The secrets of The Chase revealed – former contestant reveals producers choose what you wear and more
MILLIONS of us tune in to ITV every weeknight to watch The Chase, but what really goes on behind the scenes?
We spoke to former contestant Marco Spiro, 25, from London, who appeared on the popular quiz show in March 2015.
Marco, an accountant, told how he had actually applied to take part three-and-a-half YEARS prior to getting the call.
He explained: "I applied on my gap year in 2010. I went along to an interview day where they did a few tests and a few group exercises.
"I heard nothing about it; I used to get periodic emails, probably once a year, saying I was still on their database for as and when a slot became available, but I thought nothing of it. I thought it had been too long.
"Then about two weeks before my final exam at university I got a call out of the blue asking if I wanted to come down, as they had a slot on this day which was actually the day before my final exam. But I was like, yeah, why not."
Marco's episode was filmed in May 2014, and eventually aired on March 10, 2015.
Speaking about his decision to apply, Marco admitted that he was lured by the short application form.
"Normally you’ve got to put in so much about yourself," he said. "This one was literally your name, date of birth, your age and your availability. I did that and got asked to go in fairly soon after."
Marco attended an interview day in north London.
He recalled: "They did a quiz and a mock-up of the show, a vague couple of exercises on that to see how you interacted with the team.
"There were about 15 to 20 people there. Some got called in for a second round and some got asked to go home.
"I think they look for people who are relaxed and chilled out on screen. The Chase is quite an interactive show, it's more about the people on it than the actual questions.
"We had to be there at 5:30am, so I drove down from uni in Bristol at 3:30am to Watford, where they film it.
"It was really weird because there’s no audience, so it’s really quiet and the studio is much smaller than it seems on the telly."
Marco explained that he was told not to wear any branded clothes and asked to bring three shirts and three pairs of trousers.
"You give them to their personal dresser, and they pick what you actually wear," he said.
"They also gave you travel expenses - they do the statutory mileage allowance - so I got 45p per mile. It was about £75 for my drive from Bristol."
After a bacon roll and a coffee in the green room, Marco told how he and his teammates were taken onto the set, where they met host Bradley Walsh for the first time.
Marco recalled: "He was really friendly, he’s pretty much as he seems on the show.
"You talk to him for five or 10 minutes before the filming starts. He’s a big Arsenal fan, and so am I, so we had that common ground initially."
Marco admitted that he and his fellow competitors had no idea which of the Chasers they would face.
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"That’s the one thing they keep completely secret," he said.
"I don’t know where the Chaser dressing room is or anything. Until they walk out onto the stage you don’t have a clue.
"What really shocked me was when the Chaser – Anne Hegarty – got a really easy question wrong.
"I’m not sure whether she was told to get it wrong, I can’t imagine that she would be, but the question was, 'Carl of Denmark puts his name to what beer?'
"I just think that’s off the bat, really, really easy – even people I’ve spoken to who don’t drink beer, you think, ‘Carl, Carlsberg’. But she said Kronenburg. But in the heat of the moment, you don’t know."
Marco said the filming itself takes three hours - they film three episodes a day - with much of the "chatting" edited out.
During the show he notched up £2,000 in his cash builder round and took the lower offer of £1,000 – the higher was £40,000.
"I went for the lower as I thought something was better than nothing. To be fair if I’d had gone for the middle offer I wouldn’t have got back, because the questions in that round against the Chaser were also really hard.
"The people that I was on with were pretty clever – I think they aim for one in five wins, otherwise they’d have people saying it wasn’t fair."
He and one other contestant got through to the final chase and managed to beat The Governess, taking home £4,500 each - though it took the production crew two months to pay up.
"I took a few mates to Portugal on holiday and saved the rest," said Marco.
For people wanting to apply for The Chase, he suggested: "Be lively. Ultimately they want lively people because that makes good telly.
"You very rarely watch it and think bloody hell that guy’s boring. Just be calm, treat it as you’re sat in the pub doing a quiz."
The Sun has reached out to ITV for comment.
Last year we told how Anne Hegarty "doesn’t care" when trolls make cruel vibes about her image.
