Anne Hegerty literally landed her job on The Chase after fighting off muggers: ‘She realised you need to be quite tough’Adam MillerEntertainment – Metro

Don’t mess with Anne (Picture: ITV)

Anne Hegerty landed her job on The Chase after fighting off a pack of vile muggers.

The Governess, 63, has been on The Chase since it launched in 2010 with the show just going from strength to strength, winning a Bafta last month and launching spin-off Beat The Chasers.

Shaun Wallace and Mark Labbett were both cast as Chasers first, but ITV producer Sue Allison has revealed it was very important to her the third quizmaster would be a woman.

After searching far and wide, Sue received an eye-catching letter from a quiz champion who insisted she was strong both physically and mentally. It was the perfect draw.

And that quiz master was Anne.

Appearing on podcast TV Show and Tell, Sue said: ‘For the series I really wanted the third chaser to be a woman, a strong woman who could hold her own and could be completely herself.

Honestly, what a hun (Picture: Getty)

‘That was quite a hard task. We saw quite a lot of people. There were really good quizzers on the circuit, that was the most important thing first and foremost.

‘The people that we met were quite often great quizzers but they were just a bit too nice.’

And then came Anne, who, even on paper, jumped out as a tour de force.

The Chase won another Bafta this year (Picture: Getty Images)

‘When we got a letter from Anne, she wrote into the team and said something like she “realised what kind of character you needed to be” because she’d seen the pilot series.

‘And she realised you needed to be quite tough, and she had once chased off a couple of muggers.

‘I remember getting this letter and thinking, “Come on, be as good as you sound” and she was.’

And the rest is history.

Anne was recently forced to drop out of the latest series of Beat The Chasers after catching Covid and was replaced by Australian Chaser Issa Schultz.

Thankfully, she made a speedy recovery and will be back for the next series of Beat The Chasers and The Chase.

The Chase airs weekdays at 5pm on ITV.

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