MARCH 10 2018 LISTENER 19
offended by being called The
Dark Destroyer. The only
reason I was a bit hesitant is
because there was a former
world boxing champion called
Nigel Benn who was known
as the Dark Destroyer. I didn’t
want to be seen to be nick-
ing his nickname, but it’s just
stuck.”
Wallace was in from the
show’s start. “I’m the world’s
first Chaser, I like to boast.” He
was approached in 2008 to go
before an ITV commissioning
panel. “It was a tremendous
success,” he says serenely.
There were a couple more
auditions before he was paired
with Labbett to appear in a
pilot in 2009. “The rest, as they
say, is history.”H
e certainly doesn’t suffer
from false modesty. As he
told Walsh during one
teasing on-air assault on his
performance, “Oh, please, I’m
a champion.” He won Master-
mind in 2004 – his subject inthe final was “FA Cup finals
since 1970” – with a score
of 24 points and no passes.
Amazing. “It was extraordinary
because I was the first black
person to apply for the show
in its 20-year history. That’s
what really catapulted me to
fame.” In an online clip of his
big moment, Wallace, who is
of Jamaican heritage, holds
the famous glass bowl trophyaloft in wonder, then hugs it
tenderly.
I remind him of an online
interview he did at the time
where he does a triumphal
little “Shaun ‘Da Brief’ Wal-
lace” rap about the win: “... I’d
like to shatter the myth, right?
We’re not just runners ...
We’re Mastermind champions,”
he said.
“Exactly,” he says now.GETTY IMAGESTop, Bradley Walsh, centre, with the chasers: from left Mark Labbett,
Jenny Ryan, Anne Hegerty and Shaun Wallace. Bottom row, Labbett,
Ryan, Paul Sinha, Hegerty.