Chris Tarrant in talks to air new fishing television series

Angling is celebrating this week after Chris Tarrant announced that he’s currently working on a new fishing series that he hopes will be aired on terrestrial television.

The fanatical fisherman – best known for the hit TV phenomenon Who Wants to be A Millionaire – has already struck deals with Discovery and an American TV station, but is now in talks with ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five regarding his collection of programmes entitled It’s a Kind of Madness.

Each show follows Chris catching fish in some of the most stunning angling destinations around the globe – from battling huge sailfish in the Maldives, to braving the extreme, but beautiful setting of the Yukon to catch trout to 44lb.

The series is by no means all about the exotic, though. Chris also masters the art of flyfishing for pike on Bristol’s vast Chew Reservoir, as well as targeting predators on tough Irish waters with top fishing guide and friend John Horsey.

“I’m extremely proud of the content that we have because the camera work is absolutely stunning and I’m completely in my element,” Chris told Angling Times.

“The fishing in the Maldives was crazy. We were getting double hook-ups and catching up to a dozen sailfish to around 150lb every day.

“This really is a labour of love for me, and the main inspiration behind making the series is that I want to show people what a fantastic sport we have and how proud I am to be a part of it.

“I know people will love watching this series as much as I enjoyed making it.”

Even though there is no shortage of fishing-related programmes shown on both Sky and digital channels, the sport has always found it notoriously difficult to negotiate any prime-time slots with terrestrial channels.

But it’s hoped that Chris can use his profile and connections, along with some superb content, to secure the sport some much-deserved mainstream coverage.

“I can’t believe how hard it is to try to get the terrestrial channels to take on fishing programmes and for the life of me I don’t understand why because they can be beautiful, inspiring and educational,” Chris continued.

“Anglers really get a raw deal when it comes to TV compared to other sports, but I’m going to do my damnedest to push this series as far as I can because we deserve coverage on terrestrial television.”