Bradley Walsh was left "terrified" on a recent episode of The Chase after a 'chilling' nursery rhyme was read aloud. Wednesday evening's episode of the ITV quiz show saw Ian, Jenny, Lauren and Boris join forces to take on one of the country's finest brains - The Vixen.
Contestant Ian was tasked with a question which read: "What part of a tree appears in the rhyme 'Hush-a-Bye Baby'?" Options for the answer were "Bough", "Branch" and "Bark". However, both host Bradley and Chaser Jenny Ryan were left wincing after realising what the scene actually portrays.
The nursery rhyme goes: "Hush-a-by baby on the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock, when the bough breaks the cradle will fall, down tumbles baby, cradle and all." And after Ian and Jenny both chose "Bough", Bradley exclaimed: "It's a bit of an odd song, I've got to say!"
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Jenny responded: "Who's put the baby at the top of a tree? Health and safety risk from the get-go. And then it's on a dodgy bough - the bough's broken."
Bradley then chimed in: "What's all that about?" before pulling a face in disbelief. The nursery rhyme is believed to have first been published in Mother Goose's Melody in approximately 1765.
While it's not known who put the baby at the top of the tree in an early edition of the rhyme, these words follow the poem to highlight its meaning: "This may serve as a warning to the proud and ambitious, who climb so high that they generally fall at last."
The Chase airs on ITV at 5pm on weekdays.
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