Chris Tarrant

Speaker 40:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and one, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

My Costaway this week is a radio and television presenter. You'd have to be something of a hermit to have missed him. Perhaps you grew up with him on the cult Saturday morning kids' show Tizwas, that was 25 years ago, or stayed up late to watch him on its adult version, OTT. Maybe you hear him bringing the morning to life on Capitol Radio, but most likely you've watched him teasing those anxious hopefuls into answering the question on what must be the Western world's most successful TV game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Sharp but always charming, clever but ever a natural populist, he clearly possesses the right mixture to keep him very much on top in a cutthroat business. He is Chris Tarant. It is Chris that was nice and complimentary, isn't it?

Chris Tarrant1:13

Well, it was extraordinary.

Presenter1:14

They f

Chris Tarrant1:14

I was looking around and going what a very nice man, the one who's coming on, I was looking for him.

Presenter1:15

Do you have any one?

Presenter1:17

Yeah.

Presenter1:18

But it is a brilliant format, millionaire. Who really invented it? What are its origins? Yeah.

Chris Tarrant1:22

Yeah.

Presenter1:22

Uh

Chris Tarrant1:22

I

Presenter1:22

Oh.

Chris Tarrant1:23

From a mate of mine called David Briggs was my producer on the Capital Breakfast show for years and years and years. And he and I did loads of sort of radio big money competitions. And we did a thing called double or quits. And literally you started at a pound and it went up and up and up. I do remember one morning it went up to twelve thousand pounds. It took a long time over the course of a year.

Presenter1:40

But it was the same technique, keeping people waiting while you put the adverts out.

Chris Tarrant1:41

People waiting while you put the adverts out. We'll go to the break and all that stuff.

Presenter1:45

And all that stuff.

Chris Tarrant1:47

It was all that. And David went off to seek his fortune on TV. Suddenly, then, out of nowhere, David Rang and said, They want to do it. They want to make it. They're going to call it Cash Mountain. I said, oh, that sounds dreadful. And then he came back again and said, yeah, we're going to do a pilot, whatever. And he said, we're going to call it Who Wants to be a Millionaire. And I was the guy, rather like the bloke who turned down the Beatles at Decca. I said, oh, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? That'll never take off.

Presenter2:06

But who refined it? Did he refine it in the sense it seems to me one of the the the very clever tricks about it is that you are the contestant's friend, which you wouldn't have been on the radio because you knew the answers, you had the answers there. We know now, don't we, that you don't have the answer on your little screen.

Chris Tarrant2:15

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant2:16

The answer is

Chris Tarrant2:19

At all. At all.

Presenter2:20

Exactly.

Chris Tarrant2:21

I mean, I may not, I may not, but still.

Presenter2:23

Well, quite. But but therefore you're on their side. You're not the quiz inquisitor, as we used to say.

Chris Tarrant2:23

But then

Chris Tarrant2:25

No.

Chris Tarrant2:26

No, not at all. And I mean, I think people initially took my sort of way of presenting it actually quite harshly and said, Oh, he's you know, he's unnecessarily cruel to them, whatever. We teased them. It is serious money. I mean, the average prize now per show is over one hundred thousand pounds a night. I mean, it's incredible money. But all

Presenter2:36

I'm in the

Presenter2:42

All supplied by the people who ring in.

Chris Tarrant2:42

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant2:43

All spy by the phone line. And because of that, you know, anybody who pays their pound for the phone line or whatever is eligible to come on the show. So you get this extraordinary cross-section of humanity. I mean, I d I have to say and I bet it's true with you as well. You remember more contestants on Millionaire, and I bet you remember dozens and dozens over the last two years.

Presenter2:43

Yeah.

Presenter2:49

So you got

Presenter2:58

I remember the unemployed sewage worker.

Chris Tarrant3:00

Sewage worker.

Chris Tarrant3:02

An unemployed sewage worker working mainly with the shovel. Now he's called Steve Devlin from Belfast. So this is why it works. I think two reasons why it works. One is it's incredibly simple. It is the simplest format. I mean I never understood three to one. So why didn't you switch?

Presenter3:03

Yeah

Presenter3:08

Hey, Scott.

Presenter3:17

So why didn't you spot it? And why aren't you making a lot of money? I'm sure you're making a lot of money out of it, but you're not making the big dosh, are you? Big dosh is nice. I mean, what's he worth, the man who owns it now? I mean, already he must have been.

Chris Tarrant3:28

I have no idea.

Presenter3:32

Already, two and a half years in, he's made two hundred miles.

Chris Tarrant3:32

Two nights.

Chris Tarrant3:34

It's not a country. So you missed it. Four days a week in America.

Presenter3:36

So you missed

Presenter3:38

So you missed

Chris Tarrant3:39

Yes, alright, I missed it. It's okay.

Presenter3:40

It's okay. Yeah, but do you feel bad about it? Do you feel foolish? Do you feel

Chris Tarrant3:43

Do you feel foolish? Do you feel not at all with Selador who bought the rights to you know who wants to be a millionaire and and now sell it all around the world? I mean I actually know the people involved and they're and and they're mates from way back. So it's actually fair play to them, you know.

Presenter3:53

And why didn't you go to America with it like Ann Robinson has taken the week ago?

Chris Tarrant3:56

Because I couldn't stand working with Americans. I spend a lot of time in America. I go out there for holidays or whatever. I go out there sometimes working and I'm very glad to get home. Probably if I was 25 years old, I would have, you know, I would have grabbed it and gone.

Presenter4:09

We are going to take you away from all this. We're going to take you to a desert island. No people, no microphones. Peace, perfect peace.

Chris Tarrant4:12

No microphone.

Presenter4:14

How are you going to disturb it? Tell me about your first record.

Chris Tarrant4:17

I'd actually like to play the theme from The Deer Hunter, which is John Williams. It's just it's actually one of the very few movies that I can watch more than once. And the tranquillity of the mountains compared with the horrors of the Vietnam War is beautiful.

Presenter5:00

John Williams playing Cavatina, the theme from The Deer Hunter. So millionaire Chris Town has taken over your life, really. It was a kind of three monthly event and now it's gone three nights a week. It's the great problem with television schedulers when they find something that works

Chris Tarrant5:14

It's four nights a week now in America. I mean, don't even mention that to the I T V controllers. I mean, I liked it when it was on it's what they call event T V. It was on like ten nights in your face and then off for three months. I liked it like that and it sort of fitted my life better. But

Presenter5:23

Yeah.

Presenter5:24

It's only fitted.

Presenter5:25

Exactly, because you're still doing, what, five mornings a week at Capital?

Chris Tarrant5:25

Because you still do

Chris Tarrant5:28

It's only five mornings week with the five AM alarm calls and

Presenter5:30

So what's uh you know, what's taking the strain, apart from you?

Chris Tarrant5:33

I'm very strong. I do nothing. I do no exercise. I don't watch my weight or whatever. I must be physically extraordinarily strong. It's just the hours, actually. I mean, I still, people say, why do you still work so hard? I actually thoroughly enjoy it, you know? I don't like getting out of bed. I think people think I dive out of bed in the morning to sort of do backflips like Robin Williams. I don't do that like anybody else when that alarm call goes and goes, it can't be five o'clock yet. And obviously finishing millionaire late and do that in the morning takes it straight.

Presenter5:41

Hmm.

Presenter5:58

But how much do you do you how much do you really, really worry about it? I'm just trying to discover whether you know all this sort of peddling that goes on underneath the surface is actually really quite wearing on you. I mean do you think that's a good question?

Chris Tarrant6:06

Underneath

Chris Tarrant6:09

I don't think it is no, I don't. I mean I was I mean kids are great levellers and I c I crawled in a few nights ago and I was feeling pretty pretty rough and uh my little boy was still up, little Toby was just nine. He shouldn't have still been up, but he was,'cause mummy was in charge and he gets away with things.

Chris Tarrant6:22

And it was like, Oh, Daddy, you look tired. And I said, Yeah, I am, I'm really tired. You know, he said, What have you been doing? I said, I've been doing who wants to be a millionaire. He said, Well, I don't know why you're tired, Daddy. He said, It's only a bit of sitting down. And I thought, That is actually all it is. It's so right, you know, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. That's my job, it's just a bit of sitting down, really.

Presenter6:36

That's about jobs is

Presenter6:37

Well, yes, do we believe this? Not not a lot of self doubt in there either, is there?

Chris Tarrant6:39

Not

Chris Tarrant6:42

Not a lot, actually. I've had a very lucky life. I've really enjoyed my life. I've you know, I pass people at bus stops every morning at the same time of day as me who are clearly not getting much pleasure out of their life, not getting much job satisfaction, you know, probably going to be there till six o'clock and come home on the bus again. I'm very lucky.

Presenter6:42

Uh

Presenter6:58

Record number two.

Chris Tarrant7:01

I just like to play the Beatles because it's my island and I think they are just the greatest band and those two are just the greatest songwriting talent of my life.

Chris Tarrant7:10

Fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.

Chris Tarrant7:16

Found my way downstairs and drank a cup And looking up, I noticed I was late

Chris Tarrant7:23

Find my coach, then grab my hat.

Chris Tarrant7:26

Bait the bus in second splat

Chris Tarrant7:31

I'm away upstairs and had a smoke And somebody spoke and I went into

Presenter7:37

The Beatles and a Day in the Life. I'm still looking for the vulnerable bits here and I see that you wen went away to talk.

Chris Tarrant7:43

You're determined to find the dark side. There'll be something dreadful will happen.

Presenter7:44

I am, I am. The dark side is. Well, you went to boarding school, got thrashed, got desperately unhappy. Has it marked you for life?

Chris Tarrant7:50

Has it ma

Chris Tarrant7:52

No, I don't think it di I don't think it did me much good either,'cause although I didn't like being caned, there's that awful thing that they probably didn't do it on girls, but there's an awful thing they did where they're the really skilful caning masters actually made like the six go in exactly the same spot on your buttock each time, and it slowly got more and more painful.

Presenter8:10

So did you get repressed and buttoned up and all that you're doing?

Chris Tarrant8:12

No, hardly button. Yes, it made me really shy and timid, Sue.

Presenter8:15

Yeah.

Presenter8:18

Anyway, you're the only son of Joan and Basil Tarrant of Reading, born just after the end of the war. Your father was it sounds like this is your life, isn't it? It doesn't miss. Um father was a military man, a major. What did he do for a living after that then?

Chris Tarrant8:25

It doesn't it

Chris Tarrant8:30

He he started at the bott he literally started at the bottom. He was sort of T-boy or whatever, in a firm called Huntley, Bourne and Stevens. And their their claim to fame was that they made the tins that Huntley and Palmers put the biscuits in. And and he worked obviously very, very hard and he and he ended up as uh managing director and he was the first director like on the board who had not been a member of either the Huntley family or the Bourne family or the Stevens family or the Palmers family, I think. And he was terribly proud of that.

Presenter8:53

And your mother was a housewife and she and a mother.

Chris Tarrant8:55

Mummy looks after daddy and looks after me. It was all very solidly middle class. It was actually happy.

Presenter8:57

It was very solidly middle class. It was actually happy family whole Cornwall.

Chris Tarrant9:00

Very combo.

Presenter9:02

Going fishing with the dogs.

Chris Tarrant9:03

All that stuff. All that stuff. Yeah.

Presenter9:04

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter9:05

Why did it give birth to somebody who was going to be determined to break the rules? I turned up.

Chris Tarrant9:11

I think Dad actually in his way, although Dad sort of seems like a very conven conventional guy, I mean, Dad is actually completely mad. I love the guy to pieces, he's still my best friend in the world. I mean, even at the age of sort of I remember a while back w I was down there with a couple of kids and and you know he was playing Grand Dad in the afternoon and and he was sort of swinging by his ankles upside down on the climbing frame and I'm saying dad will you get down and come in he said well why why? And I said because you're seventy-eight years old

Presenter9:36

And where is the who gave you the gene for the gift of the gab?

Chris Tarrant9:41

Probably dead, I think.

Presenter9:42

He does this too. My God, being in a house with you two. Three then.

Chris Tarrant9:45

Three then. Grandad used to talk the uh hind legs off a donkey as well. Yes, they're a very uh vociferous lot, the Terrans.

Presenter9:50

And and were you like that at school and at university? In between being fresh?

Chris Tarrant9:53

Yeah, I think I was Mr. Cocky little boy. I think I was sort of quite a bumptious little brat. I'm sure if I read loads of reports it would be it would be all about constant talking in class, talking in class, talking in class.

Presenter9:55

Bye.

Presenter10:01

And at university?

Chris Tarrant10:04

Talking at university. Talking at university. Yeah. I th I suppose'cause I had quite a sheltered sort of first seventeen, eighteen years. And university was the first time I really sort of came out and found about, you know, girls and and and and drinking and and and all that stuff.

Presenter10:16

But were you were you popular during all this time, or did people find you, you know, a bit of a pain in the what said?

Chris Tarrant10:22

What are you trying to say, sir?

Presenter10:22

I'm just trying to say that if he was boisterous and noisy

Chris Tarrant10:24

Uh I was just one of the lads. I was a lad. I was 23.

Presenter10:28

But where you liked is the case.

Chris Tarrant10:29

Yes, yes. I mean, we had sort of my gang. I mean, we weren't a gang like the Reds and the Bloods in Los Angeles. We weren't the drug gang. We were just a load of guys who spent a lot of time in the bar and were quite popular with some of the girls at Universe or whatever.

Presenter10:40

Quite popular, quite public. Record number three.

Chris Tarrant10:40

Happy day.

Chris Tarrant10:43

Cool.

Chris Tarrant10:45

Birmingham University, oh it's extraordinary the number of famous brummies that that I got to meet and it produced all sorts of great musical talents. I mean it it has a very sort of

Speaker 110:52

Type music.

Chris Tarrant10:55

Downtrodden image for them, but it produced people like the movie Blues. Nights in white satin.

Chris Tarrant11:03

Never reaching the end

Chris Tarrant11:08

Letters I've written

Chris Tarrant11:13

Never meaning to send

Chris Tarrant11:18

Bucci Ado Christmas

Chris Tarrant11:22

With these eyes before

Presenter11:27

Moody Booth and Knights in White Saturn. So, Chris Tant, you did some supply teaching in the East End briefly. You nipped into the COI, Central Office of Information, made a couple of films, and then you wrote to ATV in Birmingham. You wrote, I am the face of the 70s. I mean, okay, so you've got a face, you know, you can say these things. Yeah, yeah, but obviously something in you would made you believe that.

Speaker 111:43

Yeah.

Speaker 111:45

Uh

Chris Tarrant11:52

I don't think I did. I think, like a lot of things in my life, it was sheer bluff. And it was this dreadful sort of Muhammad Ali, I am the greatest letter. I am the face of the 70s. This is your last chance to snap me up. And I mean, I wrote this to about 50 television, all the sort of small BBC outlets. I mean, everywhere. I wrote it to everybody. Two of them asked me for an interview. All the others said, you know, dear Sir Stroke Madams, thank you so much for your letter. We will, of course, keep it on file. New Year's got in the bin. But ATV and Yorkshire, I think purely, like, let's see whatever sort of a person wrote this letter and invited me up. And actually gave me a, I mean, ATV gave me a job and I started as a newsreader the next week. Good evening, the main headlines. It looks horrified. Yes. Yes, a newsreader, yes. But did you send it up? Not a very different. No, I certainly... No, I didn't. I started doing news reports as well, like our man at the gates of Longbridge or whatever, and I was hopeless.

Speaker 112:26

Uh

Presenter12:26

The main headline

Presenter12:30

Is it yes?

Presenter12:32

Not a very different

Presenter12:39

So they sent you off to do the wacky source.

Chris Tarrant12:41

So I did sort of upside-down beer drinkers and men with ferrets down their trousers. I did do a man with four ferrets down his trousers walking for charity from Worcester to Evesham.

Presenter12:50

How did all of this well, I think I can see how it all developed into Tizwa. Suddenly somebody said this guy's good at wacky stuff.

Chris Tarrant12:55

Yeah, basically. And I started doing I mean to me actually it was like, you know, another twenty five quid for Saturday morning. I thought, oh, that's great, you know, that's what it used to be. And and and it became this huge cult. There was just nothing like it before. And we we had no settler.

Presenter13:08

But it's not a problem.

Chris Tarrant13:09

No, it's a lot of challenging.

Chris Tarrant13:12

Um, I mean it was just a load of young guys mucking about, and sort of me and Lenny having three pies left, so we did each other for a minute.

Presenter13:17

It was Lenny Henry, of course, whom you kinda discovered, really.

Chris Tarrant13:18

Lenny Henry, of course.

Chris Tarrant13:20

Yeah, he'd been on New Faces. He came on doing this famous black impression of Frank Spencer, which was just fantastic. He was 14 when he came on that.

Presenter13:27

What did Joan and Basil of Reading think of their son m making a living, making a net becoming famous for kind of throwing custard pies?

Chris Tarrant13:36

I think it was a bit of a shock, particularly for Mum. I think she found

Chris Tarrant13:40

She found it difficult to deal with. I mean it is difficult to deal with as a parent. I mean I probably find it easier now, you know, because I've done it. But it's a bit of a sort of, but I thought you were going to be a teacher. I mean it's a bit of a bit of a shock. And she was for several years, I mean well into sort of Tizwaz's, you know, heights of its fame, she would sort of say things like, still if it all goes wrong dear, you can always go back to teaching. And I would say, Mum, A, I don't want to go back to teaching and B, I don't think the average classroom would find it very easy to sit there with Sir, sort of without hitting me with a custom pie or pouring beans down my trousers. So and I never did go back to teaching.

Presenter14:08

You didn't, record number four.

Chris Tarrant14:10

Well, this is our hit. I have to play the hit because it's the one and only time of my life I was actually on top of the pops. I was between hot chocolate and the Nolans, which always seemed to me a very nice place to be, and it was called The Bucket of Water Song, and it actually changed all our lives.

Speaker 114:25

This is the song we love as

Speaker 114:40

Yeah.

Speaker 114:45

Rend on one leg and pointed at the sun. Rest on the fig toes with short.

Presenter14:53

A bucket o' water song, sung by the four bucketeers, one of whom was my castaway.

Speaker 114:55

Yeah.

Presenter14:58

Christianity.

Speaker 114:58

Yeah.

Presenter14:59

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant14:59

Uh

Presenter14:59

So for for eight years, Chris, I think it was, you were the most famous splatterer of custard pies in the land.

Chris Tarrant15:03

Perfect.

Chris Tarrant15:04

We used to do that. We used to do the stage show. And we used to wreck the places. But that was always it at the end. I mean, we would get all electricity off stage. We found that very early on. And we would come on and we would bring on hose pipes, buckets, big bin liners full of water. And just drench the audience. Drench the audience. And they're going, me, me, I paid five pounds for my ticket and I'm still dry. I mean, they were extraordinary days. We couldn't go anywhere without people coming up and pouring pints of beer over our heads. I remember Sally James done up very nicely one night in a restaurant, the two of us having a meal somewhere. And a woman came, a very posh woman in Brighton, picked up the ice bucket and said, Do you mind if I pour this over your head? And by the time Sally was up, no, not really. I really rather you didn't. I mean, she was coated. It was extraordinary.

Speaker 115:16

I just touched the audio.

Presenter15:41

But the success of it all, dare I say, went to your head, yeah? I mean,

Chris Tarrant15:45

Went all over my head, I s

Presenter15:45

Yes. I was just thinking that. But a lot of booze, a lot of cigarettes, drugs.

Chris Tarrant15:51

No, never.

Chris Tarrant15:53

Really not?

