Beat The Chasers star Mark Labbett wants to compete on an entirely different type of show to the daytime quiz that made him famous. “I’d love to do Strictly Come Dancing ,” says the quizzer, who’s six foot, six inches tall. “I would have liked to be the tallest ever contestant, but they’ve got Kristian Nairn who was Hodor in Game of Thrones, and he’s six foot 10. Put it another way, they’ve got no excuse for not picking me, if they can accommodate him!” Should the Strictly producers come knocking after Kristian’s recent withdrawal from the competition for medical reasons, Mark promises he’d prepare for the contest with the same amount of dedication he gives to his job as a Chaser. “All of us Chasers still play serious-level quizzing because we have to, otherwise we couldn’t do our jobs,” he explains. “We’re constantly learning. I’ve just spent half an hour reading my daily paper, looking for things of interest – it’s a constant thing.” “So if I was going on a cooking show or Strictly, do you think I’m going to turn up on day one and just give it a go? If it was Strictly, I would already have been in training to make sure I turned up physically fit. If it was a cooking show, I’d spend at least three months learning the basics. You’ve got to give yourself every chance.” Mark , 60, is one of the original Chasers and has been on the show since it began in 2009. Before that he was a maths teacher who entered TV quizzes in his spare time. One of his first TV appearances was Mastermind in 1999, where his specialist subject was the Olympic Games, a subject he chose because he “was a full-time teacher and didn’t have time to study.” “Mastermind is almost a battle between the contestants and the production team,” he reveals. “One of my colleagues, who I knew from top-level quizzing, wanted to do the history of Northampton Town Football Club as his specialist subject and they said, ‘No, it’s too narrow a subject.’ He ended up doing the Football League from a certain decade and when he went on, [presenter] John Humphrys said, ‘That’s a big subject, why didn’t you choose just one club?’ and it was all he could do to not swear on camera.” Mark’s favourite quiz show moments were when he won £32,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2006 (“I won the equivalent of two year’s salary at that time, which isn’t bad for a day’s work”) and the BBC ’s Only Connect in 2009, where he was a member of the winning Rugby Boys team. “Only Connect was the most fun,” he remembers. “I did it just as I became a Chaser. We were on it when it was still filmed down in Cardiff, and we were based in Wales. So, for us, that was the best part of all – we had a 10-minute journey to the studio. After each match evening, we could go to the pub or curry house and we would struggle to spend the £15 worth of expenses we each got. We saved the BBC a fortune by being a local team.” Mark has also appeared on University Challenge , Countdown and BrainTeaser , all of which prepared him for his hugely successful quizzing role on The Chase and Beat The Chasers. But there is one thing he hasn’t achieved – he wants to be the host of a TV quiz show. “Let me put it simply. Please, please, please can I host a quiz show? I would love to do it,” he says. “I keep hoping that one day my name will come up. All you can do is hope that the gods smile on me. I do a lot of hosting pub quizzes, so I’ve got the skills. “I did a quiz for BBC Radio Wales and they filmed it and put it out afterwards and people told me, ‘Blimey, you know what you’re doing.’ "I wouldn’t claim to be a great broadcaster, because you’re always learning something new. But boy, do I know how to host a quiz!” Beat The Chasers returns to ITV on Sunday 31 August. Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .