Fans of The Chase have been desperate to work out who The Maverick is. Fans were shocked to see Daragh ‘The Menace’ Ennis replaced on the ITV quizzing show, hosted by Bradley Walsh.

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Fans had been convinced Maverick could have been comedians Joe Pasquale or Jasper Carrot – but now the big revelation on who Maverick is has been revealed. In a shocking turn of events, Maverick’s identity was revealed.

There had been speculation it could be Darragh in disguise. Speaking about his time on the show so far, Darragh said: “We had a natural break in filming. But when I did go back to work, I was put in those stressful situations. On The Chase, there is a two-minute gap right at the end – the last thing we do is really, really high pressure, just by nature.

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Maverick has been causing quite a stir

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Maverick has been causing quite a stir(Image: ITV)

“Normally when I start making mistakes, naturally I’d be able to handle it. I’d just plant my feet in my head psychologically and go, ‘I made a mistake’ and keep going.”

He added: “But this time when I went to put my feet down, there was nothing underneath them and I just fell away and I weirdly got stressed and got camera shy, which I never do. The pressure just overwhelmed me completely.

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“I had a couple of episodes like that, where every time I tried to reach for that part of myself that is calm under pressure, it wasn’t there anymore. At that point, the producers talked to me and said, ‘would you like to take a break?’ We still had a couple of episodes to film. They offered rather than told.

“So the first time it happened, I said I’ll see if I can shrug it off but I couldn’t. So they arranged for counselling, with a sports psychologist, which might sound strange to some people. It’s a high-pressure situation where a lot of people are watching, and these are really helpful.”

Bradley's friend Joe was behind the mask

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Bradley’s friend Joe was behind the mask(Image: joepasqualeofficial/Instagram)

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Today, it was revealed that Maverick was actually Joe Pasquale, who is a good friend of Bradley Walsh’s. The host then noted that Joe was a geologist and thus why he got all the questions about rocks and sediment correct.

Speaking about his love for geology, he said in 2023 in an interview with The Guardian: “As a kid I was always very conscious of mortality, and I thought I wanted to be a priest, but that was because I’d been to a Catholic school. When I went to my secondary school, a normal comprehensive, I had a real awakening and decided I wanted to be a geologist.

“I did the Duke of Edinburgh’s award and was very active, but it all came to an end when I was 13 and I got run over and broke my leg very badly. I missed a year of school and skipped my exams. I ended up just doing home economics.”