The Chase contestants' shocking Sunderland knowledge costs them £19,000 with River Wear question

The ITV programme, hosted by comedian Bradley Walsh, was down to the “Final Chase”, in which a quiz expert must reach the total number of correct answers set by the remaining contestants.

Three contestants – from Oxfordshire, London and Manchester – had made it through and had set the chaser, Anne Hegerty, aka The Governess, a total of 17.

Anne Hegerty is one of Britain’s finest quizzers and rarely struggles with geography. She had instantly answered that Graham Land was in Antarctica. But a few questions later she was caught out by somewhere much closer to home, the River Wear.

She was asked “The Sunderland Railway Bridge crosses what River?” to which she replied “the Tyne”.

The question was then offered to her opponents. Despite a fairly hefty clue from the chaser’s incorrect answer, one of them was heard to say “I have no idea”. His two colleagues didn’t know either and they guessed “Tees”.

A slightly surprised looking Bradley Walsh told them: “Wrong! It’s the Wear. Tyne … and Wear.”

This was to cost the contestants heavily. The chaser caught them with just one second remaining and £6,333, each, was taken away.

Bradley Walsh repeated afterwards: “Tyne … and Wear. That’s it. The money would have been in the bag.”

Despite the incident, at the end of the show all three contestants said they’d had a lovely day.