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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Interviews by Rich Pelley

‘We had therapists on standby’: Chris Tarrant on making Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

‘We don’t want to give you that’ … Tarrant in action in 2010.
‘We don’t want to give you that’ … Tarrant in action in 2010. Photograph: RGR Collection/Alamy

David Liddiment, ITV director of programmes (1997-2002)

I was responsible for the schedule. I’d listened to Chris Tarrant doing this game on the radio – Double or Quits – which was brilliant. I was intrigued by its TV version, called Cash Mountain, because it was well known in the industry that various people had turned it down. I invited the producer, Paul Smith, to pitch the full idea to me and Claudia Rosencrantz, ITV’s controller of entertainment.

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