Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant retires after 50 years-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Former Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant has retired from TV (Picture: ITV)

Chris Tarrant has revealed he’s retired from TV after a career spanning more than 50 years.

The presenter, 78, is best known for fronting the children’s programme Tiswas from 1974 to 1981 and the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? from its inception in 1998 until 2014.

In 2012 he began presenting the travel documentary series, Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways, which ran for six seasons and ended in 2020.

Now, nearly five years on he’s confirmed we won’t be seeing him fronting any more shows.

‘Yes. I’ve stopped,’ he said.

‘I mean I think lockdown really, you just started to get everything in a bit perspective and I thought, I’ve done this thing for 50 years.

His career spanned more than 50 years (Picture: Ian West/ PA Wire)

‘You know, I don’t need the money, without sounding silly. So, I was thinking, why am I still doing this?’ he added when speaking to The Sun.

Although Chris appeared on Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Weekend and compilation show Britain’s Favourite Sitcoms last year, he’s since been focused on spending his time travelling.

Speaking at the TRICS Christmas lunch he said he’s now done ‘lots of things that I’ve been putting off instead that have been great’.

In the past year he’s been on safari with his two eldest grandchildren, travelled to Borno with his wife Jane and photographed bears in Alaska, adding: ‘So, why the hell would I go to work?’

However, the offers are still coming in, with Chris quipping his agent still gets asked if he will host ‘all sorts of rubbish’.

He presented the game show from 1998 until 2014 (Picture: Rex/ Shutterstock)

Chris said he ‘turned down’ hosting The Masked Singer and had no desire to front a travel show as he didn’t want to be told ‘where to go, what to do and you know schedules’.

Although the presenter said he had a ‘great time’ throughout his career, he ‘didn’t miss it’.

Starting his career as a presenter at ATV in 1972, Chris went on to present Tiswas before joining the Capital Breakfast show in 1987, a role he held for the following 17 years, then going on to start on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?

His other TV credits included Tarrant on TV, Tarrant Lets the Kids Loose, It’s Now What You Know and The Colour of Money.

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