‘I am just doing it’
Jeremy Clarkson has opened up about feeling like “an imposter” in his role as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host ahead of the quiz show’s return this weekend.
It’s been almost three decades since the ITV quiz show made its debut on the nation’s screens, with presenter Chris Tarrant the man originally at the helm.
Jeremy Clarkson is back for a new series of Millionaire
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ITV
Mr Tarrant left the hot seat behind him in 2014, setting the stage for Mr Clarkson to take over for the rebooted series in 2018.
For series 35, Mr Clarkson, who also runs his own farm, brewery, and pub in the Cotswolds, is back to provide the brainteasers for a fresh batch of budding quizzers.
Chris Tarrant used to be the face of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
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PA
However, despite being the face of the long-running quiz show for the best part of a decade, Mr Clarkson has conceded he still struggles to shrug off the influence of Mr Tarrant.
“I still think it’s his show. I am an imposter,” the former Grand Tour host told ITV ahead of the new series.
“Even though I have been doing the show for eight years, I still think of it as Chris Tarrant’s show.
“There are so many things like ‘nice and quiet in the audience’ – that was all his.
Jeremy Clarkson (right) also hosts Clarkson’s Farm alongside Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
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AMAZON“The language of the show was written by Chris, and I am just doing it,” Mr Clarkson admitted.
While he may feel he’s unable to venture out from Mr Tarrant’s shadow, Mr Clarkson did suggest there would be plenty of years left of the show for him to do so.
Praising the show’s longevity, Mr Clarkson said: “It’s genuinely the granddaddy. There are a number of good TV quizzes but there is no getting away from the fact this is the big daddy, it’s the GOAT, it’s the OG.
“I love watching it at home. ‘A’ because I have no memory so I could watch a show I recorded six months earlier and I would look at it completely fresh.
Jeremy Clarkson has admitted feeling like an ‘imposter’
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GETTY“And ‘B’, you can play at home. You have time to discuss with your family members and join in. On most quiz shows, you have to answer thequestions as quickly as possible.
“With Millionaire, you can play along, and the money is huge too. I don’t see how you can become tired of it.
“It’s like saying ‘I’m bored of quizzes’. Nobody will ever get bored of quizzes. You can’t improve on the format and besides, why mess with it?” Mr Clarkson went on.
Fans will have to tune into Sunday’s series opener to see if any contestants can bag the sought-after seven-figure jackpot. In the meantime, Clarkson has been causing a stir of late with a handful of political takes.
Chris Tarrant left his role on the ITV quiz show back in 2014
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PA
Earlier this month, he reignited his public spat with Green Party leader Zack Polanski after previously branding him a “snaggle-toothed vegan”.
After learning that Mr Polanski and his party members were planning to vote on whether it would decriminalise drug use, Mr Clarkson was far from supportive.
“I’m staggered, really, to hear that Green Party fella with the bad teeth and silly walk saying he wants to legalise it. We should do the exact opposite,” Mr Clarkson wrote in the Sunday Times.
“We should do everything in our power to dissuade people from smoking it, and we should start by removing all taxes on pubs and breweries so that the healthy, friendly alternative that they offer becomes more attractive than ingesting a foulness that makes you violent and boring.”
Chris Tarrant was replaced by Jeremy Clarkson in 2018
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ITV
Just a few days earlier, Mr Clarkson had used one of his newspaper columns to slam the Labour governments over plans to make the countryside a “less white” environment.
Branding the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) plans as the brainchild of “left-leaning lunatics”, Mr Clarkson expressed his anger further.
“Another group of left-leaning lunatics announced this week that the countryside is racist because there are too many dogs in it,” Mr Clarkson fumed in The Sun.
He continued: “In what must be the world’s biggest generalisation, they said that Muslims don’t like dogs and that encountering one on a public footpath or in a wood can be very triggering.
Jeremy Clarkson in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire chair
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ITV
“Right, I see, and what am I supposed to do with this information. Lock my dogs in a box in the cellar? Shoot them? Sell them to a Korean restaurant?”
He emphatically concluded: “No. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do with it. Absolutely nothing.”
As well as Millionaire, Mr Clarkson has also been busy filming the upcoming fifth season of his Amazon series, Clarkson’s Farm.
