Mark Lamarr, the former host of music quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, has been charged with common assault and false imprisonment, the Metropolitan police said.

The 51-year-old, who was born Mark Jones, was a regular on British TV screens in the 1990s and appeared on Channel 4 shows The Word and The Big Breakfast, as well as BBC2’s Shooting Stars.

He hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks between 1996 and 2005.

Lamarr was charged and released on conditional bail.

He will appear before magistrates in Uxbridge, west London, on 2 October, police said.

Born in Swindon, Wiltshire, in 1967, Lamarr began performing at London’s Comedy Store in the mid-eighties, and in 1990 joined Channel 4’s late-night magazine programme The Word.

After four years on The Big Breakfast, in 1996 he joined the launch of comedy quiz Never Mind The Buzzcocks – a role he held for nine years.

Aside from his television work, Lamarr also presented radio broadcasts for several BBC stations.

He left BBC Radio 2 in 2010, complaining that it had lost interest in alternative music.