PAT GIBSON, APRIL 2004 It’s never about cash insists Pat

SOFTWARE developer Pat is one of the world’s most successful quiz champions and in 2018 was ranked No1 quizzer in the world.

Proving his skill, he was the only finalist to reach the million-pound question with two lifelines left.

Following his Millionaire win in 2004, the Irishman went part-time to devote himself to quizzing.

It paid off and he was crowned Mastermind champion a year later before winning BBC Radio 4’s Brain of Britain and landing a part on Eggheads, a year after that.

Unlike the other winners, Dad-of-two Pat, 59, from Wigan, insists he didn’t go on the show for the huge cash prize.

He says: “It’s a high profile programme and an exhilarating challenge. It was only afterwards when it registered that I’d won the money too. Obviously there was satisfaction in that too, but it wasn’t the reason I did it.”

Pat who spent weeks trying to enter the show, thought he’d missed out on a chance after two contestants came and went on his episode and then he got the answer wrong for the third “fastest finger” round.

“But then Chris said nobody had got it right, so we were back in play. They didn’t show that on TV, but by the time I was in the seat I was already feeling extremely tense.”

On his £1million question, Pat used his 50:50 and then his phone-a-friend

It was only afterwards I registered I’d won the money too. It wasn’t why I did the show PAT GIBSON ON HIS BIG WIN

TODAY Pat says his family lifestyle is modest

PATH TO RICHES On Millionaire before correctly answering that the Arlington Million was not one of the American Triple Crown horse races.

Following his win, little changed in Pat’s life, apart from him moving to working part -time, one week on and one week off. Whereas many millionaires might spend their money on foreign holidays or luxury items, Pat indulges in his love of quizzing, spending four to five hours a day honing his general knowledge skills.

He says: “Everyone always wants to know about the yacht or the horses, but there are none.

“We’re still living in the same house, and only ever changed cars when we needed to, once when a thief sheered off the steering wheel.”

But winning the million has given him unexpected fame. “I once got recognised while I was filling up a car at a petrol station in Oxfordshire.

“And in London, a load of binmen on the other side of the street started shouting, ‘It’s him off the telly!’

But otherwise, nothing much has changed.