Back in 2015 I applied to go on the chase. I didn't get a call back until 2017, by which point I'd almost forgotten I'd applied. They asked me ten quiz questions over the phone and I think I answered eight correctly (I remember getting one about the winter equinox wrong). After that, I was invited to an in-person audition at a hotel in Cambridge. The audition was with five other people, and we stood in front of a table of people which included two producers and an assistant. One of the producers looked like Barry Shitpeas from Screenwipe, I'm sure it was him.
One-by-one we had to answer questions about ourselves. When it got to my turn, they read out something from my original application where I'd said I would spend the prize money on "Fast women and slow horses". I couldn't remember writing that, but I probably did it because I never thought I'd get a call back.
We then sat down for quiz where we took it in turns to answer multiple choice questions on a flip-chart; they seemed more interested in the reasons we gave for picking the answers, than whether the answers were right or wrong. I clued onto this, and so on one question about species of penguins they asked me why I picked 'B' and I replied "I wasn't sure so I just went straight down the middle". This wasn't true, I knew the answer, but they seemed to love it.
Finally, we were split into two teams of three. The two I was with were crap; one was a woman in her 60s who was incredibly annoying, the other was a nice Ghanaian bloke who had 14 kids. We simulated the 'Final Chase' and it was filmed. At first, I didn't chime in with any answers - partly due to politeness, but mainly because this woman kept blurting things out. She was getting them wrong, and the other guy had just frozen, so I thought fuck it and went on a quiz rampage.
Managed to get a good amount right but it wasn't enough to beat the other team's score. I also swore when I got a question wrong: the question was "Who ran the Bank of Cuba from 1960-something to some other date" - I should've known it was Che Guevara because I'd read his diaries, but I tried to be too clever and said it was Fidel's brother, Raul. Gave it a big "Bollocks!" when told it was Che and thought that was it for my chances of getting selected.
At the end, we all went back into the waiting room. The assistant came in and asked four people, except for me and annoying lady, to follow her into another room. The other producer (not Barry Shitpeas) then came in and told me and the lady that we had been selected for the Chase. The lady squealed in delight. Now, I can't impress enough just how shit she was at the questions, so clearly they thought her stupidity and annoying nature would make for good TV.
In the end, I never turned up on filming day. I was supposed to be at Elstree studios for 7am on a Sunday, which meant getting up at 4am, and I just said to my girlfriend (now wife) when I woke up "Fuck it, I can't be arsed". It was October, it was dark, it was cold. I was only interested in taking on a Chaser and trying to make some money, but in the lead up to filming day they made it more about the television aspect of it - what to wear, who I could and couldn't tell, how exciting it would be to see how a TV show is made.... just sucked the fun out of it.
They even said that there was no guarantee our episode would even be shown. Apparently this isn't uncommon. I've known two people who also appeared, and one of them didn't have her episode shown because it turned out that one of her team mates went on trial for a serious crime after recording, so they binned the episode. The other girl I know, she was told by the producers to pick the lower offer, even though she didn't want to (she is very, very good at trivia), just to create some TV drama. That was also in the back of my mind when I decided that morning to sack it off.
Anyway, sorry for the long story; just thought it might give some insight into how stupid people end up on quiz shows, or even how people are made to look like arseholes on them.
