Shaun Wallace: ‘I wrote to the Bar Council when I was 12 years old saying how I wanted to become a lawyer’

THE country’s favourite TV quizzer Shaun Wallace says the conversation of black history should be something we are having “365 days a year, every single year” as he talked to the Extra about the importance of black history, the law and quizzing.

Mr Wallace was a history maker as the first black contestant and winner of Mastermind in 2004 before being selected as the first “chaser” on ITV’s ever-popular quiz The Chase.

This had all followed a legal career and it is now 40 years since he was called to the bar.

Mr Wallace said he had ambitions to be a lawyer from childhood. “When I was a kid I used to watch programmes like Crown Court and Petrocelli, when I saw people like that, that was what I wanted to be.

“I wrote to the Bar Council when I was 12 years old saying how I : wanted to become a lawyer and they wrote back to me. That was my drive and ambition.

“Even when I did my degree it was very multiracial but the profession itself 40 years ago was more or less white dominated.”

He added: “There has been a paradigm shift in the law being much more well represented in terms of the diverse society in which we live. I’ve seen a greater diversity now based on talent not the old school tie.”

Some 20 years ago Mr Wallace became the first black person to enter and then go on to win Mastermind.

He said: “Being the first black person to win Mastermind was a major breakthrough. I felt like I was in a parallel universe and I started to cry. It’s the happiest moment of my life, completely.

“I thought of all my family and friends and all the setbacks I had in my life and that’s one of the reasons I wrote my autobiography because I want people to realise my life isn’t always based on being famous and successful.

“I’ve had hardship and disappointment and it was important because at that moment everything came together to make me one of the most recognisable faces in the country.

“Every time I go on The Chase it’s memorable.

“I suppose being the world’s first chaser was very special. I was the first person picked. I had to go to all the auditions to convince the ITV commissioners this should be a show they should take on and here I am 15 years later.”

He said: “I enjoy quizzing people. I make sure they answer questions that are easy to understand and they can enjoy themselves.”

Mr Wallace said more could still be done in terms of Black History Month.

He said: “It’s all well and good celebrating Black History Month but it’s a conversation we should be having every day of the month, we should be having it 365 days a year, every single year. It’s important that we keep the message going in relation to the importance of equality, justice and everybody having the right to self-determination in their own lives.”