Piers Morgan says TV producers wanted to 'kill him off' in a publicity stunt to see if the nation would mourn him or not

Another proposal involved the critic being mauled by sharks

Piers Morgan (Getty)

The name 'Piers Morgan' is probably never going to follow the words 'national treasure' in a game of word association. But the controversial columnist has revealed that one TV production company wanted him to fake his death in an elaborate stunt to see if the nation would mourn him or not.

"A few years ago someone wanted me to take part in a reality show where I would be filmed recording my own fake death and they would record the national outpouring of grief," he explained.

"They said, 'obviously some people in your family would have to know it wasn’t real, maybe your mother', I thought, 'yeah and my kids maybe'.

Morgan, in a surprising moment of self-awareness, said he didn't expect a great deal of grief from the public.

"I told them, 'I don’t think you’ll be seeing Princess Diana-like scenes if I die'. It was an independent company who had approached Channel Four, who were very keen on the idea. It was going to be called Piers Morgan is dead."

Morgan is regularly in the news for his outlandish opinions - covering anything from Nicki Minaj to Cecil the Lion - and said the company had plenty of other ideas.

"The other one was to lower me into the South African ocean in a tank and see me get attacked by Great Whites," Morgan said.

Presumably this was also going to be a 'stunt'.

Or maybe not?