The Chase.

On the first of October 2014, four people who had never met each other confronted one of the best quiz brains in Britain. Hosted by Bradley Walsh, the show occupies the early evening slot between 5 & 6 PM and regularly pulls in over 2 million viewers.

My Chase journey started, like many others I presume. Me sat on the couch, cup of tea, watching my favourite TV quiz show and hearing Bradley Walsh's parting shot... Do you think you can take money off the Chaser? - Come and have a go if you think you’re clever enough.

So I did. It was September 2012

Logging on to ITV.com and filling in the application form caused me to think: How many people are doing this? What do the Show’s producers want to see? I realised sat at my desk that the show actually started here. Was I ‘show-worthy’? I paused and prepared what I call my show CV. Gone was plain old George and in came exciting and interesting George, with a touch of arrogance thrown in. Actually, first thing to realise, is that bullshine is not good and national TV WILL find you out, the show’s producers don’t care, but do you want to be a ‘Walt’ (Walter Mitty) to your mates? Of course not. So I delved into my 51 year (at the time) history and came up with some truths that might mark me out as unusual. Stuff you could say to people and they would reply …Really? – Tell me more. Yes that’s exactly it. You need the person reading it to want to know more.

Apart from the personal stuff, they asked about your strengths on certain topics, which chaser you wanted to face, and did you have a strategy… More on that later.  I completed the application, pressed send and forgot all about it.

One day in November 2012 the phone rang. Is that George, said the voice, Hello – Im Jodi, I’m working on ITV’s ‘The Chase’

Bloody Hell!

So we had a natter about my application and I ran through it verbally. At the end, Jodi said they liked the sound of me and would consider me for an audition, to be confirmed by mail. And indeed it was within a day or two. So there you have it. I was to audition in Sheffield for the current series in early February 2013.

January 2013 saw me working in the USA, and with the work slipping, I was unable to get back home in time, I contacted them, and was advised that they’d hold my application, but could no longer guarantee me  an audition as I would fall outside the current production run. So all that excitement for nothing. Bum. I put it behind me and forgot about it, but 8 months later I got another phone call, now from Kate and was offered another audition for in early September 2013, I quickly put in a days holiday. – This time I was going.

So in early September 2013, almost a year since I applied, I found myself in a hotel in Sheffield along with a host of other chase hopefuls. We were in a batch of 8, and auditions were already running on an early batch of the same number. Grabbing a coffee I sat down with the group and observed my competition. Because that’s what they were. This was the second hurdle, and they all had gone through the same telephone screening and had been sifted out from the chaff as having something to offer. I scanned the room and mentally identified the candidates who were already standing out.

 There was a woman in her 60’s from Skegness, a larger than life personality very witty and married to a toyboy, swathed in Gold she reminded me of a female Bobby George, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. There was a glamorous looking woman from Sheffield, who’s father had won money on the previous series of the chase, a clear candidate and a very smart chap who didn’t say a great deal, but was apparently in the RAF. The remainder didn’t stand out, bar one who had just broken her leg on a drunken night out. How many of us did they need, or more to the point want?

The audition format involved a General Knowledge test (results not important they said, it’s personality they wanted), a two minute talk about yourself in front of everybody, a pick the right answer from 3 cards game and a final section which mirrored the ‘final chase’ from the show. – Split into two groups of four, we had to get as many questions right in 2 minutes as possible. All the talking portions would be filmed, and observed by the researchers, who did their best to make us relax.

I was totally rubbish on the quiz getting about 50% which was a bit of a slap in the face, I improved on the 3 card test, and reiterated my Quiz cv to the rest of the group in two minutes without difficulty – This concept had a few people in trouble, BUT already the candidates I’d identified were showing to be strong. – It was going to be difficult.

Trying to be animated, I lobbed in a few hand gestures, my claim to fame of living next door to Paul McCartney and my stock gag about him giving me my first bit of musical advice – “Turn that bloody music down or I’m calling the police”. This made them laugh which I think was a bonus.

The first group of 4 had the 2 women I’d identified and 2 also rans. Mine had the RAF chap, Drunken woman and another woman who was far too quiet. The first group made around 12 points in a passable effort at a final chase. Myself and the RAF chap Blitzed, and I mean BLITZED it. Scoring 24 points with a decent proportion of those points being down to the two of us, and (sorry if this sounds a bit up my own arse) me taking more than half. But was it enough?

Leaving into another room we got a coffee and waited. Myself and RAF chap chatted, and he turned out to be a Red Arrows and former Tornado pilot, something he’d managed to avoid saying for an hour and a half, and I managed to eek out of him. What a modest fella!

The crew came back in, and read out a list of names, none of which were mine or Glamour puss, or Bobby George or the RAF Chap. They then asked those who were named to collect their belongings and apologised for them not making it. We were through!!!!!!

