Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A tricky question about quiz show failures...
Q4 for £500 Q5 for £1,000 Q6 for £2,000 Q7 for £4,000 Q8 for £8,000 Q9 for £16,000 Q10 for £32,000 Q11 for £64,000 Q12 for £125,000 Q13 for £250,000
IT was the moment many Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? fans were starting to wonder if they would get to see.
Last night viewers watched Gareth Kendall win £125,000 on the revamped ITV quiz show.
He became the first contestant to land one of the top four prizes during this seven-episode run hosted by Jeremy Clarkson.
Gareth, 31, of Bradford, firstly shocked viewers when he revealed an emotional reason why he could answer one of the questions.
Asked “The ruins of Urquhart Castle stand on the banks of which loch?”, he said he knew it to be Loch Ness because he lost his leg there in a car accident.
Then, after leaving even Clarkson speechless, Gareth went on to surprise viewers again by finally breaking the run of bad luck that the new host seemed to be bringing the contestants.
Previously, fans of the show had been left scratching their heads because the highest amount won in five episodes was £32,000.
A string of people crashed out before the £1,000 mark.
Some of the questions that left contestants stumped included “The Balearic Islands form a province of which country?... (a) Spain (b) Italy (c) France (d) Greece”.
The person in the hot seat said Italy, when the answer is Spain.
And some viewers were left shouting from their sofas at home when another contestant made a rather unfortunate guess.
When asked “In Greek mythology who is the Goddess of Victory?... (a) Umbro (b) Reebok (c) Adidas (d) Nike”, he plumped for Umbro rather than Nike, and went home with only £1,000.
He hadn’t even used any of his four lifelines. At least his mistake was nowhere near as costly as the one made by Rob Mitchell who got to £250,000 in 2003 when Chris Tarrant hosted the show, but got his £500,000 question wrong and dropped £218,000, walking away with £32,000. Rob guessed the Oscar statuette is 11in high, when it is 13.5in.
So, why has Gareth been the only one to shine so far in the new series to mark the 20th anniversary? (A) We’re not as smart as we area at the centre of a hurricane?
A) Ear B) Mouth C) Nose D) Eye
Which hugely successful pop star took the lead in the 1996 film of Evita?
Who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1992 for his role in Scent of a Woman? What word represents the letter Q in the phonetic alphabet? The Ashanti people are native to which continent? What does the word “dulce” indicate on a Spanish wine label? For what form of entertainment was Harry Houdini famous? To which of these might a codicil be added? Which was the first stately home to open its doors to the public? Which of these artists has never had a UK No.1 hit single?
In European mythology, which of these is an archaic term for a supernatural being?