When Richard Osman revealed he was stepping down from House Of Games, his crew’s reaction was very enthusiastic about his replacement, telling him "we’re looking forward to Michael Sheen".
The 55-year-old novelist and former Pointless star announced his exit from the BBC quiz show back in March, with Sheen scheduled to assume hosting duties this September.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Osman explained: "We do 110 (episodes of House Of Games) a year and it knocks me out for a couple of months where I can’t write, but I didn’t want to leave and the show be taken off air, because there’s this amazing team and I love them all.
"So I’m chatting to the producers, saying, ‘can we find some sort of succession thing the BBC will be happy with, so I can bow out and you can all carry on?’, and I thought, ‘it’s going to be quite tough’.
"But we’re chatting away and someone says, ‘oh, Michael Sheen would like to do it’, now, normally when you say you’re quitting, everybody says, ‘oh my god, don’t go, we’ll really miss you’, but this time they’re all like, ‘oh that’s really good, we’re really looking forward to Michael Sheen’."
Osman revealed there will be an on-screen handover to Sheen, the star of The Damned United, likening the moment to "a bit like one of those Easter egg scenes in the superhero movies, only you don’t have to sit through eight hours of credits to get to it".
The presenter and author, whose brother Mat Osman plays bass in Suede, is next set to front the upcoming ITV game show The Golden Elevators.
In 2022, Osman stepped away from his co-hosting role on Pointless following 13 years on the show, aiming to dedicate more time to writing.
He launched his Thursday Murder Club series in 2020, following up his debut title with The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022), The Last Devil To Die (2023), and the most recent entry, The Impossible Fortune, published last September.
Osman’s complete interview features in the current issue of Radio Times, as well as on the publication’s website.
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