Chris Tarrant

“My dad was my hero. He was part of the D-Day landings and came back to Reading in 1945 - I was born in 1946 - so the house was full of soldiers who'd been to war and that was obviously the main topic.”

“The Blue Train in South Africa is fantastic. You start your journey in a VIP lounge where you have your own individual steward who shows you to the train and looks after your cases, and it's champagne all the way.”

“Sometimes, I'd stop the car on the way home after filming 'Millionaire', and fish for a while in the dark.”

“My father was the marketing director of a biscuit manufacturer in Berkshire. It meant that every Friday he brought home huge bags of broken biscuits that could not be sold.”

“I used to go salmon fishing with the late Jim Slater, the renowned investor, and he would give me tips. He told me to buy shares in football clubs, so I invested in Manchester United before its shares went through the roof.”

“Probably the most formative thing was at the age of four my Granddad took me fishing. That actually became a major part of the rest of my life.”

“I didn't realise the depth of horror that happened in the Second World War every day.”

“If you go to Japan, even at the pokiest little station, every single train is arrives and leaves on time - not to a couple of minutes, within 30 seconds. In Canada, they have constant problems with massive avalanches and bear attacks on the line, but all these problems are solved immediately.”

“My grandad was the most wonderful man. He was a bit like me. He was basically a country bumpkin but he did well; he became managing director of quite a successful company but all he really wanted to do was to come home, put his disgusting old trampy clothes on and go for walks across the country.”

“No, I'm very patriotic. I'm very British and I'm very pro-British, but that in no way means you therefore exterminate anybody else you meet who doesn't come from Britain!”

“I went to university in Birmingham in the 1970s just when the curry revolution was starting in Britain.”

“I think the relentless tide of celebrity stuff on the telly is getting pretty tedious.”

“Some of the parts of Burma, we met people who'd never, ever gone out of their village. And they were brutally poor; incredibly poor. And yet they enjoy their lives.”

“I had a great childhood, I love my Dad to pieces and I just had a great time.”

“So as long as I can do something like this kids show or I can go off and film polar bears or I can do some radio and stuff, and sort of keep other strings in my bow working, then it's good.”

“I once went to La Boca district, where you can watch street performers doing tango, and joined in. But it's very hard to dance in Birkenstocks.”

“I have always thought that what matters most in life is freedom and health, not money.”

“As I get older, the idea of wasting time is becoming more and more abhorrent to me and I can't stand the idea of simply lying in bed.”

“My own marriages have not been a great success. I've been divorced twice and when I first got divorced it hit my parents very hard.”

“When I was kid I always wanted to be either the captain of the England cricket team or I wanted to be a river bailiff.”