Presenter15:53

Um

Chris Tarrant15:54

No, really, really not. Um never been interested. I find them quite scary. I had a friend and he uh started taking LST and I do remember he disappeared at a party one night and we found him on the roof of the Holiday Inn in Southampton. He was convinced he was Batman and he was about to fly and we were looking down at these cars like many, many floors below and we dragged him off and literally saved his life and I thought, mm

Chris Tarrant16:13

It it sounds silly, but I can get out of control, you know, on drink, which I have done many, many, many, many, many times in my life. But it's sort of it's it's it's sort of out of control, but it's under control. I can I can I can feel myself slowly disintegrating.

Presenter16:21

You big

Presenter16:23

Been big on the beer like William Hague, fourteen pints a night.

Chris Tarrant16:25

Lots of them.

Chris Tarrant16:27

In his dreams. Dream on Billy Baby. Yes, lots of that. I've always enjoyed a dream.

Presenter16:32

But in the doing of all of that you lost a marriage, didn't you?

Chris Tarrant16:35

Yeah.

Presenter16:35

It all went pension.

Chris Tarrant16:36

I lost the plot actually. I was a young guy, good-looking guy. There were lots and lots of girls around or whatever. I was travelling all the time and I just thought that being on TV, producing and writing and presenting and living Tiswas was the most important thing in the world. And in amongst that, I forgot or lost contact with my two young kids, which I've always deeply regretted. I spent about the next 10 years doing a sort of penance, which was basically just driving up to Stratford-on-Avon to see my two young kids, Helen and Jen. Whatever, whatever happened, you know, everything else, work, everything went on hold for like Saturdays and Sundays, whatever it was, I just went to see my two kids. I mean, now they're two of my biggest, bestest friends in the world, and I'm glad I went through all that. But it was extraordinarily painful. I couldn't believe that I'd made such a mess of it, if you like. I'd lost the plot.

Chris Tarrant17:21

Next record.

Chris Tarrant17:23

I do remember at this time, I think it was the first time I went out to America, and I remember thinking, oh come on, you know, life goes on and nobody's died and you've still got contact with your kids. And I remember driving along that beautiful long Pacific Highway, this 400 mile stretch from Los Angeles up to San Francisco, which is one of the great drives of your life. And I did everything that you're supposed to do. I had the open-topped American car, I had long blonde hair, the sun was shining, perfect sunset, and I was playing the Eagles. And it was just, you know, life goes on and it's okay.

Speaker 417:52

It's another ticket the sunrise Staring slowly across the sky

Speaker 418:03

So goodbye.

Speaker 418:10

He was just a hired man.

Speaker 418:14

Working on the dreams he planned to try

Chris Tarrant18:20

The days go by.

Presenter18:22

Eagles and tequilas on my

Presenter18:25

So then you found another natural home, Chris Town, on Capitol Radio. No experience as a DJ before. None whatsoever. Interesting, but it was a fit, wasn't it?

Chris Tarrant18:31

None whatsoever.

Chris Tarrant18:33

They just gave me a pile of records. I mean, I sort of rang down and said, Can I have a dozen records? We've mainly sort of status quo, I think, or whatever. Played that, sort of mucked around between records and went home.

Chris Tarrant18:42

And I thought, that's all right, is that what you do, is that it?

Presenter18:44

Oh, is that it?

Chris Tarrant18:45

This was sitting down. It's actually, yeah, it's actually, it's what I've done ever since. And it is that.

Presenter18:45

It's actually the air.

Presenter18:50

But you did this zoo radio. You imported this concept of zoo radio from the site.

Chris Tarrant18:52

When we started on the Capital Breakfast show, we we we literally lifted the way they do it or have done it for a long time, Rick Dies and Co done it in America, with like one main circus ringmaster and a load of acolytes all round shouting and screaming, whatever. Under control it works very well. Out of control it's it's it's actually tedious.

Presenter19:08

But also to do it as successfully as you do it, you have obviously got to have a huge amount of self-confidence, a great lack of self-doubt, because

Presenter19:16

You've got to feel that people are interested to know what you've got to say and what you think. You've got to keep it original. Otherwise they'll go off you like they go off their flatmate or their husband or their wife. It's just boring you're there every morning and you are boring them stiff'cause they've heard it all before. So how do you keep it fresh and original?

Speaker 119:24

Uh

Chris Tarrant19:24

Yeah.

Speaker 119:25

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant19:32

There's something very nice about being the first to tell you what's happened since you went to bed, this has happened. Now, mainly, you know, on the shows I've done for years and years and years, it's the silly stuff. And I can't wait, as you're lying there with half an eye in your nighty or whatever, I can't wait to tell you that since you went to sleep, space alien has landed on the lawn of a woman in Wolverhampton and abducted her husband or whatever. The other thing about music radio is that you will mainly, as listeners, you will mainly turn to music radio first. You may then go across to the sort of the radio fours or the in-depth news stations or whatever. But most people will hear the sad stuff and the bad stuff as well first. I remember literally the news about Diana coming in during the night. Things always seem to happen during the night. So you like the journalism.

Presenter20:13

So you like the journalistic element?

