Quotes from Chris Tarrant

Without the railways, the Holocaust wouldn't have happened. I don't actually think the second world war would have happened without them.

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.

Whenever I go abroad, I never return home craving roast beef and Yorkshire pudding or fish and chips. Instead all I really want is a particularly good lamb dopiaza.

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.

Sometimes I'll go fishing with a group of friends but I am just as happy sitting out there on my own. The strange mixture of peace and challenge that comes with being a dedicated angler has always been intoxicating to me.

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

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 dad was running up and down stairs at 85; my granddad lived until 96, and married a much younger woman at 86.

I don't do manbags! But don't flaunt your money, your most expensive camera or your best watch. And don't use a cashpoint in the middle of nowhere, or carry anything loose; it might get stolen by someone racing past on a scooter.

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.

When I was at university in Birmingham, I used to spend half my grant betting on horse racing. Seven terms out of nine, I made a profit.

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 am incredibly lucky to be alive because one in three people who have strokes don't make it.

But then we got to Victoria Falls at the end: at dawn it's one of the most beautiful sights you will every see. We stayed at The Victoria Falls Hotel, a luxury hotel that looks out over the falls.

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.

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.