Currently presenting her own game show, The Chase’s Anne Hegerty chats about finding her feet later in life, enjoying solitude and learning from Bradley Walsh.
Fame came late to TV star Anne Hegerty but the taste of success is all the sweeter to her because of it.
Viewers really began to fall in love with Anne (62) after seeing her take part in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2018 when her fellow campmates took her under their wing as she struggled with life in the jungle. Since then, she has become a near national treasure with her dry sense of humour and her encyclopaedic brain.
Anne, aka The Governess on The Chase, says: “I never expected it at my age and I love it. Just that feeling that there is something I can do well, that people actually seem to like. I feel like I’m living the dream,” she said.
Anne is currently on TV presenting the second series of Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family, in which eight celebrity families battle it out in a series of knock- out tournaments, all to win £25,000 for their chosen charity – and the ultimate title. Anne admits she enjoys presenting the show partly because she loves meeting the celebrity guests.
She says: “I’m still sort of awestruck by the celebrities and we always get some really good ones on the show.”
Anne believes that observing The Chase host Bradley Walsh has helped her in her big role on Britain’s Brightest Family. She says: “It’s brilliant being a solo presenter. I’ve been watching Brad for so long; I don’t think I’m all that good, but I’m better than I would be if I didn’t have him to watch and learn from.”
Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family airs on Thursdays at 8.30pm on ITV. Catch up here__.
The Chasers Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles
In this three part series, Anne Hegerty, Mark Labbett and Shaun Wallace - three of the biggest brains of the quizzing universe - have escaped the confines of The Chase studio to embark on an adventure like no other.
Throughout the series, they're pitting their wits against extraordinary competition as they try to answer the age old question 'Are we really as smart as we think we are?'
To find the answers, The Chasers Road Trip follows the three titans of trivia as they travel the globe to take on child geniuses, great apes, and the latest AI and robot technology.
The show is narrated by Rob Brydon, comedian, actor, and star of Gavin and Stacey.
Speaking about what intelligence means on the show, Anne Hegerty said: “Intelligence is being able to figure stuff out, and being able to get my head around a new situation.
"It might well be argued that is something I have trouble with. I think I'm a better quizzer because I'm autistic. I think autism makes it easier for me to remember stuff."
Beat the Chasers is set to return
While Anne is best known for the ITV show The Chase, a new spin-off series called Beat the Chasers, which saw individuals go against a team of Chasers, has recently proved a great hit. And now Anne has revealed it's expected to return.
She said "we're definitely looking to do more as soon as we can."
She thinks Bradley Walsh works too hard
Chase star Anne Hergerty loves the time she spends working with her fellow Chasers and host of the show, Bradley Walsh, with whom she says a great relationship. Speaking exclusively to Yours, Anne said about Bradley: “What you see on screen is exactly what he’s really like. And right from the start he’s been so generous to all of us Chasers.”
Despite their sparky repartee on the show, which often sees Anne put Bradley in his place with a withering put-down, or him trying to crack her stony façade with his cheeky-chappy chuckle, off set it’s obvious that the pair get on like a house on fire. “I’m always kind of in awe of Brad. I think he’s such a professional and absolutely delightful. I admire him enormously.”
However, she does worry about his hectic schedule.
“I once said to Brad that I worry so much that he works too hard and I’m afraid he’ll have a heart attack. And he just went ‘oh but I love it.’ I believe he’s described the show as his pension so I’d like to think he’ll never leave. And I don’t think us Chasers will be going anywhere either as we love it.”
The Chasers are all pals
Anne is good friends with all the chasers, in particular, fellow chaser Mark Labbett. She is godmother to Mark’s son Laurie who is almost three. Away from the show, Paul Sinha is her quizzing pairs partner.
She says: “We all get on very well with each other. Jenny is my Monday night team captain in the Bolton Premier Quiz League and Shaun (Wallace) is lovely. He’s the nicest of all of us."
Anne has Asperger's syndrome
Anne wasn’t diagnosed with Asperger's, a form of autism (more information about autism including Asperger's on the NHS here), which can affect a person's social interaction, communication, interests and behaviour, until the age of 45 when she recognised her symptoms on a TV programme.
