Why Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is still a huge hit 25 years on
It was the first UK game show to offer contestants the chance to win the life-changing sum of £1million.
But despite the unprecedented prize pot, no one realised quite how popular Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? would become.
The show first hit our screens 25 years ago, with presenter Chris Tarrant at the helm.
Members of the public were invited to tackle multiple-choice questions based on general knowledge, winning a cash prize for each one they answered correctly – and the harder the questions became, the more money they could win.
Contestants had three lifelines to help improve their chances on the show – 50/50, Ask The Audience and Phone A Friend.
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At the height of its popularity the show was pulling in more than 19 million viewers (© Stellify Media/Sony Pictures Television)But as soon as their lifelines were up, they’d leave with whatever cash prize was guaranteed by the last safety net.
At the height of its popularity in 1999, the show was pulling in a massive 19 million viewers – but in its 16 year-run, just six people hit the million-pound jackpot and only five of those winners were legitimate.
By the time the show ended in 2014, it had been broadcast in 120 territories around the world and made in 83 different languages.
An Indian-Hindi version of the show appeared in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, and it even spawned a West End play called Quiz, followed by a smash-hit TV show of the same name.
Only six people have won the million - including Judith Keppel (Stellify Media)Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? was revived by ITV in 2018 with Jeremy Clarkson filling Tarrant’s shoes – but only one contestant hit the £1million jackpot.
The show’s first top prize winner, Judith Keppel – who is the third cousin of Queen Camilla – invested most of her prize money in a French villa overlooking a vineyard, as well as a trip to India to support her daughter’s tiger conservation charity.
But her biggest take-home from the show was a two-decade career on TV quiz show Eggheads.
She signed up when it was still on the BBC in 2003, before moving to Channel 5 in 2021. Judith, 80, says: “Millionaire was great fun and taught me a lot. Winning was the most surprising thing that has ever happened to me in my life. I’m still amazed by it now.”
Judith, who lives in Battersea, South West London, initially hoped that going on the show in 2000 would help solve her money worries, but she never imagined it would make her a millionaire. “I thought it would be lovely to win £32,000 or £64,000… I never imagined I would get £1million,” she says.
Judith recalls that the pressure was intense as she sat in the famous black chair under a spotlight.
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Ingram Wilcox won in 2006 (Kent News & Pictures Ltd.)But after some tricky moments, she surprised herself by getting to the £1million question that would change her life: “Which king was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine?”
Judith says: “The hackles rose on the back of my neck because two months before, I had been driving through France and stopped by a church with the tombs of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II and Richard I.
It was pure luck.”
Another contestant to win the jackpot, dad-of-two Pat Gibson, also struck lucky with the million-pound question when, in 2004, he was asked: “Which of these racehorse races is not part of the American triple crown?”
Jeremy Clarkson has hosted the show since 2018 (Stellify Media)For a then-computer programmer in the betting industry, it couldn’t have been a better question.
“When he said I had won, I was completely numb,” says Pat, 62, who lives in Wigan, Gtr Manchester, with his wife Sheila, 63.
“I remember silver confetti pouring and my wife joining me on stage and just feeling stupefied.”
But for Pat, the hardest part of the show had been the preliminary Fastest Finger First round – where contestants had one question and four answers that they needed to put into a particular order to earn their place in the big chair.
“I was physically shaking,” says Pat, who has since gone on to become one of the world’s most successful quizzers. “There’s always the risk that if you make a mistake, it’s over.”
Pat Gibson felt "stupefied" when he won a million pounds (PA)Pat also fell victim to one of host Tarrant’s tensely timed advert breaks, while he was at the £64,000 mark. “I was waiting to see if I was right or wrong and he hopped off his chair and disappeared for a cup of tea!” Pat recalls.
Another millionaire, former civil servant Ingram Wilcox, 79, handed £50,000 to each of his five children and splashed out on a five-bedroom home in the south of France with his winnings.
When he appeared in the show, Ingram was living in a bedsit in Bath and going through a divorce.
Incredibly, he had never even heard of the programme until a colleague tested him on Judith’s questions. The grandad of four, who still lives in France, remembers: “He asked me the questions one by one and I got them all right so I thought, ‘I should do something about this’.”
Of his 2006 win, Ingram – who had previously appeared on Mastermind and Fifteen to One – said: “I felt so satisfied… it was like a dream. It completely changed my life.”
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