Chris Tarrant20:15

Yes, I do, but I but I'm quite proud of handling that. I mean, the Diana week, the Diana week was unbelievable. It was one of the most painful weeks of everybody's lives. But people that week were using radio as a kind of therapy. I mean, they were ringing me up, and they weren't weepy women or whatever, they were big knobbly lorry drivers, crying their eyes out on the radio. And all sorts of songs that never really...

Chris Tarrant20:37

meant as much before, suddenly became terribly relevant.

Presenter20:40

You've been doing capital for what, fourteen years now?

Chris Tarrant20:42

What do you

Presenter20:43

Uh You must have someone must have attempted to poach you. Radio One must have been a tough one.

Chris Tarrant20:44

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant20:47

A lost touch. Yeah.

Chris Tarrant20:50

Why not? Why didn't he come over to the B? What's the matter with you? Um

Presenter20:50

Yeah.

Presenter20:51

Why didn't you come over to the B? What's the matter with you?

Chris Tarrant20:54

Radio One, I have to say, and it was quite a few years ago now, but I was seriously quite interested. I thought maybe... And also the Radio One breakfast show has always been a bit of a legend, you know, from like Bill Edmonds days and Tony Blackman days, whatever. I mean, I had my own sort of freedom at Capitol, and of course Radio One said, oh, you can do this and you'll be able to do what you like and whatever. And I talked to Kenny Everett, who's obviously a close friend then, and Alan Freeman, who'd both been to Radio One on and off over the years. And they both said, stay where you are. It wasn't in the end, you know, them influencing me, but it was sort of... What Kenny said particularly said, they will promise you all sorts of freedom, but there will be those up there. It'll probably be the wives of the people, the names on the headed notepaper, who go, I was driving in this morning and I got Radio One. I couldn't believe my ears. And that is what Everett said. It certainly happened to Kenny. I mean, Kenny was sacked for doing a joke about Mrs. Marples going on a bike.

Speaker 121:03

Yeah.

Speaker 121:08

So

Chris Tarrant21:40

We see it's pretty tame now.

Presenter21:42

It was probably the last of many jokes that were near the mark. I shall leave Radio 1 to defend itself. Give me another record.

Chris Tarrant21:44

Just the

Chris Tarrant21:49

I think Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven is probably the most poignant song that I can remember, anybody writing and performing. How Eric dealt with the death of his son in the tragic circumstances, falling out of a skyscraper window. And he actually said in an interview, he said that he sings it on stage every night because for him, as a grieving father, it's a kind of therapy. But I actually don't know how he gets through it.

Speaker 422:13

Would you know my name?

Speaker 422:20

That's all you will have.

Chris Tarrant22:26

Lord and be the slave.

Chris Tarrant22:32

I've sold you.

Chris Tarrant22:34

Yeah.

Speaker 422:34

Uh

Chris Tarrant22:34

Every Uh

Speaker 422:35

Uh

Chris Tarrant22:35

Uh

Speaker 422:35

Uh

Presenter22:39

Unless destroy.

Presenter22:43

Eric Clapton and Tears in Heaven. How many children have you got now then? Six. Six. Two and two and two. Two and two and two.

Chris Tarrant22:50

Two and two and two. I've got two two that I've uh inherited and I've got uh four of my own and um

Chris Tarrant22:55

They're driving mad.

Presenter22:56

What kinds of ages?

Chris Tarrant22:56

Helen is now the oldest at twenty-four and little Toby Boy is nine.

Presenter23:02

And how do they react to your fame? I mean, you know, the the nation's young might think you're cool, but I wonder if your own kids think that.

Chris Tarrant23:08

They're very unimpressed by it. This is just what daddy does for a living and it's all of his shit and whatever. It's no big deal. I don't want her to have problems in the playground and stuff, you know, then and it's actually

Presenter23:16

Killing.

Presenter23:20

No, it's not so much that it's I r what I'm really asking, and I'm sure they've come to terms with your fame, what I'm really asking is is whether they actually think you're as cool as somebody else their age might be cool at all.

Chris Tarrant23:28

I don't know where that's.

Chris Tarrant23:30

I think they think I'm fun. I mean I you know, they I'm actually quite strict. People are always surprised that I'm strict with kids. It's like, But you did Diswalls, you can't be strict. I'm saying, Yeah, I can, you know, I still want my kids to go to bed on time and do their homework and

Presenter23:41

Yeah, but if they flung a custard pie across the room, you'd be jolly enough.

Chris Tarrant23:43

No, we don't have that. We don't have custom pies in the house.

Chris Tarrant23:48

Imagine. Oh, here's mummy. Bucket of water, mummy. Yeah, no, we don't do that.

Presenter23:52

What about your again, this Crossing the Generations thing fascinates me. What about the language you use? I mean, I you I now know I've heard you on on the television use the word sad, now meaning pathetic. You know, you call the audience very sad, which is you know

Chris Tarrant24:04

But the audience are sad. Some nights they are desperate.

Presenter24:05

No, somebody.

