Horncastle lecturer 'chases' high total in ITV quiz show

​Sunny Dhillon was seen on ITV’s The Chase just before Christmas, and lovingly described our beloved market town – which host Bradley Walsh said had never heard of!

Sunny, a university lecturer in education and philosophy at Bishop Grosseteste University, said that he had applied for the show back in April 2020 and had completely forgotten all about it until he got the call last year, and after passing an interview and video audition, was asked to appear on the show:

"I went down to Elstree Studios in February and they were filming The Crown at the same time – it was bizarre to see people just walking around in all these costumes!” he said.

Being a fan of pub quizzes, Sunny said the scary part wasn’t the questions, but more so being on camera and the experience of filming under the bright studio lights.

"It was really hard because they tell you to sit still and not fidget and were reapplying powder every interval, and all the lights and music make it quite an intimidating atmosphere.”

When Bradley asked Sunny what he would spend his prize money on if he won, Sunny said that he bought a car in September but as it “makes more warning sounds than Spaceship Enterprise” he would buy a new one.

Sunny managed to bank £5,000 in his first round, before going up against Chaser Shaun Wallace, The ‘Dark Destroyer’ and winning, adding £15,000 to the prize pot.

He then helped the two remaining contestants to log 17 correct answers to give The Dark Destroyer a tall order to win, and he got ten correct answers in a row before getting questions on religion and history wrong, which Sunny and the contestants got right, pushing him back.

But ultimately, The Dark Destroyer did get 18 answers right in the allotted time and the chase was over, but Shaun did praise their teamwork and said they did really well.

Sunny said that Bradley Walsh was also as friendly and eccentric in real life as he seems on TV and would chat with contestants between takes, as would Shaun Wallace.

But although he enjoyed his experience, Sunny said he wouldn’t apply to be on a TV quiz again:

"The experience was great but by the time I got into a flow of answering questions it was over, I have lots of respect for people who do live TV as well, even something like scratching your nose….it makes you self conscious and you couldn’t be yourself.

"I had an interesting look into that world and it’s not for me, but even if someone got questions wrong they were such noble losers which really suits the British spirit.”

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