The Chase

ITV’s The Chase isn’t the perfect game show – but since its launch in June 2009 it has grown in status to one where the ‘Chasers’ have become household names.

In Spring 2010 I was a standby contestant in the infamous episode where the final contestant, Martin, thought he had won in the final chase, only to be told that he hadn’t. In the footage, you can see him storm off, as Bradley speaks over the closing credits!

After quite a wait, I was finally invited to be part of the show in September 2012. The first two contestants failed to beat Anne Hegarty, who was in sterling form and it was left to Donna and myself to build up a respectable score. 

Before the show, I’d set in my mind a target of 20 for the final chase as a winnable tally. Unfortunately, despite some frenetic shouting out of answers, we reached a grand total of 13.

When it came to the final chase, Anne didn’t know that Charlie Fink heads up Noah and the Whale – and nor did we! This generated quite a bit of activity on Twitter from Charlie Fink fans. The other two push backs included the setting for the short-lived soap Albion Market (Manchester, not London, so no points for us) and the number of pawns in chess.

Sadly, then, it just wasn't to be our day and we were caught with oodles of time to spare, but I did manage to squeeze in that old contestant cliche, "I've had a brilliant time!"