Oh no! That must be our brand new Chaser. It’s the Spectral Specimen himself – “The Ghost” Irmin Visible!
Here we have some work from way back in July – an attempted recreation of ITV’s The Chase for another Pacdude Games collab. Unfortunately, the project hit the buffers as we struggled to find a way to properly implement graphics for the show’s final round, meaning these are semi-complete at best. The set is complete, though, so this is going up.
Perhaps TV’s most ubiquitous quiz show, The Chase started quietly in summer 2009, just a short while before long-time rival Pointless reared its head on BBC Two. In the show, a team of four take it in turns to pit their wits against a ruthless quiz genius – The Chaser – with the winners progressing to the final round, where they work as a team to try and defeat the massive geek one more time.
Why ubiquitous, I hear you ask? Well, at some point in the mid-2010s it seems that The Chase rather took off, soaring ahead of Pointless – much to Richard Osman’s dismay, I’m sure – and becoming one of ITV’s biggest shows. This meant other programmes were elbowed out of the way to make way for Chase repeats. As well as the weekdaily showings, it would appear at weekends. During the morning. Celebrity spin-offs. Family spin-offs. And none of this is to mention Challenge often showing nothing but The Chase reruns all day long. While over two thousand episodes have been made, there must be a similar number of showings every year, factoring in all those repeats. And still people go nuts on Twitter whenever, heaven forbid, ITV have the audacity to try a new quiz in the 5pm slot.
Of course, there’s a reason for all of that; the format is very strong and holds up exceptionally well. The final round is probably one of the best of any quiz format, regularly delivering on tension and drama. The Chasers themselves are generally entertaining and likeable – much more than the Eggheads – and more than happy to play up to their perceived persona; as such, there are times where you’re rooting for them. Originally, there were only two Chasers; now, there are six of them – another way in which the show remains fresh.
The lynchpin, though, is surely Bradley Walsh, who is one of the best presenters on TV and superb at both encouraging the contestants and needling the Chasers. It would likely be quite a dry show without him. I don’t really watch it very often, but make a point of catching the Christmas blooper special as he’s bound to make you laugh, either by fluffing his lines or just losing it over a ridiculous question.
Here’s one notable example of that aforementioned final round, where only Judith made it through and still managed to rack up a score of 20 for the Chaser to try and match.
jaywalks 