{"id":15428,"date":"2022-05-14T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1642147"},"modified":"2022-05-14T10:33:46","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T08:33:46","slug":"bradley-walsh-on-beat-the-chasers-anne-hegertys-replacement-and-the-future-of-the-show","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/bradley-walsh-on-beat-the-chasers-anne-hegertys-replacement-and-the-future-of-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradley Walsh on Beat the Chasers, Anne Hegerty\u2019s replacement and the future of the show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Lauren Morris\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 14 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Back in 2009, Bradley Walsh was working on the first series of Law & Order: UK \u2013 a British remake of the long-running American crime drama \u2013 when he found himself calling Alison Sharman, ITV\u2019s then-Director of Daytime, from outside the broadcaster\u2019s London headquarters. At the age of 48, the multi-hyphenate had successfully carved out a career in what many would consider dream jobs, from professional football and TV presenting to stand-up comedy and acting \u2013 and yet, a gameshow gig is what he was craving the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a little while of acting, I felt I wanted to get back into light entertainment because I enjoy it,\u201d he says. \u201cI enjoy being on the floor, doing some schtick.\u201d Sharman invited him into the Gray\u2019s Inn Road office for a cup of tea and after discussing the idea of Walsh hosting a daytime quiz show, he was given an A4 piece of paper with a list of rules on for The Chase.<\/p>\n

Thirteen years on and The Chase now reigns as ITV\u2019s most popular daytime gameshow, with five awards, 15 seasons and several spin-offs under its belt \u2013 including Beat the Chasers<\/a>, which is just about to enter its fifth season. Airing across the week in a primetime slot, Beat the Chasers sees contestants take on not just one but up to six of the show\u2019s quiz whizzes for the chance to win big money.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mid-morning on a Thursday when I\u2019m chatting to Walsh on the phone. He\u2019s into week two of filming The Larkins<\/a>\u2018 second season (which has recently recast the role of Mariette Larkin<\/a>, with Joelle Rae taking over from Sabrina Bartlett) and while he\u2019s enjoying it so far, he can\u2019t say much more than that. \u201cI can\u2019t give anything away,\u201d he says to my disappointment, before we swiftly move onto Beat the Chasers.<\/p>\n

Being the first season back with a live studio audience, it comes as no surprise that Walsh found filming more enjoyable than the previous two in lockdown.<\/p>\n

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Bradley Walsh and Joanna Scanlan in The Larkins<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cWhile those shows were good, you missed the whole arena experience of the audience in the round. It lifts the game and I think the audience are as big a part of the shows as we are because when the offers come in, whoever\u2019s playing can gauge their reaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough \u2013 how many Chasers you want to take on, how much money, how much of a time advantage you get. There\u2019s no great science to it, but if you\u2019re going to take on five Chasers, you\u2019ve only got an eight-second time advantage. If they get all their questions right, you can only afford to get two questions wrong under pressure and that is really tricky.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people come to the show not armed with that information, they don\u2019t really work that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having hosted the show for over a decade, Walsh\u00a0is<\/em> armed with that information, from what the Chasers\u2019 strongest subjects are, to what they\u2019re weakest at and which teams you want to avoid depending on the gaps in your knowledge. Wouldn\u2019t that make him the perfect contestant? He doesn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you something about me. The chinks in the Chasers\u2019 armour I will know, there\u2019s no question about that. What I don\u2019t know is a lot of general knowledge so I would be hopeless.<\/p>\n

