Chris Tarrant . . . gone fishing

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Chris is very proud of his time at Capital. “I did seventeen years of it. It was a tough market and we continued to dominate. I loved it… I just hated getting out of bed.”

September 1998 saw the launch of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the innovative quiz show, which has raised Chris’s profile to heights that most TV presenters can only dream of. The show was an instant smash hit and quickly became the biggest British game show of all time. Surely this extra level of fame must have changed Chris.

“I don’t think it has affected me at all. People always say to Ingrid ‘Has all this success changed your husband’, and she says, ‘The problem with Tarrant is he hasn’t changed for twenty years!’ I think she says it in a warm way, but I’m sure there are bits of me that she would like to change.”

We have all done that thing where we shout at the television screen when the Millionaire contestant is stumped by an incredibly easy question. How does Chris restrain himself when faced with someone who seems unable to answer very simple questions?

“It’s my job, isn’t it – but inside I’m going, ‘you must know that, for Christ’s sake… for three hundred quid you must know that’. But then, sometimes a £300 question will come up and I’m thinking, ‘you poor sod, I haven’t got a clue either’! With me it would be something like computer stuff. My kids would know the answer, but I wouldn’t have a clue.

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