The Chaser, known as the Menace on the hit ITV quiz show, would love to reboot an iconic Irish show from the 90s as he opened up about his hopes to get more TV gigs
19:42, 03 Feb 2026Updated 19:47, 03 Feb 2026
The Chase star Darragh Ennis
Darragh Ennis would love to be at the helm of a reboot of an iconic Irish game show.
The Irish star of ITV’s The Chase is a big hit on the quiz show but would love to expand his TV career eventually – specifically around science and games, given his background as a scientist before becoming a TV personality.
When asked if he misses working full time as a scientist, he told RSVP Magazine: “I still do sciencey stuff, I write science books. I released one on the human body last year and I’m writing another about memory at the moment. I don’t miss being in the lab; it was very hard work and very long hours for very little money and, while I was fascinated by it, I had been doing it so long that I had moved into management.
“But I miss being around science. I’d love to do a science TV show. I think there’s a gap in the market because there’s not many science TV shows for adults. I think there really is room for an adult-based science show.”
He added: “I’ve also been a strong advocate that we should relaunch Blackboard Jungle. I would love to host an Irish quiz show, I’d love to get a regular quiz show onto Irish TV, I think it would be fun. I did ask about doing an Irish version of The Chase, but they said no!”
Blackboard Jungle was an Irish quiz show hosted by Ray D’Arcy that aired between 1991 and 1998 and featured two teams of three representing two competing secondary schools. A grand final was held at the end of each series.
Presenting TV is one thing, but reality TV is another. Some of Darragh’s The Chase colleagues have branched out – with Mark Labbett taking part in Celebs Go Dating and Anne Hegarty appearing on I’m A Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here!. Would Darragh be tempted by a reality TV stint?
“If they did Celebrity Traitors in Ireland, I would be absolutely all over that, I would love to do it,” he gushed. “I’d love to do Taskmaster, but I won’t be cast on that because I’m not a comedian. I think I’m open to most of them, obviously not the dating based ones! People say, would you go into I’m A Celeb – well, they’ve never asked me!”
What about our very own Dancing With The Stars?
“There is a thing that people do, where they say they can’t dance and they can, they’re just not any good at it,” laughed Darragh. “I literally can’t dance, I have no sense of rhythm.
“When I was learning to dance for my wedding, I memorised where to put my feet based on the words of the song, because I literally can’t move in rhythm, it’s an alien concept to me. Dancing With The Stars, it wouldn’t even be funny, it would just be really sad, so that’s not going to happen!”
Read the full interview in February’s issue of RSVP Magazine, on shelves now
The Ultimate Pub Quiz with Darragh Ennis is coming to Wales, Dublin and Belfast this February. For tickets and dates, please visit ourritaslive.com.
