Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
Chris TARRANT (1946-)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Chris Tarrant, television and radio presenter, was surprised by Michael Aspel while presenting a new minibus on behalf of the Lord and Lady Taverners charity to the Phoenix Children's Resource Centre in Bromley.
Chris, who was born in Reading, was educated at King's School, Worcester and Birmingham University. After a spell as a teacher at the Samuel Pepys School in London, he joined ATV as a regional news reporter in 1972. By 1974, he was a household name as co-presenter of the ITV Saturday morning children's programme Tiswas.
In 1982, he co-hosted OTT, billed as the late-night adult version of Tiswas. Two years later, he joined London's Capital Radio, hosting the station's breakfast programme from March 1987 while continuing his television work, which included the game show Man O Man and clips programme Tarrant on TV.
"I don't believe that! Is this for real? Did you know? Did you know? I don't believe it! And I said I'd never ever get caught!"
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lisa ventura.co.uk blog 2 November 2022
The Tube of joy strikes again! I've found an upload of Chris Tarrant's This Is Your Life from 1997 on YouTube, this takes me right back.
Before I transitioned into cyber security in 2009, I spent many years working with Chris Tarrant of Who Wants to be a Millionaire fame at his management company. I remember the lead-up to this so well and having to keep it extremely quiet from Chris, and the panic that ensued when it looked like "the hit" (which is when Michael Aspel appears and the red book is presented to the subject) wouldn't happen. For weeks before "the hit" took place talking to Chris in code was normal so as to not give away to him that "the hit" was coming!
Chris wanted to go fishing on the day of "the hit" instead of presenting a new minibus to a special needs school on behalf of the Lord Taverners. I was horrified and like "No you can't go fishing Chris, you have to present that bus tomorrow!" Chris replies, "Why can't I present the minibus to them another day?", I said emphatically "No it has to be tomorrow!" All was well that ended well, "the hit" took place and it went without a hitch in the end.
I was in the front row of the audience when this was recorded at Teddington Film Studios and remember the hilarity when Jasper Carrott got everyone up doing the dying fly act from TISWAS... including Chris's very serious parents! I have the RX version of the recording on VHS tape somewhere, this is the TX version that was broadcast.
Finding this has made me SO happy today, and I am so proud to have played a small part in this.
Daily Mirror 5 March 2017
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host has spoken about the loss of some of his famous friends in 2016
By Mark Jefferies Showbiz Editor
TV host Chris Tarrant has revealed how Michael Aspel revived his role as host of This Is You Life for a private one-off show to celebrate his 70th birthday.
Aspel last wielded the famous red book for a series of the show on television in 2003, but that didn't stop him dusting it off for the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire's landmark party.
And it all happened thanks to a conspiracy of celebration between Chris' long-term partner Jane Bird, the rest of his family, friends and former colleagues from shows such as the classic Tiswas.
Speaking about the event and his milestone for the first time, he says: "We had the most ridiculous night."
"I now do not trust my missus, my kids, my PAs - anyone in my life! They kept this ridiculous secret from me."
"I was supposed to be going out with Jane and my kids in a small restaurant in central London."
"A waitress sort of giggled at me and led me out to what seemed to be the back and I was thinking 'Where the hell are we going?'"
"I wandered down this alleyway getting more and more confused and suddenly she opened a door and there were 500 people inside, all with these ridiculous cardboard Chris Tarrant masks on their faces shouting Happy Birthday!"
"Then they did this massive spoof This Is Your Life with Michael Aspel doing the whole thing - he's 84 - he looks amazing and is as fit as butcher's dog and sharp as a tack bless him."
"It was so funny - friends came forward with stories - Lenny Henry and Paul McKenna and Sally James and James Martin."
"I thought, 'These are all my mates, and most of them I had spoken to in the last few weeks or days or whatever'."
"And they had all kept this bloody great secret! How stupid am I? Once I'd got over the shock, it was a brilliant night."
As well as being a huge celebration for Chris, the bash last year also raised thousands of pounds for charity.
He adds: "I am sure if anyone had suggested it I would have said: 'Ah no I don't want that. I don't want all the fuss'. But it was a great way to celebrate being 70."
"It was brilliant and went on until about 2 in the morning. It was absolute hoot!"
