Phill unhappy with host Amstell

Phill Jupitus has revealed that he almost quit Never Mind The Buzzcocks because he thought host Simon Amstell was too bitchy.

The 48-year-old has been a team captain on the show since it started 14 years ago, but said he was unhappy when Amstell replaced original host Mark Lamarr.

In a new book, Jupitus writes: ‘It struck me with Simon that people were being booked especially to have the piss taken out of them in a very overt fashion.

‘Mark didn't book people to rag on them, it was just in the flow of the show that people suddenly went a bit weird and Mark could turn on them.

‘It became something else with Simon and started to get a bit wearing.’

However, Amstell left the show last year and Jupitus will be back for the new series next month, when it returns with a series of guest hosts.

Jupitus’s new book –Good Morning Nantwich: Adventures in Breakfast Radio – is largely about his time with BBC6 Music, which he quit following a bust-up with controller Lesley Douglas over the playlist.

He says that quitting stand-up to do the breakfast show was 'the biggest mistake of the whole endeavour'.

He added: 'I could do gigs and tour really easily but I'd need six months of doing clubs to build the act up again. Standup is a young man's game. There are some remarkable acts out there, people are doing the O2 Arena. It has moved on. I haven't.'

The book has just been published by HarperCollins. Click here to order it.

Published: 9 Aug 2010