance, so he would waste time bowing and throwing his partner to the floor at the end. He knew that if they milked he audience’s reaction it would leave less time for acid-tongued judge Craig Revel Horwood to criticise.

Anton, who performed with the likes of Ann Widdecombe and Lesley Joseph, said: “There is an amount of time for VT, dance, go to the judges for comments, upstairs for the scores and off, then it’s who’s coming next. That’s the amount of time... it’s like seven minutes.

“I know we have had the VT and the dance which is that amount of time and how much is allocated, so depending on how it’s gone I knew how much time I needed to waste.

”The more I bow the less they can speak. My ambition was to go from bow, straight upstairs to the score. We would bow and hug, or I would try to finish with them on the floor and I would walk away from them.”

Despite retiring as a pro from the show, Anton is keen to stay in shape.

He still tours performing on stage and says he would hate to be “that guy” that no one wants to dance with anymore. He added: “I know the line. It has always been really important for me to be magnificent [on stage]. What do I mean by that? I have to be the most incredible 58-year-old. Otherwise what’s the point? I have to be in the best shape, I have to eat as I should and [be] as strong as when I was 30.

“I don’t want to be living off past memories I am not trying to be Benjamin Button but I love what I do and I want to keep doing it. I want people who haven’t seen me before to think it is amazing.”

He is already writing an eighth novel which will be released next year, has shows and is booked to perform on a cruise ship next year. But he still finds plenty of time to spend with wife Hannah who he married in 2017 and twins George and Henrietta, seven. “The most important thing is time with them. It is only fun because of them,” he said.