Presenter24:08

But I mean again one's kids usually don't like one using modern-day vocabulary. I mean do you say wicked? Do you s call somebody? Yeah I do actually and so no I don't say

Chris Tarrant24:14

What do you say? No, I don't say fit. I don't say fit. He looks a bit fit. No, I don't say that. I probably do say wicked. I'd say cool once in a while. But cool's come round. Cool's alright. Cool's come back again.

Presenter24:17

Yeah.

Presenter24:22

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter24:25

But, you know, they don't like you treading on their territory, do they? You have to be.

Chris Tarrant24:25

They don't like you trading.

Chris Tarrant24:28

Yeah, I have to mind I'm fairly immune to it. Well, because I play the sort of music I play, I mean I play very much the charts, so I'm playing Eminem and Robbie Williams or whatever.

Presenter24:35

And do you like the job?

Chris Tarrant24:36

I like some of it.

Presenter24:38

But you must naturally be a more of a an MOR man. Oh, I am. Oh, I am, yeah.

Chris Tarrant24:42

Oh, I am, yeah. I mean, if you say to me, would I rather play, you know, Clapton and Elton John, or would I like to play O Atomic Kitten, say? It would be Elton. It would be Elton or Elton.

Presenter24:52

But you don't feel odd getting your mouth around tho and and getting your head around that kind of music. That's your job, that's what you're required to do. But you have you have to work quite hard to keep up, do you?

Chris Tarrant24:58

Yeah to do and you but you have

Chris Tarrant25:03

Not really hard, I mean it's just the charts, right? Nothing's hard.

Presenter25:04

Nothing's hard for you. I'm trying to find out how you peddle.

Chris Tarrant25:06

It's not a hard pedal. It's not very difficult. It's not much of a job. It's a bit of yapping between records. That's actually all it is. So, like, the charts are the charts, whatever. I mean, there are periods when it's been quite hard to enthuse. I found the Jason and Kylie years a little bit tricky to sound really, really up.

Presenter25:20

So, Christopher, how long can this go on? You've hinted on various occasions that...

Chris Tarrant25:25

Well that's gotta be Christopher.

Presenter25:26

Oops.

Chris Tarrant25:26

Christopher John and Harry.

Presenter25:26

Christopher John Harris.

Chris Tarrant25:27

Uh

Presenter25:28

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant25:28

Yeah.

Presenter25:28

That's right.

Chris Tarrant25:28

Christopher

Presenter25:29

How long can this go on?

Chris Tarrant25:30

How long?

Presenter25:31

You said you wouldn't stay on Millionaire after it's peaked. Has it peaked yet?

Chris Tarrant25:34

Has it peaked yet? No, it hasn't peaked yet.

Chris Tarrant25:37

It is such a perfect format that it can last a long time. If they if they did the sort of the normal sort of thirteen shows and then off and bring it back next year, it would go on for you know a hundred years.

Presenter25:48

But how will you know when it's Pete? How will you know? You've always said you want to stop ahead of the game.

Chris Tarrant25:52

Yeah, I always have as well. I mean, I was the one who left his, wasn't I? I said, you can't leave that, it's just getting good. I said, no, I've done it, I've been there, done that.

Presenter25:53

I always have as well. I mean, I was the one

Presenter25:58

Yes, but that was when you were sort of still moving on. In a way, this is this is your pinnacle, isn't it?

Chris Tarrant26:00

Gone.

Chris Tarrant26:03

I think I'll know. I think there's certainly one more good year in it. There seems to be no lack of public enthusiasm for it. I mean, not just not just.

Presenter26:10

One more good year in it for you or or for the programme?

Chris Tarrant26:13

For the programme, I think. I think there'll be one more sort of full year of the sort of intensity we've just seen. And then after that, I'm not sure.

Presenter26:19

Would you mind someone else taking over from you? No, somebody will.

Chris Tarrant26:20

No, somebody will. Somebody will.

Presenter26:22

Who do you think should?

Chris Tarrant26:24

I think you'd be very dangerous. I'd quite like to see a woman do it, actually.

Presenter26:24

Of course.

Presenter26:27

We should have Anne Robinson.

Chris Tarrant26:28

Now she'd be too kind and cuddly.

Presenter26:32

Record number seven.

Chris Tarrant26:34

Phil Collins is one of the nicest people I've ever interviewed.

Chris Tarrant26:38

When Capital Radio moved from the top end of Tottenham Court Road to Leicester Square, I suddenly became aware of something that Phil Collins had talked to me about a year or two before, about the real problems of the homeless in London. And I thought, yeah, yeah, it's something that just happens under the odd bridge under the Thames. Leicester Square, every morning, there are so many young kids, and really young kids, quite scarily young kids, sleeping in the doorways or whatever. And Phil's song Another Day in Paradise was about that. It's actually scary.

Presenter27:04

It's another day for you and me in paradise.

Presenter27:11

D twice.

Presenter27:14

Cause it's another day for you.

Presenter27:17

Need paradise.

Presenter27:33

Phil Collins and Another Day in Paradise. So you're on this desert island, Chris, with nothing and nobody. What do you do? I mean, how resourceful are you, really?