We hugged each other with excitement – We’d done it…..  Well, we’d made the shortlist. The chase shortlists a large pool of people from whom they sift and identify those who are their filming first choices, some can’t make filming dates, and if you can’t make a filming date, you may never get a chance. According to the shows production company, around 20,000 people applied for series 7 filming, around 2000 get auditioned 400 get shortlisted, around 200 film. So in truth, even those that got their BFH (Bullseye, Central Television – Look it up) did rather well don’t you think? It also meant that for the four of us who’d rocked, there was no guarantee.

And yet…. 2 weeks later, I got the phone call to film my episode in October, I was shocked, for whatever reason they wanted me on. (more on that later) Checking the date my heart sank. You’ve guessed it, I was scheduled to be working away again. Kate was full of apologies, but couldn’t gurantee anything as the first choices were identified and being contacted. Not only that, but auditions were ongoing and filming was finishing in November. We’ll keep you on file they said. FFS – as they say these days, that was the end of that. Imagine my surprise then, when out of the blue in January 2014 they offered me a slot on series 8 in early March. Again I hit the Holiday button and nailed on my appearance.  The welcome pack arrived in the post along with the release forms. Shortly before filming I was contacted again by the production team to run through my biog.

Its VERY important for you to know at this juncture, that ‘The Chase’ is a TV entertainment show, nothing more, nothing less. This was stressed numerous times. Indeed it was pointed out in the filming contract, that it would be edited. And that edit may not show you in a good light! – And we wouldn’t get paid for filming. Shame.

It’s a good time now to reveal the strategy that I hinted at earlier and discussed at length with the production team, I never mentioned my statistics to them, but explained the strategy as below.

I watched the chase closely. Very closely. In the month prior to filming I often stood right in front of the TV so it seemed the questions were aimed directly at me.  My goal was this.

“to end up in the final chase and take money from the chaser”

That’s it. You get one chance. So, I decided that on the initial questions from Bradley ‘The Cashbuilder’ I would say the first thing that came into my head. If nothing came, I would pass. That way I would run through the maximum number of questions in the allotted 60 seconds. Doing it, suggested I could hit 7-9 questions correct. I targeted 7.

Then comes the offer and the individual chase.

For this, it depended on which position I had been placed. Statistically I got through the individual rounds if placed first. Not always, but most often. - I would, if I was feeling good about myself go high, If I had a ropey cashbuilder; I would stick.

But here’s the rub. The position which I struggled the most was position 4.

I now reiterate that the Chase is an entertainment show….

 If selected in position four, I elected to take the minus offer, however, If there was nothing in the bank or nobody had got through I’d go high. I know you’re thinking; thieving git, but these are the only two offers that make sense from position 4 in my opinion. At that point nobody has won anything, it’s an imaginary number, they don’t own it. All of the winners to date never contribute equal sums to the pot, but invariably in the final chase, will know an answer that one of the others won’t. That my friend, in my opinion at least, is the game.

If by chance I made it to the final chase, my strategy reverted back to the quickfire with a bit more caution. If I had an answer to which I was sure, I’d spit it out. If I wasn’t sure I’d count to two, to give the others chance to chip in, and then buzz to either guess or pass. – That approached served us very well in the audition.

Filming…..

I arrived at my hotel the evening before Filming, as we had a 7am pickup by car. Over a pint in a busy pub cum eating establishment, I looked around, trying to spot any other chase hopefuls. Everybody looked the same! I popped out for a curry walking past what remains of famous Elstree studios. Most of the lot has gone. Flats now stand there on MGM street and stuff like that.

 That evening I revised collective nouns, and as I was a bit weak on stuff like royalty I studied lines of succession. Putting my light out at 11:30pm I slept like a baby. – I woke up every 3 hours crying.

The following morning I joined the other 3 hopefuls, who I found were Dani, Gaynor and Craig. Dani was a right northerner and a shop assistant from Beverly, she was young – early 20s and seemed a bit stilted on conversation with the older folk. Gaynor was a scouser, and a posh one at that – From the Wirral. She was clearly very sharp – There is nobody as acerbic as a posh scouser. Craig was in his mid 30’s I think and a bear of a man, from Sunderland. We warmed to him straight away.

Transported to the BBC studios at Elstree (leased for the ITV production for that series) having got through security, we passed the railway bridge that you see in Eastenders. It’s starting to sink in a bit now, and there wasn’t a great deal of conversation. Which was fine by the producers. Having got up into a room with a whiteboard and some comfy chairs, the production team brought us coffee and a bacon butty. I elected to do the usual business stuff of introductions, which was immediately halted. – Other than our name on a sticker, they didn’t want us to know anything, or discuss an approach to the game. Thus when after 3 hours together we finally got into the studio to film, the introductions and discussion with Bradley, it really was the first time we got to know anything.

We were as they say. Four complete strangers….