This Is Your Life: Chris Tarrant

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!"

programme details...

Edition No: 973
Subject No: 948
Broadcast date: Mon 24 Mar 1997
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Tue 4 Mar 1997
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 37
Edition: 26
Code name: City

on the guest list...

Joan - mother
Basil - father
Judith Chalmers
Julian Wilson
Bill Wiggins
John Snow
Nicholas Parsons
Russ Kane
Paul Burnett
Neil Fox
Howard Hughes
Mick Brown
Richard Allinson
Alan Freeman
Ingrid - wife
Dexter - stepson
Fia - stepdaughter
Helen - daughter
Jennifer - daughter
Samantha - daughter
Felix Bowness
Maeve Richard
Bob Gillman
Bob Carolgees
Spit the Dog
Sally James
John Gorman
Trevor East
Frank Carson
Mike Rutherford
Jeremy Beadle
Greg Dyke
Jo Sandilands
Robert Powell
Babs Powell
Jasper Carrott
Toby - son
Lenny Henry
Francis Rossi
Rick Parfitt
Phil Collins
David Jensen

production team...

Researcher: Avril Norton
Writer: Simon Booker
Directors: Wendy J Dyer, Paul Kirrage
Associate Producer: Sue Green
Executive Producer: John Longley
Producer: John Graham

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Radio Times

tuning in the broadcasters

Screenshots of Chris Tarrant This Is Your Life

Chris Tarrant recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, It's Not A Proper Job...

Having given the Dying Fly to the world, Jasper Carrott reappeared many years later on my This Is Your Life, and ridiculously, in spite of the dangers, did the dying fly.

I always said I'd avoid This Is Your Life like the plague, and also that anybody with even one brain cell would see the big red book coming a mile away. Well, I'm here to tell you it doesn't work like that.

The moment when the bewildered soul is confronted by Michael Aspel, or even in the early days by Eamonn Andrews, is called by the production team the 'hit', and they refer to you as 'the subject'.

Captain Hindsight here only realised any of this after being repeatedly referred to as 'the subject' by my driver on the way to 'the hit', as he was actually on the phone making sure events proceeded smoothly. All subjects have a codename, apparently mine was 'city' (for CT). Trevor McDonald was 'burger' and Robert Maxwell was 'house', presumably because he was the size of one.

When they got Mr Unsuspecting me, I was doing a simple handover of a minibus to a specialist kids' school called The Phoenix Centre down in Kent, where I'd been patron for a number of happy years.

I'd done my breakfast show in the morning, and was driven straight there. What I didn't realise was that all my mates at Capital Radio, my wife, my kids, my mother, my dad, and dozens of people I hadn't seen for twenty or thirty years, had all been making frantic secret calls to each other and the production team for over a month.

The splendid Les Dawson once told me that in the build-up to his This Is Your Life, he almost sued his lovely wife for a divorce because for weeks she had abruptly put the phone down whenever he suddenly walked into the house.

As I officially handed over the minibus, I do remember thinking why is that silly ambulance getting in the way at just the wrong moment, when the doors of said silly ambulance opened and Michael Aspel came flying out clutching the famous red book. It was one of the most unforgettable moments of my life. I truthfully hadn't a clue. I was like a lamb to the slaughter.

Once I got over the initial shock, I was raced across to Teddington Studios, and the show itself was predictably manic. All sorts of old chums came from way back. A great lady I'd taught alongside years before called Maeve, aka 'Maeve the Rave', talked about my teaching days when I lived outside the school in a minivan. All my old mates from Tiswas came on and talked about what I got up to when the cartoons were on. The boys from Genesis talked about the days when I stuffed the two of them into giant flowerpots and covered them in custard.

Years later, I gave an award to Phil Collins, and he said, "The last time I met you, you were busy putting baked beans down the front of my trousers."

Lenny Henry talked about how difficult it was for a black man with short curly hair to be a headbanger with the rest of us. Jeremy Beadle came on and took his trousers off for no reason that anybody really understood, and my little boy Toby, who was only five, suddenly appeared on film from his bed and explained he couldn't be with Daddy because that very morning he developed chicken pox - or, as he called them, chicken pops. He's now six-foot-five and the chicken pops have disappeared.

Silliest of all was when Jasper Carrott came on to remind us of the days of the dying fly. The whole thing ended with all of us, celebrities, uncles, aunties, teachers, and even the super smooth Michael Aspel, lying on our backs on the studio floor waving our arms and kicking our legs in the air.

Michael then, with enormous panache and athleticism, sprang from the prone position on his back up onto the balls of his feet, still clutching the red book, and delivered the immortal words, "Chris Tarrant, this is your life."

lisa ventura.co.uk blog 2 November 2022

A Career Highlight – This Is Your Life With Chris Tarrant

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

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Tarrant reveals how celebrity deaths have left him devastated and why his 70th birthday was so special

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