Anne, who bravely revealed her condition when she was in the Australian jungle in last year’s, I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, says she is still amazed by the support she has received from the public.
She told Yours: “My thought processes are slower than most people’s. If you present me with a situation, I am going to need time to get my head around it.” She explains that she has to fully imagine herself completing a task before she actually does it or else it can throw her off.
She recently revealed on an episode of 'The Chase' that she also suffers from prosopagnosia which means she cannot recognise people's faces.
Before eliminating the first contestant, the Governess revealed her condition.
Anne commented: "Not being able to recognise faces is called prosopagnosia. I know that because I have it.
"But I don't need to recognise your face because you're out of here."
Anne enjoys being alone
Despite what you may have heard, Anne doesn't have a husband, and she's revealed that in the past she has struggled with dating due to her condition, confessing: “It’s not really my lifestyle.
“It’s really nice, but I am not interested in relationships. I know I can’t really sustain them. I can’t bear that level of emotional intimacy for a sustained period. I remember a charity that was aiming to tackle loneliness, contacting me through my agent saying, ‘Anne has spoken so movingly of her struggles with loneliness’. And I thought, ‘No, I haven’t, I have spoken about how I love being alone’.
“I enjoy solitude. A lot of people just misunderstand it. They think, you know, I’m on my own, and therefore I have to be lonely. I think I’ve said things like when I was a child, I didn’t know how to make friends. And that’s true. But what I should have added is, I also didn’t quite understand why I was expected to need friends.”
In a different interview Anne revealed if she does find love, she would rather not date someone else with autism.
"I think I would prefer not to be with someone with autism. It does depend on the bloke though, they are all so different."
She still laughs about Fanny Chmelar
Remember this hysterical moment on The Chase? It still tickles Anne now and has led to the producers setting up more jokes for her.
“Ever since a certain incident when Brad and I got completely stitched up by the question setters they’ve obviously decided it’s worth their while trying to make me giggle. I do try very hard to keep it together and don’t consider myself a tremendous corpser, but on that one incident I really did finally lose it.”
The Governess is an act
Anne's character in The Chase is The Governess but she insists it is an act and very different to her real personality.
She told Yours: “My transformation into the Governess doesn’t start on set, but when I’m being made up backstage. Especially when the lipstick goes on as I would normally never wear that shade of red. Then with my hair done and the costume on, I look in the mirror and I’m like ‘oh yes, there she is!’ And suddenly I start to sound like the Governess.”
Life was hard for her before The Chase
Before her big TV break, Anne admits she struggled with debt. At rock bottom, she was a freelance copy writer with very little work. She was so broke she was using vouchers to buy basic food. Her hobby was doing quizzes and quiz shows and she was on the quizzing circuit, appearing on Mastermind in 1987 with the specialist subject of songwriter Lorenz Hart.
Then in 2009 along came The Chase. She recalls: “I got involved in the programme through Jane Allen, who runs the British Quiz Association. After the first pilot series had been broadcast Jane said to me, ‘What do you think about being a Chaser? They need a woman’. I just went: ‘Yes!’ I understood there had to be a bit of an act there and I could do the personality.”
Anne is so grateful for The Chase
“Being part of The Chase has taken me to Australia, we’ve won a National Television Award and I’ve done things like Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Tonight at the London Palladium, which I think Brad had a big hand in," she told Yours.
So what does she think is the appeal of The Chase?
“I think first of all it’s the solid format, with the three-way question master, contestant and the snooty person sitting at the top trying to destroy their hopes and dreams. And of course Bradley who’s a superb host.”
Quick facts about The Chase
The series started in 2009.
Three hour-long episodes of The Chase are filmed back-to-back each day, with each episode taking around two hours to record.
With a regular audience of three to five million, it’s one of ITV's most successful daytime shows ever.
Regional versions have been made in Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and the United States. Chasers Mark Labbett and Anne both feature as chasers on the Australian version.