Ditched nicknames The Chase stars had before one was deemed 'too racy'

Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inbox We have more newsletters Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inbox We have more newsletters The brainiacs behind ITV's The Chase have certainly made a name for themselves - quite literally! Quiz professionals such as Mark Labbett and Jenny Ryan have become telly favourites since making their way onto the show under monikers such as The Beast and The Vixen. But before the Chasers had their iconic names, there were a number of nicknames which didn't quite make the cut - and it turns out host Bradley Walsh is the creative whiz "responsible" for "almost all" of those iconic nicknames. "The Beast" Mark has had his nickname long before taking up Chaser duties, a nod to his towering 6ft 6in frame and the French in his surname.

But for Jenny, her journey to becoming The Vixen involved a slight rejection process too. Sign up to OK!'s TV newsletter to get updates sent to your inbox for free Chatting with The Daily Mail , the 42-year-old let slip that her first nickname was "too racy". She divulged: "I was originally called 'The Cougar' which - on several grounds - I objected to, reports the Mirror .

She continued: "Brad came up with 'The Vixen' because in every audition I wore my hair with a ponytail at the side and he thought it looked like a fox's brush. That worked for me." And for Anne Hegarty? In 2010, she joined in as another strong personality but refused her.