Photo: ITV The Chase
English actor, comedian, singer and TV presenter Bradley Walsh is back on set at ITV filming new episodes of The Chase - the beloved and wildly popular quiz show he helped devise.
Kim catches up with the former professional footballer to talk about family, work, and of course, the beautiful game.
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Running since 2009, The Chase has become one of New Zealand’s favourite shows. With three episodes filmed every day, you’d think host Bradley Walsh might be a bit tired of it by now - but think again.
“Well there’s a secret to that,” Bradley says. “If I was doing, I shan’t mention them, but if I was doing other shows, I would be bored out of my brains. But the thing is, two shows are never the same on The Chase.”
He’s been involved in the show since its inception - and over time, it’s become the focus of his work.
“We’ve been running like a smooth operation now for probably eight years. There’s hardly any glitches at all and it’s funny, we have a laugh.
“When I say I haven’t done a standup gig in 17 years, I do a lot of standup on the show, because it’s a bit of improv.”
And while the British quiz show is wildly popular in New Zealand, it seems New Zealand is also popular with the show’s contestants.
“We’ve had a lot of people come on the show wanting to win money to spread their wings, one of the bucket list experiences they want to do is either take a campervan or whatever it may be to New Zealand,” he says.
“Even our executive producer Martin Scott, he went to New Zealand in a campervan and loved it.”
Bradley says he can shoot an entire series of the Chase in 50 days - so what does he do when he’s not in the studio? He hits the road with his son Barney, for their show Breaking Dad, a travel show that’s taken the pair off the beaten track - with Bradley being forced to face his fear of heights at times.
In one episode, the father and son take on a terrifying James Bond-style bungee jump off the Contra Dam in Switzerland - with Bradley pulling out at the last minute.
“The mad thing is Kim, listen to this, back in the day when my father was still alive, before he became a cabbie in London, I used to go to work with my dad and my uncle Louis, who were roofers,” he says.
“So I used to be up ladders on roofs when I was younger, so there was no problem at all.
“I think what happens is, as you get older, your mortality sort of hits you and you think ‘oh I’m not too sure about this’. Like I don’t ride my motorbike anymore, I’ve got a Harley Davidson, I don’t ride it anymore."
Like the contestants on The Chase, it seems Bradley Walsh also longs for our shores.
“On my bucket list is New Zealand and the Cook Islands, that’s a place I’ve never been so I need to come.
“The problem is, at the moment I actually can’t devote five weeks, because if I go for any less than that, I don’t think it’s doing it justice.”
Perhaps a future episode of Breaking Dad then.