Tarrant arrested 'for throwing cutlery at diner in curry house'

Chris Tarrant was arrested late on Sunday after a diner at a curry house accused the television presenter of throwing cutlery at him.

The host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? who has been released on police bail, dismissed the claims that he assaulted the man as "utter nonsense".

Tarrant, 60, was eating with two colleagues at the MemSaab restaurant in Nottingham when the alleged assault took place.

He claimed that the "mythical alleged assault" occurred after he exchanged friendly banter with the man and his girlfriend.

The presenter told Sky News that he did not know if he threw "a spoon, a fork, a napkin - whatever" but that he had chatted amiably with the couple later.

"It was just a bit of horseplay. There was no malice involved at all. I've had people come up to me and pour beer over my head but I don't turn around and smack them. It's part of your life and I accept it but this one was kind of weird," he said.

He admitted that he did jokingly "lob" some cutlery on to the couple's table after asking them to leave him alone to discuss work with his colleagues.

The first Tarrant knew of the assault claim, he said, was when police arrested him at his hotel shortly after he left the restaurant on Sunday night. He was interviewed and released on bail yesterday morning.

His spokesman told the BBC that Tarrant had drunk two pints of beer and shared a bottle of red wine at the restaurant with some of his colleagues.

"There was no physical contact, no unpleasantness and no hostility. It was just part of the ongoing banter between the two tables," the spokesman said.

The veteran presenter, who made his name on the 1980s Saturday morning TV show, Tiswas, has struggled to avoid the headlines since the collapse of his marriage to his wife, Ingrid, last year. The couple, who have two children, separated after stories emerged in the press accusing Tarrant of having an affair.

Tarrant admitted that the last eight or nine months had been "tough" but denied he was under stress.

Nottinghamshire Police confirmed that a 60-year-old man was arrested shortly after 10pm on Sunday following an emergency call.

The restaurant's owner, Naj Aziz, said staff had not seen an incident but said a customer had mentioned "something had gone wrong".

"A customer, I think he made the complaint, said that something had gone wrong but he left very quickly and we didn't get an explanation off him.

"Of course, incidents like that are always unfortunate... I wasn't here last night. I have spoken to my staff and they told me they didn't notice anything suspicious, nasty or horrible in any way, shape or form.

"Frankly, we didn't even know that Mr Tarrant was in the restaurant last night," added Mr Aziz.

The presenter, who had just spent three days filming a show for disabled children in the city, was bailed to appear in June.