Anne Hegerty has revealed the inspiration behind her character of The Governess on The Chase – and it was two female family members she didn’t get on with.
The quiz aficionado, 63, appears on the popular ITV quiz show as The Governess, a strict taskmaster who puts the contestants through their paces as they take her on on the show.
However, Anne was inspired by two women she grew up with – and didn’t much like – to take on the buttoned-up persona on the show.
She told The Sun that her mother’s side of the family was ‘very feminist’ and one of the inspirations for the character was her grandmother, whose own mother had campaigned for votes for women before the Suffragette movement.
Anne explained: ‘Two of [her] daughters went to university, my great aunt became a doctor and my grandmother studied history.
‘I didn’t get on at all well with my grandmother but I sort of channel her a bit for The Governess.
‘It’s her and one of my aunts who I also didn’t get on with. My inspiration is two women I didn’t like. You can make use of women you don’t like.’
Anne’s persona on the show often gets nicknamed Ol’ Frosty Knickers by host Bradley Walsh, but the lady herself is more than game for a laugh.
She was even supportive of a fan dressing up as The Governess for Halloween last year, complete with the stuffy grey suit and pussy-bow blouse, and a cardboard Chase ‘board’ as he sat at the top of his stairs bathed in red light.
Captioning the photos: ’Happy Halloween to everyone except those who take the low offer,’ it soon sparked a response from Anne, who shared it along with crying laughing emoji.
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