A former contestant on The Chase has opened up about her time on the ITV show to reveal some behind-the-scenes secrets - including one issue viewers don’t see at home.
Hannah Cowton appeared on an episode that first aired in March 2019, and has since shared about her time filming for the prime time quiz show.
In a post on her blog The London Geek, Hannah described the rush and panic of trying to learn as many random facts as she could, only for none of them to come in handy when it came down to it.
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She wrote: “Walking onto the set and seeing my name on the contestants table was absolutely hilarious. This was the point in the day where I began to disassociate with my surroundings.
“It all felt like an extremely bizarre trip, and I wasn’t sure that I was taking anything in to be honest.
“That increased tenfold when the legend himself Bradley Walsh walked out.”
The tech journalist said that the format of the filming is ‘more or less exactly how you see it in the show’, adding: “We filmed all our intros, and one by one went up to face the chaser.
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“The reaction you see from me once I see The Sinnerman step out is genuine; and let me say that Paul was extremely kind to me throughout the whole process.”
However, there was one thing Hannah pointed out about the set that only contestants know about.
Sharing a picture of her sat with fellow participants Mark, Kerry and Carl, she admitted: “Those stools were hard to balance on. I kept getting scared that I would topple off it in excitement.”
Thankfully, she didn’t - but that didn’t mean there weren’t wobbles along the way.
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When it came to the cash builder, this is where everything went ‘tits up’, explained Hannah, writing: “I got my first question right and thought I was off to a good start, but it only takes getting one wrong to throw you off.
“By the time I was halfway through, I was barely even listening to what Brad was saying. I had zero idea what was going on.”
And this seems to be another aspect of the show that you can’t see from your living room sofa - the pressure contestants feel when in the spotlight.
“Being under such pressure, several times I misread the question, or forgot about everything I knew,” she said. “Honestly, I got down to the bottom step by pure luck.”
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Thankfully, the production team were on hand, with Hannah describing them as ‘incredibly supportive, greeting me with a tin of celebrations and cuppa to ease my sorrows whilst I watched the rest of the episode unfold’.
Hannah concluded: “All in all, the experience was certainly one I’ll never forget; simultaneously incredible and humiliating.
“The worst part was waiting to see the reactions of everyone around me, but I was pleasantly surprised by the level of support that everyone gave.
“Of course it was a shame not to get any money, but to be honest that wasn’t why I applied to the show in the first place.
“I wanted to be a contestant on my favourite quiz show, fulfill a life goal by being on national TV and meet the amazing Bradley Walsh, and I did all of those things.”
Topics: The Chase, ITV, TV and Film, Bradley Walsh
Daisy Phillipson