In It’s Not a Proper Job, TV legend Chris Tarrant regales the reader with hilarious and heart-warming stories from his stellar 50-year career in television and radio. With trademark wit and self-mockery, Chris not only recalls his behind-the-scenes capers with fellow celebrities, but also shows us how, as a man of the people, he has relished rubbing shoulders with ordinary folk on his way to becoming one of the nation’s favourite TV faces. A former teacher and ATV newsreader, Chris soon established himself at the forefront of trailblazing telly as the host of Tiswas, and here recounts this 1970s, anarchic, flan-flinging children’s show that spearheaded a fresh format and a new era for Saturday morning TV packed with pranks, full of fun, and which remains a benchmark to this day. For later audiences, Chris will be more familiar as the face of yet another groundbreaking show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? which he presented for sixteen gripping years, and which grew into a global phenomenon exported to over one hundred countries. Here Chris remembers the joyous highs of contestants’ life-changing winnings, the frustrating lows of loss, the cringing embarrassment of ignorance, and the infamous cheating of the ‘Coughing Major’. Spanning five decades, Chris’s television credits are the envy of aspirational TV stars, but reading his laugh-out-loud anecdotes – akin to having a chat with the man himself over a pint, or listening to one of his entertaining, after-dinner speeches – reveals a man still amused by life, by the people he meets, and by his own humble assertion that none of his glittering career can, in any way, be called ‘a proper job’.

Born in Reading in 1946, Chris Tarrant was educated at Choir House in King’s School, Worcester. In 1967, he graduated with a degree in English from the University of Birmingham, before working as a schoolteacher. His break in television came in 1972, when he landed a job at the ATV network, before going on to become a presenter for ATV Today, a Midlands-based current affairs programme. He rose to national fame in 1974 as the host of the groundbreaking children’s show, Tiswas. From 1984, he enjoyed a successful 20-year spell as a Capital Radio host before presenting ITV’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, a television phenomenon exported to 120 countries around the world. Since 2012, Chris has presented several railway-themed shows for Channel 5, most notably Extreme Railways. He has also won numerous awards and honours. In 2000, he received a Special Recognition from the National Television Awards; an OBE in 2004 for his charity work on behalf of disadvantaged children; a Sony Gold Award for Lifetime Services to Radio; and in 2006 a Lifetime Achievement from the British Comedy Awards.