Chase's Anne Hegerty unrecognisable in unearthed Mastermind appearance decades before fame

The Chase: Anne Hegerty ruthlessly beats contestants

The Chase is home to some of the biggest quizzing brains in the country, but fans of the ITV show were surprised to unearth footage of one of the general knowledge buffs on the other side of the coin. Anne Hegerty, 66, once appeared on BBC's Mastermind as a contestant rather than a quiz master.

Back in 1987, when she was just 30 years old, the Governess looked completely different as she appeared as a contestant. Her specialist topic was The Life and Works of Lorenz Hart - the famous lyricist.

Anne, who was working as a journalist at the time, looks almost unrecognisable with a curly bob hairstyle and glasses wearing an oversized multicoloured frock. The image has recently been shared to Reddit, where fans were in disbelief at the retro look.

Fans shared that they thought she looked better now, with the 80s style not doing her any favours. One user wrote: "She looks twice as old as she does now."

Another added: "As others are saying she looks better now the fashion didn't seem to be very good back then haha." Meanwhile a third posted: "It’s clever really, because if you dress like a grandma in your 30s, by the time you hit your 50s and want work done, you can just dress like a millennial instead and take 30 years off your age."

Anne Hegerty looks completely different now (Image: Getty)

The unearthed appearance is one of two times that Anne took on Mastermind. Speaking to Express.co.uk previously, the TV star admitted that she "wasn't very good" at the show.

She said: "I wasn’t that good at Mastermind. I’ve been on it twice and lost both times." The quizzer admitted that she much preferred her quiz master role to being a contestant, despite The Chase players "having an advantage".

"I love being a Chaser and I find it easier that we’re sitting down to be honest because when they’re [the contestants] standing up I look at them and sometimes I can see their knees shaking," she admitted, adding: “So I would rather be a Chaser [than a contestant]".

Anne appeared on BBC'S Mastermind back in the 80s (Image: BBC)

“But at the same time, we do give them advantages. We give them a head start on the board, we give them a head start in the final chase, they have the opportunity to push us back, so we do give them opportunities.

“And when we’re doing Beat the Chasers we give them like a massive time advantage.

If I’m not playing I like just kind of watching the clock and gradually their time advantage disappears and then they’re level and then we get ahead."