Chasing fame

The Chase host Bradley Walsh tells James Rampton about the moment he knew a career in show business was right for him.

As an 18 year old, the enormously popular British entertainer Bradley Walsh was signed as a professional footballer by Brentford before going on to play for Barnet, Dunstable Town, Tring Town, Boreham Wood and Chalfont St Peter.

He admits that football was his first love – until a “eureka moment” in the theatre.

“Growing up, it was always going to be football until my mum, Margaret, took me to the London Palladium to see Tommy Steele in Hans Christian Andersen.

“I said, ‘If I don’t play football for a living, that is what I want to do’. After I was injured, I drifted into showbiz.” For which, many TV viewers are grateful. Walsh, who was also a sheet-metal worker, an engineer and a Pontin’s Bluecoat before he went into show business, has an appealingly positive view of life.

“You can achieve anything you want if you put your mind to it,” he declares.

His infectious enthusiasm for life and his ‘can-do’ attitude have propelled him to great things. Walsh is one of Britain’s most in-demand TV performers.

But this immense success has not given 57-year-old Walsh inflated ideas of his own importance. He has not gone all “la-di-da”.

The presenter – who has been married to Donna since 1997 and has two children, Hayley and Barney – remains grounded and genuinely amiable.

“Knowing answers to questions is about having a good memory, not being clever, and I am certainly not the brightest person on the planet.” – Bradley Walsh