New star of The Chase on the importance of getting his first win

The new star of The Chase has said it was important to get a win in his first appearance on the ITV quiz show.

Darragh “The Menace” Ennis, who has become the programme’s sixth Chaser after he initially appeared on the show as a contestant, said it has been “really great” to start working on the programme.

The 40-year-old scientist, who is from Dublin, will now be a regular opponent to the amateur quizzers taking on the challenge.

Discussing getting a win in his first episode, he said: “It’s like Heathrow Terminal Five, when it wasn’t going well the first day, everyone just wrote it off.

“It’s a thing humans do, if something doesn’t work the first time people get a bias against you and they keep that in their mind always, no matter what the evidence afterwards.

“So it was good to get a first win.”

Ennis added that presenter Bradley Walsh was “very friendly” when he came on board.

“He said, ‘Relax, don’t worry about anything, we’ll have a bit of back and forth. You give me a hard time, I’ll give you a hard time, but it’s all just fun. Just go and do your thing’.

“I grew up in a household like that and I have a group of friends at home who are exactly like that.

“We give each other a terrible time, so it’s great.”

He added that his fellow chasers have been “super encouraging”.

“If you have a bad show they are incredibly sympathetic and they help you,” he said.

“It’s a really nice environment that we all work in.

“We all try to help each other out.”

Ennis said his best subject is history, while cricket and popular culture are his weakest areas.

“I stopped paying attention to music around 2005,” he said.