Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: the Sixth Million Pound win

OK, so, in case you don't already know, which would be a minor miracle given how heavily it's been anticipated all week, WWTBAM crowned its sixth million pound winner last night (seventh if you count Major Ingram), with Donald Fear becoming the first of the Jeremy Clarkson era, and surpassing his brother Davyth, who won £500,000 last year. And he did it in style too, using only one lifeline en route. I guess the UK has finally had its John Carpenter moment then!

 

I persuaded my Dad to watch it (with the sound off, as he can't stand Clarkson!), and he told me afterwards that Mr Fear's million pound question was far too easy. Said question was:

In 1718, which pirate died in battle off the coast of what is now North Carolina?

A: Calice Jack

B: Blackbeard

C: Bartholomew Roberts

D: Captain Kidd

 

My Dad said to me afterwards that the question might just as well have been "Name a pirate", saying, even if you had no idea, you could easily guess the only one you'd heard of!

 

He does have a point to be fair: the million pound questions, in the UK at least, have generally been deceptively easy.

 

For example, Peter Lee, the first person to see the Million Pound Question in the UK; his MPQ basically boiled down to "In which English county is Chester-le-Street?". In his biography of the show, Chris Tarrant says many people have called him out on how easy that was, to which he always replies by asking whether they knew the answer to his £500,000 question ("What does the Japanese word 'kamizake' literally mean?" A: Devine wind), and they usually didn't.

Major Ingram's million pound question is also widely considered by many to be too easy, as is that of Robert Brydges from a few weeks later. Me and my parents watched Mr Brydges' game live, incidentally, and during the break, my Dad went upstairs to check his encyclopedia to see if the answer was correct!

Many people have also expressed suspicions about Mr Fear's questions yesterday, which, as I said before, he had little to no trouble with answering, and using them to claim the whole thing was set up. Total rubbish of course, the chap just happened to get a good run of questions he happened to know.

In fact, earlier I came across a Twitter discussion about how just one awkward question can completely throw a contestant who had been flying up until then. Among those contributing was David 'KP' Howell from Bother's Bar and the DoND forum, who cited how fifth Millionaire Ingram Wilcox used all his lifelines before reaching £32,000, but knew all five of his final questions; had, say, his £125,000 question been one he didn't know, he'd have been stopped there and then.

A very good point. In fact, if I may add to that, Mr Wilcox experienced a big Sliding Doors moment on his £32,000 question:

Which emperor did Peter Ustinov portray in the 1951 film 'Quo Vadis'?

A: Claudius

B: Nero

C: Hadrian

D: Augustus

 

He didn't know it, but he did know it wouldn't be Hadrian, as Quo Vadis is set around the time of the start of the New Testament, therefore ruling him, a much later emperor than the other three, out. He used his one remaining lifeline, 50/50, and was left with Nero and Hadrian, thus giving him the correct answer. (Chris Tarrant was most impressed by this deduction!) Had the 50/50 left a different wrong answer, he could well have been forced to bail on £16,000.

 

Another good example is second Millionaire David Edwards, who knew all of his questions except the £125,000 question, which he used all three lifelines on before making an educated guess, which he very nearly went the other way on.

There have also been numerous contestants, especially from the early days when six figure wins were less common and thus, players were understandably more nervous about risk taking, of a player using all three lifelines on a question before taking the money.

It just illiustrates how unpredictable and dramatic WWTBAM is, which is why it's become such a big worldwide success, and will likely continue to do so for many years even though the original format is over two decades old now.

Quick mention to Jeremy Clarkson as well, who had a most difficult job taking over the show from Chris Tarrant, and has done an admirable job all things considered. In that first pilot run, he was understandably nervous, and trying as hard as he could not to quote Tarrant's stock phrases word for word. But in the further series since, he has settled and is now doing a great job.

 

Long may the WWTBAM revival continue!

Back on Monday with my usual UC review, see yous all then then.