Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family host Anne Hegerty has admitted she owes her presenting success to Chase frontman Bradley Walsh.
She even agrees that, as she made the move from quizzer to quiz show host, Brad acted as her unofficial “mentor” – even though he didn’t know it.
Anne exclusively told Entertainment Daily: “I always say the thing about Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family, I’ve been watching the master at work for years.
“Anything that I get right on there is because I’ve been watching how he does it.”
Britain’s Brightest Family host Anne Hegerty on ‘mentor’ Bradley Walsh
The TV star added: “He is absolutely lovely, he’s very much what you see on the show.
“I suppose off stage he’s quieter, he’s generally having conversations on his phone, but he absolutely lovely.
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“Right from the start he’s always been so nice to us and so generous and encouraging.”
So did The Chase host Bradley give Anne any presenting tips ahead of the new series?
“Not really, I think he just congratulated me.
“I haven’t really asked him anything but I’ve just sort of been always thinking, how would Brad do this? How does this work, oh yes, I remember him doing it like that.”
So he’s Anne’s unofficial mentor, then?
“Well, yes!” she exclaimed.
‘Razor Rudduck gets quite flirty’
Tonight’s show (April 22) features the Rudduck family going up against Colin Jackson. And, while Anne won’t give out any spoilers, it appears things did get a little racy on set.
She said: “Razor Rudduck gets quite flirty with me but I don’t know how much of that actually stays in and how much ends up on the cutting room floor.
Read more: Anne Hegerty reveals she struggled during ‘unhappy childhood’
“But I do remember enjoying that and enjoying meeting him,” she laughed.
We’ve bad news for Razor, though, Anne’s heart firmly belongs to The Chase.
Will Anne ever quit The Chase?
She said that, while she loves presenting as it’s nice to get a break from being posed difficult questions, ITV will have to take drastic action if it wants to oust her as one of the Chasers.
“I can’t imagine that happening [Anne quitting].
“I’m with the show till I get fired or it gets cancelled,” she quipped. “And I don’t think I’ve done anything to be fired over.
“On Britain’s Brightest Family it’s nice that everything revolves around me because it’s all about me and that makes a nice change.
“But I do love doing The Chase, it’s my favourite job I’ve ever had. It’s the bread and butter job, it’s the one that pays the rent.
“If I had to choose one job to go on without all the other jobs, it would be The Chase.”
But what if she could combine the two?
“It would be lovely to get a couple of Chasers and their families on Britain’s Brightest Family,” Anne admitted.
“That would be lovely.
“It would probably be nice to have Mark [Labbett] and Jenny [Ryan].
“Mark’s got a couple of brothers and Jenny, when I’m in Manchester, I’ll play in Jenny’s team in Bolton and that includes her mum and her stepdad so I know that her family is not dumb.
“The brains run in her family.”
It’s clear the Chasers all get on well, so were there any concerns when new Chaser Darragh Ennis joined the team?
“We all get on well, we kind of have to,” Anne admits.
“If one of us is having a tough time we circle the wagons and try to be very supportive of one another.
“If one of us is having a spell of losses we all know it could be any one of us it could be happening to, so people want a lot of reassuring.
“We don’t feel threatened by new blood, no.
If one of us is having a tough time we circle the wagons and try to be very supportive of one another.
“There is a set amount of money for paying the Chasers so each of us gets paid per show that we do.
“So if you have the same amount of shows but you add another Chaser then there’s a little bit less for everyone else.
“However, having said that, it could be that the new Chaser actually makes the pie bigger because if the show becomes more successful because everyone likes them we may get more opportunities.
“They may put more shows in, they may increase the amount we get paid,” she explained.
“It was a bit of a risk on their part but Darragh is a lovely bloke.”
Anne gives an update on Paul’s health
On the subject of her fellow Chasers, Anne also revealed that her co-star Paul Sinha is now feeling “much much better”.
He won’t be seen on screen in the upcoming series of Beat The Chasers after being taken ill on the week of filming.
Paul has Parkinson’s disease.
“We always intended to do Beat The Chasers with all six of us and then Paul was suddenly taken ill and they had to rebuild the set,” Anne said.
“And then we went ahead with five of us which was very unfortunate and we did miss Paul, but everything was booked and so that was how we had to do it.
“Paul is way better now, much much better and raring to get back to work. He will certainly be in the new series which we’re filming in July/August I think.
“We’re advertising for new contestants now and Paul will certainly be in that one. It’ll be all six of us on screen.
“We work well as a team and it’s quite fun to see the moments where we don’t work well as a team and Paul buzzes in on something he should have left to Jenny and gets it wrong and Jenny thumps him in the arm,” Anne laughed.
Will there be a new series of Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family?
On the subject of filming, Anne also said she’s back filming The Chase and its celebrity version in July.
Next week Anne’s off to Australia to do The Chase Australia. However, there’s no need to fear she’ll get a taste for life Down Under and stay there.
“I’ve been going out there since 2015 and it’s always nice to be there . But it’s always nice to get home as well,” she said.
“As I say, the main bread and butter is The Chase. But it would be lovely to think we might get another series of Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family too.
“It would be great fun to do.”
Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family airs on Thursdays at 8.30pm on ITV.
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