Speaker 127:38

Uh

Chris Tarrant27:38

Yes.

Speaker 127:39

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant27:42

Um

Presenter27:43

Take away all your material trappings.

Chris Tarrant27:45

Well, I'm not I'm actually quite a country bum. I you know, in amongst us I I only really come into big cities like London'cause it's the place I have to come and earn money and uh

Presenter27:52

Home count county is country round though.

Chris Tarrant27:54

No, I mean real real sticks. I spent a lot of my summer in the in the wildest parts of Canada and I actually quite like it.

Presenter27:59

What hacking it?

Chris Tarrant28:01

My own company. Official of

Chris Tarrant28:03

I would spend a lot of time on this desert island fishing, which would actually be very good for survival anyway, but uh I think people imagine I go fishing and I sort of take my mobile phone and big crates of beer. I don't at all. I actually don't like those sort of thinking, Oh, I'm worried about that contract or what about that or whatever.

Presenter28:16

Are you really as balanced as you make out? I mean lucky, balanced, sensible, and really.

Chris Tarrant28:18

I mean

Chris Tarrant28:21

Yeah I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry.

Presenter28:22

I'm really sorry. No, I mean I think it's wonderful. You I mean you genuinely love

Chris Tarrant28:26

I think that's everything. I'm I'm very secure. I enjoy what I do and if if it all goes wrong, it's always been, well, all right, then well if you don't like it, I'll well I'll I'll I'll be taking me fishing rod then and disappearing. I couldn't care less really. And I've always been like that. It's not like a a developed hard shell. I've actually all sorts of stuff out I go fishing, you know, not fast.

Presenter28:42

I'll strike off.

Chris Tarrant28:42

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant28:44

I think Robbie Williams is the great talent around at the moment. I also like the song Angels because it is the song that everybody always tries to sing when they haven't got a voice. It's the worst Kara Oku song on earth. I noticed on pop stars, a lot of the early rejections, you know, the ones that Nigel did not choose, they always said, oh, I'd like to do Robbie Williams Angels. If you can't sing, do not try this song. It has some very hard, high notes. Robbie can do it. Most people can't.

Chris Tarrant29:11

I look up a

Speaker 429:14

And I know I'll always be blessed with love.

Speaker 429:25

And as the feeling grows, she breathes flesh to my bones.

Speaker 429:31

When love is there

Presenter29:35

I'm loving angels instead.

Presenter29:38

Robbie Williams and Angels. Now if you could only take one of the eight records, which one would it be?

Chris Tarrant29:43

I think I'd probably take the Eagles to Keela Sunrise. I think I might get a bit fed up with it. Spent so many years I'm stuck on this on this island, but I think I could take that.

Presenter29:47

I think I'm not gonna

Chris Tarrant29:52

That would be splendid.

Presenter29:53

And what about your book? You've got the Bible, you've got complete works of Shakespeare.

Chris Tarrant29:56

Yes, I think I'd go for Silence of the Lambs.

Presenter29:59

What's in for?

Chris Tarrant30:01

I just thought it was a fantastic. I saw the book before the movie, and I know, I just from page one, I thought, what?

Chris Tarrant30:07

It's one of the very few books I've read about three or four times. It is the most extraordinary mind writing those pages. I could read that a lot. I think I'd be a bit of a scary person. If you're the only person who came to discover me, I might eat you, but I think I don't know what it would do to me. I think it's a fantastic book. I gather.

Presenter30:16

Extraordinary.

Presenter30:23

Yeah. And what about your luck?

Chris Tarrant30:24

True. Can I have my lucky sixpence? Is that a luxury? Does that count?

Presenter30:27

What is your natural thing?

Chris Tarrant30:28

My lucky sixpence is a little um you know those little sixpences you put in Christmas puddings and all that?

Presenter30:28

Yeah.

Chris Tarrant30:32

This is a true story. You said how very um controlled and whatever my life has been and the only real downtime was was I was getting divorced. Had OTT was taken off abruptly by IT V and whatever. And it was the only time in my life I felt a bit down and my career didn't seem to be going anywhere. And I'd come down from the Midlands for some sort of interview with uh London Weekend Television.

Chris Tarrant30:50

And a car went racing past, jammed on the brakes and reversed back towards me. And I thought, oh my god, I'm going to be mugged. And the guy said, CT, my main man. I'm going, hello, like, looking around me. And he said, I love what you do. I love that OTT. I love Tiswas. You are the man. He said, take this and be lucky. And he gave me a sixpence. It's absolutely true. He gave me the sixpence. And since then, I've kept it around. And my luck actually changed. I met my wife very soon after. I met, you know, Ingrid, my second wife. My career... I was actually given a job at Capitol Radio about a week later. And I never ever get on a plane now without that. I've got a little tin and I keep that sixpence in it. And I think I would definitely like that on the desert island because it was given to me in the most extraordinary circumstances to bring me luck. And it actually has brought me luck.

Presenter31:31

Chris Darren, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you.

Chris Tarrant31:35

Very good fun. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Speaker 431:43

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.