{"title":"Tony Dunn Interview The Chase TV Show","description":"I was a contestant on The Chase - Tony Dunn appeared on the ITV quiz show in 2019 and says the response from viewers was not what he was expecting","custom_path":"/en-gb/pages/the-chase-tv-show-tony-dunn","heading":"","heading_tag":"h1","nofollow":false,"noindex":false,"has_custom_schema":false,"schema_json":null,"has_toc":false,"alternate_languages":[],"copy_sections":[{"toc_title":"","title":"","content":"\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eWhat made you apply for The Chase?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eMy wife and I used to watch The Chase at home together in the evenings, and I've always enjoyed quizzes. One day, when they flashed up the message at the end asking if anyone wanted to apply to be on the show, I thought, 'Why not?' So I followed the link and put in an application.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eWere you confident in your general knowledge before going on?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eI felt like I was reasonably good. I've always enjoyed pub quizzes and things like that, so I was fairly confident I could hold my own. I wasn't expecting to beat the Chasers or anything, but I thought I knew enough not to make an idiot of myself.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eWhat was the application process like?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eLong! Between applying and the show airing was almost five years. I filled out an application form and then about nine months later, I was invited for an audition. I was in a room with 20 or so other people. You have to do a piece to camera explaining why you want to be on the show, which they film. Then there are a couple of quiz games, but they’re not exactly the same as the ones on the show. And you're also split into teams to take part in some group quizzes. It was a really enjoyable day. After that, it went a bit cold, and then a few years later, they got in touch and asked me to be on the show. My episode aired in 2019, which was about nine months after filming. So as I said, a lengthy process!\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eIs there something secret they’re looking for?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eYes. I figured it out during the auditions. They ask what you’d do with the money and some people in the room were playing it pretty straight, insisting they’d go on a nice holiday. I realised they wanted more humour. Something fun that the host Bradley could work with and have some fun with. At the time, I was living in a block of flats, so I joked that if I won the money, I was going to build a pétanque court in the communal garden. I'd get some gravel and a few railway sleepers and recreate the one I'd played on during a holiday in France with a group of old men.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eHow much revision did you do beforehand?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eQuite a lot. Once I found out I was going on, I had a few months to prepare. I had a big Chase quiz book at home, so I’d work through the questions from that. I’d also get my wife to time me for a minute, doing the kind of quick-fire questions you get in the Cash Builder or Final Chase, just to see how many I could answer under pressure. I did a bit of extra research too. I tried to remember things like my kings and queens, and other facts that come up regularly in quizzes and are worth revising. Although I’m not sure any of that actually came up in the end!\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eIs there anything about the filming process that really surprised you?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eIt’s just so much more intense than watching from home. It's a very strange experience. Obviously, you're playing for money, which is exciting, but that wasn't really the main thing for me. It was more like stepping inside your television, walking onto a set that you've watched hundreds of times and suddenly finding yourself part of it. The scale is incredible. The numbers go all the way around the walls, and although some things look slightly different or a bit smaller than you expect, the whole thing feels incredibly surreal. Then you've got the Chasers and Bradley Walsh there, and it all suddenly feels very real. I was so nervous. It took a lot of mental effort just to stay calm and focus because I've never experienced anything quite like it. You're in this environment that is so intense, and the adrenaline really kicks in.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eAnything that viewers didn’t see?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eDuring the ad breaks, junior runners or members of the production team would come over, offer you water and ask things like, 'What did you think of that?' I got the sense they’d been told to keep you talking and help you stay relaxed, almost to stop you from panicking. But I actually found it a bit much. I was thinking, 'Just leave me alone!' I would have preferred to have that quiet moment to myself. Your teammates are there, but I would have rather just been left alone to take it all in and enjoy the fact that I was actually on The Chase. I think I would have preferred that time for a bit of quiet reflection.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eWhat was host Bradley Walsh like off camera?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eHe's a complete pro. You don't really see him that much outside of the filming itself, as he's kind of in and out, but he was very comfortable and professional. I remember one of the ladies who was on with me was a bit older, and after her Cash Builder had finished, while she was making her way over to the table, he said to her, 'I can tell you're incredibly nervous, so just take a minute to breathe. It’s easier up here.' That was off camera, and he took the time to help her settle down. I thought he came across as a consummate professional.