My life through a lens

Celebrities share the stories behind their favourite photographs. This week it’s the turn of presenter Chris Tarrant, 72

1955

I’m facing my dad’s savagely fast bowling in our back garden here. I had a lovely childhood. My parents, Joan and Basil, scrimped and saved to give me a good education, and I played cricket, rugby and hockey for the school. I went fishing a lot with my dad and grandad. Then as soon as I had learnt how to swim I was allowed to go off to the river on my own.

I’d do it almost every day in the summer.

1978

I have been interviewing Sir Cliff Richard, seen here with me on Tiswas, since 1972 and he’s always a delight. He answers anything you ask, always turns up in a really positive mood and there are never any tantrums. He’s a really wonderful guy and part of the fabric of British life. With Cliff there’s no agenda, or a manager lurking around saying, ‘Don’t mention that!’

1981

This is from the Tiswas days, with Lenny Henry. I was a teacher for a while, but one day I saw a TV journalist interviewing someone for a few minutes then driving away in a nice car with an even nicer girl inside. I thought, ‘That’s the job for me!’ and wrote a very long letter to every TV company in Britain. I cringe when I think about it. I used phrases like ‘I am the face of the 70s’ and ‘This is your last chance to snap me up!’ But I did get job offers from two news channels.

1998

I almost turned down Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? – I told them I was really busy but I’d do the pilot. This is me around the time it started. Judith Keppel was the first millionaire winner, in 2000. There’d been winners in America, but, as Jerry Springer told me, they’d dumbed down the questions for the US show. Judith came out of the blue – a very polite, well-spoken lady, who was nervous. Suddenly we were up to £500,000. Recently she told me, ‘People still come up and touch me for good luck.’

2000

This is my dad surprising me at the National Television Awards. Sir Trevor McDonald had announced I was being given a special lifetime achievement award and that someone was here to see me. And on came my dad dressed as The Phantom Flan Flinger – a famous Tiswas character. I couldn’t believe it. I’d spoken to him that morning and he wished me good luck – the sneaky sod. We had the biggest hug and the whole of the Royal Albert Hall was cheering. It was a real lump-in-the-throat moment.

2005

My best mate Ian Botham is one of my all-time heroes. He’s also a fishing nut and in this picture we’re filming a programme called Botham On The Fly. I’d agreed to take part as long as we didn’t end up in prison or Alcoholics Anonymous. But it was all OK. Eric Clapton took part too, the show was just a bunch of well-known people who loved to fish. The most extraordinary people go fishing, you know. People like Jim Davidson, Paul Whitehouse, Bob Mortimer and Bobby Davro. A lot of very loud people go fishing.

2011

My partner Jane, here with me at the NTAs, has been really supportive these last 12 years and was a tower of strength when I had a stroke in 2014. We’d both emerged from fairly bitter divorces when we met, and neither of us wanted to meet anyone else. But she made me laugh and now she’s my best friend. Jane’s gone from being a city girl to a total country bumpkin. I bought her some expensive Hunter wellies early on in our relationship and she asked if she could swap them for a bikini. Now, she’d want the wellies.

2012

I’ve been doing Extreme Railway Journeys for nearly eight years, and my crew worked out we’ve travelled seven times the circumference of the Earth. The first one we ever did (pictured) was nearly a disaster. We went to the Congo and our first train was six days late, then broke down in a pitch black tunnel overnight. No one wants to break down in the middle of the night in the Congo.