The Chase’s new “Vixen” chaser wants to face off against Pointless rivals
New quiz whiz Jenny Ryan is excited about beating The Chase contestants and fancies a match up with a certain Richard Osman…
The Chase has got itself a sassy new chaser in the form of Jenny “The Vixen’” Ryan and she’s already got some ideas for stirring things up: ITV’s chasers take on BBC’s Pointless.
“Pointless is one I’d absolutely love to go on, even though they’re our big rival,” Ryan, who’s already earned the name ‘The Bolton Brainiac’ from host Bradley Walsh, told RadioTimes.com. “If they would have the chasers over, I would absolutely love to do it. We could do it for charity. I’m sure ITV would let us do it for Sport Relief or something like that.”
In fact, Ryan, 33, admits that had she not got the job on The Chase - which saw the quiz lover go through around nine months of tests, screen tests and more tests - she was going to apply to be on Pointless as a contestant. “We’d walk it,” Ryan said of her and her step dad, promising that their differing areas of expertise would make them a “dream team”.
Ryan’s got fighting talk for the Pointless team if they fancy a go on The Chase however; in particular the show’s co-host Richard Osman.
“I’d love it if I could face off against the Eggheads. Or someone like Richard Osman could come on and test his knowledge, for sure,” said Ryan when I asked if she’d be keen to film a celebrity special.
“[Osman] sits behind his desk with his little computer and he thinks he’s super brainy, but he’s got all the information in front of him…” she added with what I can only imagine was a teasing vixen-style smile, a flick of her stunning red hair (we were talking on the phone...).
I point out that the laptop is actually a prop, but it doesn’t faze Ryan. She's got plenty of her own quiz show experience - 15 to 1, Weakest Link, Only Connect - and before becoming a chaser was a quiz show question writer. In fact, she wrote for a rather fitting show.
“I actually worked on the pilot of The Chase and wrote the questions on it,” Ryan revealed. Not that this will help her out once she’s in front of the contestants, she insisted.
“All the questions I wrote have long since been used. If I could remember every question I ever wrote I’d be the world quiz champion,” she laughed, which is interesting given a world quizzing champion, Olav Bjortomt, is actually one of the question writers on the show.
Of course Jenny, who actually gets to boss The Chase's Governess Anne Hegerty around in her own quiz team, is excited about taking on the show's eager contestants.
"I’ve been on my fair share of quiz shows so I’m very empathetic with the contestants and I know exactly how they feel. I’m trying to strike a balance between being nice to them - where they deserve it - and also realise it’s my job to crush them. Crush their hopes and dreams, their trip to Las Vegas or Australia, it’s gone I’m afraid because I’m better than them..."
