Chris Tarrant opens up on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire replacement Jeremy Clarkson

For 16 years, Chris Tarrant, 78, was the face of ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, his affable manner putting contestants at their ease as they attempted to win the life-changing top prize. When he departed in 2014, it seemed the end of the show was inevitable. However, it was revived in 2018 with former Top Gear host JeremyClarksontaking over hosting duties.

Despite his long history with the show, speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk in advance of the release of his new book, For The Love Of Bears, Chris revealed he hasn't watched the new incarnation of the show. Lest Jeremy feels too put out, he also admitted he didn't watch when he was the presenter.

"I don't watch it now. Socially, I get on fine with Jeremy, and this sounds really tough, but I just don't watch the show - even when I was on it. I did 700 programmes. I watched the first one just to make sure it looked alright. I think I watched another one where Judith Keppel won a million, and that's it," he confessed.

Millionaire's phenomenal success would have been enough to cement Chris' place in broadcast history, but one incident ensured the programme would go down in the annals of television legend, for all the wrong reasons. The infamous "Coughing Major" episode saw Major Charles Ingram appear to win the £1million top prize before later sensationally being exposed as a cheat who had been guided to the correct answers by coughs from a plant in the audience.

"The bottom line is that none of us - myself included and I've always said that - knew what was going on. I never realised what he was up to, which sounds like I must be a bit thick, but I think it's the most extraordinary night's television recording I've ever been a part of," Chris reflects. "It was one of the most extraordinary events of my life. The whole thing is such a naive way of trying to steal a million quid. It's very, very public, a serving British Army Major, and we were very naive. I mean, there was a lot of money at stake."

The episode's notoriety was such that it has been the subject of documentaries and spawned a TV miniseries and a stage show simply entitled Quiz. Needless to say, this requires an actor to portray Chris. Michael Sheen famously stepped into his shoes for the miniseries, and on stage, Chris has also been portrayed by Rory Bremner. Asked if he has a favourite of the two, he admits Rory, whom he has known for 20 years, is his preferred choice.

However, he has nothing but praise for Sheen's research. "He's an actor, he's not an impressionist. He must have sat through hours and hours looking at me, which I wouldn't wish on anybody," laughs Chris. "His voice was not as good as Rory's. But what he had absolutely down to a T, in a quite unsettling sort of way, was my body language. There are weird things I do that I had no idea about. It's very odd. I had no idea until he did it. And he's a lovely, brilliant guy as well," he said.

Other than the odd talking head moment and a guest appearance on Alan Titchmarsh's Love Your Weekend, Chris has been largely absent from our screens since 2020. But as little as a decade ago, the thought that he wouldn't be on our screens or airwaves was unthinkable.

He has no plans to return to screens any time soon, and his latest project, the book For The Love Of Bears, sees him travelling to far-flung and remote destinations to document and photograph bears, as the title suggests.

"I've read so many accounts of bear attacks this last year doing research for this book, and it's pretty grim," he says.
"They will literally wipe you out in 20 seconds. They're really strong. They've got these massive claws - if you ever see these claws close up, they are terrifying."

While this latest project may seem like a huge departure for the telly icon, he insists he has always been a natural history nut. His next project is a book about safaris. Yet he's keen to stress that he has no desire to follow in David Attenborough's footsteps by taking his subjects from the page to the small screen. "No more cameras, I did 51 years," he insists, reflecting on his ongoing retirement. "I really don't want to do that. I'm very content."

For the Love of Bears by Chris Tarrant is published by Great Northern Books, RRP £25.