Who Are the Chasers on The Chase? All Six, Their Nicknames and Join Years, 2009–2020

Week of 12 October 2026 — The Chase is on ITV1 at 5pm every weekday from Monday 12 to Friday 16 October. At the weekend ITV's guide has it at 6.30pm on Saturday 17 and 5.30pm on Sunday 18 October. Beat the Chasers is listed at 9pm on Friday 16 October. ITV doesn't label episodes as new or repeated and we didn't re-read the series numbers this week. Checked on Tuesday 13 October against ITV's own TV guide, day by day.

The gist: The Chase has six Chasers: Mark Labbett (The Beast), Shaun Wallace (The Dark Destroyer), Anne Hegerty (The Governess), Paul Sinha (The Sinnerman), Jenny Ryan (The Vixen) and Darragh Ennis (The Menace). All six came back for series 19, which started on ITV1 on 7 September 2026.

Only one of them turns up in any given episode. Bradley Walsh brings the Chaser out after the first cash builder, and that face decides how the next 40-odd minutes feel to four contestants at home and in the studio.

The line-up hasn't changed in six years. Darragh Ennis was the last to join, in 2020, and nobody has left since the show began in June 2009.

Who are the six Chasers on The Chase?

Here's the full roster, oldest first. The last column is our own count of how many years each has been part of the show as of 2026.

Add those up and the six have 82 years on the show between them. Two were there on day one; the other four arrived one at a time over the next 11 years.

Where did each Chaser come from?

Mark Labbett, The Beast

One of the two originals. The nickname works twice over: it's about his size, and "Labbett" sounds a lot like the French la bête.

Shaun Wallace, The Dark Destroyer

A barrister who won Mastermind in 2004, with FA Cup Finals as his specialist subject in the final. He's been chasing since 2009.

Anne Hegerty, The Governess

A professional quizzer from Manchester who joined in 2010. She was ranked 40th at the 2014 World Quizzing Championships, the second-highest woman in the field that year.

Paul Sinha, The Sinnerman

A qualified GP who became a stand-up comedian, then a Chaser in 2011.

Jenny Ryan, The Vixen

Before she sat in the chair, she wrote the questions. Ryan wrote for Fifteen to One and The Weakest Link, and worked on the very first episode of The Chase in 2009. She also won Only Connect in 2010 with a team called The Gamblers, a show we cover in our Only Connect guide.

Darragh Ennis, The Menace

The only Chaser who started on the other side of the board. Ennis played The Chase as a contestant in 2017, got his team to the final almost alone and won, while working at a university. ITV brought him back as a Chaser in 2020.

Who's the newest Chaser, and has anyone left?

Darragh Ennis is the newest, and he's been there since 2020. Nobody has left the programme permanently, so the six you'll see in series 19 are the same six who've done every series this decade.

That matters if you're trying to work out whether an episode is new. A Chaser line-up won't tell you, because the repeats use the same people. Our How to Watch The Chase guide shows how to spot a series number on ITVX instead.

What does the Chaser actually do in each round?

Three things, in order. After each contestant's 60-second cash builder, where every right answer is worth £1,000, the Chaser plays them one-on-one down a board.

In that head-to-head, the contestant picks one of three offers. Taking the higher one starts them a step closer to the Chaser; taking the lower one gives them an extra step of breathing room. Get caught and you're out.

Then comes the final chase. Whoever survives gets two minutes to build a lead, starting one step up for each player still standing. The Chaser then has two minutes to catch that total. Each time the Chaser gets one wrong, the team can answer it themselves and push the Chaser back a step. Walsh has said he reads the questions at the same speed for both sides.

Where else can you see the Chasers?

This summer ITV put all six on the road for The Chase Around The World, also hosted by Walsh. Six pairs of players had to track the Chasers down in secret locations, solving puzzles as they went, to build a prize pot.

The bigger spin-off is Beat the Chasers, the prime-time version where one contestant takes on several Chasers at once. New episodes aren't close. TV Zone UK reports series 8 has slipped from 2026 to what looks like early 2027, and ITV says scheduling will be "confirmed closer to transmission". The Friday 9pm episodes on ITV1 right now are older runs, which we explain in our piece on ITV1's afternoon repeats.

Can I play against a Chaser?

Yes, if you apply and ITV picks you. Our guide to applying for The Chase covers who can enter and where the form lives, plus five other UK quizzes that take applications.

If you'd rather watch than play, the rest of ITV1's teatime block is in our Tipping Point times guide. Over on BBC One, Pointless follows at 5.15pm, and the full weekday line-up is in which quiz shows are on each weekday. Everything we've written about the show sits under The Chase.

Some of the Chasers' quiz CVs run through BBC Two, too: Mastermind and Only Connect share a Monday night slot, laid out in our Monday night quiz guide. And when ITV1 moves on to the soaps at 8pm, our sister site has which soaps are on which nights.

FAQ

How many Chasers are there on The Chase?

Six: Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan and Darragh Ennis. One of them appears in each episode.

Who has been a Chaser the longest?

Mark Labbett and Shaun Wallace, who have both been on the show since it started in 2009.

Which Chaser was a contestant first?

Darragh Ennis. He won as a contestant in 2017 and became The Menace in 2020.

Sources

• TV Zone UK: The Chase series 19 preview (all six Chasers return; Beat the Chasers series 8 timing; The Chase Around The World)
• Wikipedia: The Chase (British game show) (join years, round format)
• Wikipedia: Shaun Wallace and Anne Hegerty
• The Irish News: Darragh Ennis on becoming The Menace
• ITV's TV guide, ITV1 listings for 28 September to 2 October 2026 (checked 26 September)

By the UK Quiz On Air desk · Updated 13 October, 10.26am BST