"Whatever vintage you are, when you are coming up to a big birthday, from about 68, you think 'I am almost 70, I am getting really old now'."
"When you actually get there, you go 'It's really cool - I'm still here, I'm fine'."
"So many people around me have died - especially in the last couple of years - I'm really lucky, I am as fit as a fiddle, I've got a load of good kids, I am in a really good place."
"It's a milestone you dread but when you get there, it's cool."
Chris has been on screen in the last few weeks with his own Channel 5 series The Railways That Built Britain.
It means he's fought back to fitness from a stroke he suffered in March 2014 on a flight home from Bangkok and collapsed as he went through passport control, but has since quit heavy boozing and smoking and is in much better shape.
His work rate has slowed down massively and he reveals he also needed speech therapy to get his career back on track, if you'll excuse the pun.
Chris, known for his recognisable voice which millions will remember telling contestants 'we don't want to give you that' on Millionaire, says: "I did quite a lot of speech therapy when I had the stroke."
"Obviously speech is quite an important part of my life. I didn't sound slury but I just knew my own voice didn't sound right and I had to spend three months doing very strange noises 'Oohs and aahs'."
"I take my pills and things - blood thinning tablets. I am quite skinny now. I do a lot of exercise. I cycle a bit and I walk miles."
And whilst his exercise regime is not quite as unusual as the great Sir Bruce Forsyth, he is not against working up a sweat at any hour of the day or night now he lives in the countryside.
Chris says: "We've got this thing we call 'The March' which is this really steep hill and if you do that four times - down and up - you come back and your chest is absolutely pumping."
"It's probably about a mile - but it is really, really steep - it's great. So if there is something crap on the telly, I will suddenly say to Jane 'I want to go for a march'."
"And it can be about 11pm and I will just wander off into the night!"
"After my stroke I cut down on work. I was in hospital for like three weeks and then out I was out of action for about four months doing physio and stuff."
"I never drink whisky anymore which I used to drink a lot of. I knocked that on the head. It doesn't bother me actually. It's like smoking, I just don't smoke."
"I just don't drink spirits. I drink beer and I drink wine but I just don't fall over."
"As as the doctor said to me - the really good specialist. 'it's just excess Mr Tarrant isn't it?' I said 'How do you mean?'"
"He just said 'Excess, excess, excess'. I couldn't really argue! He was very tough with me and took no crap."
Perhaps because of this conversation with the doctor, Chris by his own admission is not on screen or the airwaves anywhere near as much as he was a decade ago when he fronted Tarrant On TV, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, as well as presenting on Radio 2 and Smooth Radio.
He admits he found 2016 tough because of all the celebrity deaths, which also reminded him of his own mortality.
Chris says: "I lost so many friends in and out of the media last year, it was bloody awful."
"Rick Parfitt on Christmas Eve really battered us all. He'd just got through a heart attack and seemed to be in a better place."
"It really knocked us all out. I knew him forever - since Tiswas days."
"And David Bowie was a great loss last year. Loads of people went. And dear old Terry Wogan. No one saw that coming."
"That hit me hard too. And George Michael lived up the road from us - only about five miles away."
"I knew him, not as well as Rick, but obviously from Capital Radio. We did things over the years. He was such a nice man and very charitable."
Having fronted several Channel Five series on trains, it is perhaps unsurprising that he wants to rant about the state of the railways in this country before the interview ends.
He says: "The thing is - the issue of the railways won't change - that's all still a fact... We don't seem to be able to run them very well. All the stuff about Southern has been a nightmare."
"Loads of mates of mine and my kids who work in London are just going mad!"
"Because they are going 'All I do is pay by season ticket and I can't go anywhere. I'm having real trouble getting to work or getting home, all sorts of problems.' It's crap."
"When we filmed in Japan last year every single train - and we must have been on 30 odd trains in a week going all over the place, little tiny trains, big bullet trains and little side lines, and everywhere we went, every single train was exactly on time."
"Or on time give or take 10 minutes. Which we always settle for in this country."
Series 37 subjects
Steve Redgrave | Gary Rhodes | Toyah Willcox | Freddie Young | John Motson | Jeremy Clarkson | John Rands | Jill Dando