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Bradley Walsh and the Chasers on Beat the Chasers<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve gone against the Chasers and you know about modern culture, then you\u2019ve got a serious chance of winning because they don\u2019t. If a young player comes on \u2013 and I love the young players coming on, I think it\u2019s fantastic that they do. I think armed with the knowledge that they\u2019ve got about, I don\u2019t know, maybe the Kardashians or whatever it is, then they\u2019ve got a serious chance of winning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While he knows an awful lot about the likes of Mark \u2018The Beast\u2019 Labbett, Shaun \u2018The Dark Destroyer\u2019 Wallace and the other longtime Chasers, he\u2019s less familiar with Issa Schultz<\/a> \u2013 the star of The Chase Australia who was flown in last minute to replace a COVID-positive Anne Hegerty on the Beat the Chasers panel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIssa was brilliant and fitted in fantastically well, considering he only landed in the UK literally the day before filming started, which is pretty extraordinary,\u201d Walsh says. \u201cSuffering from jet lag and all the rest of it that goes along with travel, it\u2019s amazing what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether the quizzer from Down Under should become a permanent cast member, Walsh is fully onboard with the idea. \u201cMore to the point, we have six brilliant Chasers already so wouldn\u2019t it be lovely to invite Issa over and have seven? Now a Super Offer [where contestants can take on all six Chasers] goes into the sort of \u00a3200,000-\u00a3250,000 mark. Imagine what a Super Duper Offer could be to take on all seven Chasers? Half a million up to a million \u2013 who knows!\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the TV host insists that casting the Chasers \u201creally isn\u2019t\u201d his department. \u201cWe have the most marvellous network out there looking for Chasers of top, top quality but it\u2019s not necessarily that they need to be solely knowledgeable. They have to have a personality that will work for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit like a panto. You\u2019ve got the baddies and the goodies. I\u2019m always on the side of the contestants so I want them to win desperately and let me tell you, I don\u2019t know how much time you spent in the company of the Chasers but when they lose, they really don\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>

When I asked which of the shows Walsh prefers, he delivers a very diplomatic answer. \u201cBeat the Chasers is high octane, it\u2019s crash-bang-wallop. It gallops from start to finish and I thoroughly enjoy that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe daytime Chase is a different animal. I can have more of a laugh, there\u2019s more room, I can take the mickey out of the Chasers and be part of the contestants\u2019 team. I can\u2019t fool around in the Beat the Chasers format.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t choose between the two. My baby is the daytime show because we\u2019ve been running that now for 13 years but Beat the Chasers has really caught the imagination of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When ITV was developing The Chase, the daytime quiz show world was dominated by the BBC, with the likes of The Weakest Link and Eggheads keeping viewers busy on weekday afternoons. Meanwhile, Walsh\u2019s slot-machine gameshow Spin Star had been cancelled after just one season.<\/p>\n

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Bradley Walsh hosting The Chase<\/span><\/figcaption> ITV<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019d had a phone call telling me a little while prior that Spin Star was being taken off air which is fine. Sometimes they can come to the end of their shelf life and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After reading the rules of The Chase at the ITV offices, Walsh offered to host a mock run-through of the show. \u201cI came up with some of the language that you would use on The Chase. It was literally, \u2018For \u00a35,000, The Chase is on.\u2019 That came from the office run-through, I\u2019d written that down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain buzzwords, having worked on so many game shows before, I sort of knew the way around what I needed to say and how that works.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that he came up with the now-famous nicknames of The Beast and the Dark Destroyer for Mark Labbett and Shaun Wallace respectively in that run-through. \u201cI had a laugh with them, which was different, because everyone else would be shackled by the rules and just present it straight. Whereas I\u2019m not really that sort of guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI messed around and had a laugh. After the run-through, Ali Sharman said to me, \u2018I really liked the way you did that \u2013 we\u2019re going to make a pilot series,\u2019 and I said, \u2018I\u2019ll do it.\u2019 The rest is history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Walsh only realised how popular The Chase was becoming when he was walking around Kent\u2019s Bluewater Shopping Centre with his wife. \u201cThe amount of people that came up and said, \u2018Hey Brad, we\u2019ve seen your new show, it\u2019s great,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Oh, wow. Thank you very much indeed,\u2019 and they said, \u2018No, no, no \u2013 it\u2019s the best thing we\u2019ve seen for a long time. So much better than The Weakest Link,\u2019 which we were up against at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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