A doctor and science writer has appeared as a contestant on national television quiz show The Chase.

Dr Sue Pearson from Ickleford featured on the show – hosted by Bradley Walsh – in which contestants play against a professional quizzer known as the ‘chaser’, who attempts to prevent them from winning a cash prize.

A team of four contestants including Sue attempted to amass as much money as possible – added to a prize fund if the contestant survives their individual chase. The chaser’s job is to catch each contestant during their individual chase – thereby eliminating that person from the game and preventing the money from being added to the collective prize fund at the end.

Sue’s chaser was Mark ‘The Beast’ Labbett, who said before they went head-to-head that ‘the odds of you beating me is science fiction’. But he kept answering questions incorrectly in the first half of the programme and had to swallow a large does of humble pie when she banked a cool £7,000. The Beast then told Walsh: “I’ve having a shocker. I’ve got more wrong than I usually do in a whole episode.”

A tweet sent by the official Chase Twitter account said at the time: “Great work Sue, she has made it back safely! Now we have £7k in the bank and a solid contestant back for the final chase.”

His mistakes then saw Sue and her partner scrape through to the final round with a hefty sum of £15,000 – but unfortunately they lost the chance of the jackpot leaving poor Sue with nothing.

However, the good-nature doctor of molecular biology told the Comet: “I went on for a bit of a giggle and was going to use any money I won on some ‘dancing shoes’, but it wasn’t to be!

“I have to say Bradley Walsh was lovely. One of the questions The Beast got wrong was a beach resort called Sandy Lane in Barbados. But my hubby had taken us there for a 25th wedding anniversary present three years ago so luckily I knew the answer.

“Backstage Bradley and I had a good chat about holidays in Barbados as he’s been there too.

“When my team and I were in the green room beforehand the producers fire questions at you to warm you up, and I thought my team were really impressive.

“One lady got everything right. But when she went in front of the cameras she froze and we ended up with nothing. It’s a shame but it was good fun. I love quizzes so I’ll be applying for more!”