A robotics expert temporarily drew the scorn of The Chase star Paul Sinha on today's episode of the ITV1 show. The top quizzer said contestant Ben had produced a "shambles" of a performance in the Cash Builders round.
Ben, a policy adviser on artificial intelligence, started his appearance by telling host Bradley Walsh his job was about "trying to stop robots taking over the world". The Londoner said he would put any winnings towards making a disco record.
In the Cash Builders segment Ben answered questions at breakneck speed to notch up £6,000. Despite the impressive score, his pace may have led to a few mistakes, as he failed to give correct answers to questions on Davina McCall, Marbella, Sebastian Coe and Donna Tartt. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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This did not go unnoticed by 'The Sinnerman', who remarked: "First things out of the way, £6,000 is an excellent score so well played. However, that is the least impressive £6,000 I've ever seen in all my years watching Cash Builders. That was a shambles, absolutely all over the place."
But Ben had the next laugh as he gave the Chaser what Bradley called a "whacking" in the head-to-head round. Playing for £6,000, the adviser correctly answered that Mark Ronson recently married the daughter of Meryl Streep, and was able to give the location of Pity Me, a village in Durham — points which eluded Paul. Both players scored on questions about George Orwell, Cruella De Vil and the meaning of the word "machinations".
Bradley lauded the contestant's "thrashing" of the experienced quizzer. Perplexed by the improvement in Ben's performance, Paul quipped: "Has he been replaced by a robot?" And Ben earned a smile from his rival later in the show, when he joked: "[Paul] doesn't even know where Pity Me is."
But the Chaser rejected Bradley's suggestion that Ben should have played for a higher figure: "No you shouldn't have gone higher, your nerves were shot to pieces in that Cash Builder, you were right to go middle. So don't regret it, be pleased you played yourself into form."
All four of Monday's contestants advanced to the final round, but their score of 14 — with a pot of £53,000 — was matched by Paul with six seconds to spare. They had been able to push Paul back after he wrongly guessed that Daft Punk had a song called "Harder, Better, Faster, Slower". But they agonisingly walked away with nothing after confusing the Muffin Man of the famous nursery rhyme for the "Gingerbread Man".
The ITV1 show, which has been running since 2009, airs from 5pm until 6pm on weekdays. You can read more stories about The Chase here.