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eDid you have any interactions with Bradley that viewers didn’t see?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eNo, not really. I think, in some ways, rather than the quizzing, the part I was most nervous about was how the chat would come across. I felt quite awkward and stilted, and it was difficult to be a relaxed version of yourself when you know you're being filmed.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eWhat reaction did you get from viewers?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eThat was certainly interesting! I knew I was nervous on the day, but no one mentioned how that might be coming across on camera. Almost a year passed between filming and the episode airing, and once it was on TV, people started commenting on how intense my stare was and how wide my eyes looked! I had to laugh about it.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eHow did you react to that?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eThankfully I’m in my forties now, so I can laugh it off. My wife was a bit defensive on my behalf, but honestly, I can see the funny side! I didn’t stay in touch with any of the other contestants, but I think Anna, the other girl who was on with me, got quite a lot of attention afterwards. She made a few of those quiz mistakes, like buzzing in and passing questions where she probably could have guessed, and people were quite mean about it online. I imagine that probably wasn’t very nice for her.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eDid the team behind The Chase warn you about this kind of viewer response?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eYeah, they did. They tell you to make your Twitter account private, and they go back through all your old tweets and things like that.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eYou didn’t stay in touch with your team, but did you spend much time together before the filming started?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eYou spend hours together throughout the day. You arrive and meet the other contestants in reception, and then you're taken to a sort of dressing room area where you all spend time together. It does become quite a bonding experience because you're all going through this slightly mad and unusual thing together. From arriving to the show actually being filmed, you’re probably with them for four or five hours, so you naturally get to know each other and spend a lot of time in their company.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eAny rules regarding filming that surprised you?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eThere was a rule I didn’t fully appreciate until I was actually playing. When you’re at the table, if neither you nor the Chaser presses, the question can sit there for 20 or 30 seconds while you’re both thinking. But as soon as one person presses their button, the other person is suddenly on a countdown. I hadn’t realised that before playing because, as a viewer, it looks like you just have a set amount of time to answer from the moment the question appears. In reality, once the Chaser presses, you see a countdown on a screen facing you that goes five, four, three, two and one, and you have to press your button before it runs out. You can’t see any of that happening when you’re watching at home, so it was interesting to discover how it actually works.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eHow did you and the team do overall?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eOur first player scored £7,000 in the Cash Builder, but unfortunately didn’t get back to the team. She might actually have been our strongest player. The second player scored £5,000 and made it back, the third scored £6,000 and made it back, and then I scored £6,000 and got through too. So we went into the Final Chase playing for £17,000 between the three of us who made it through. In the Final Chase, we didn’t perform as well as we’d hoped. We managed to get 16 steps on the board, and the Chaser made quite a few mistakes, which gave us seven opportunities to push back. Unfortunately, we only managed to take one of those seven chances, and we were caught with just four seconds remaining. So none of us came away with any money.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eWho was the Chaser?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eIt was Jenny Ryan. She was very pleasant on camera, and afterwards I ended up going on Lucy Porter and Jenny Ryan’s podcast, Fingers on Buzzers. Through mutual friends I know from doing comedy and other projects, I knew the producer of the podcast, and they suggested I come on. We talked about the episode, and I got to hear Jenny’s perspective on it and what she remembered. Obviously, it’s probably harder for the Chasers to remember individual episodes because they’re doing so many of them and just moving from one to the next.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eHow long did the episode take to film?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eAbout an hour from start to finish. It’s basically the length of an actual episode. They’re pros at it.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3 class=\"bvs-h3\" style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eWhat advice would you give to anyone wanting to go on?\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp style=\"margin-left:0cm;\"\u003eDo it, 100%; it’s a great experience. My main advice would just be to try and look normal, ha. Something that also worked for me was getting someone to shine a light in my face, time me answering questions, and see how many I could get right. Then just do a lot of that practice, because even when you’re nervous, that muscle memory starts to kick in. I was very nervous on the day, but when the questions started coming at me, my brain almost knew what to do. The practice took over, and I found myself just getting on with answering them. That was my experience.\u003c/p\u003e"}]}