OH BROTHER , I’M A MILLIONAIRE
History teacher is first ITV jackpot winner in 14 years – 12 months after sibling walked away with £500,000
HIS brother fell at the final hurdle in the same contest – although the £500,000 he won on the way clearly took the edge off.
But last night Donald Fear, 57, went the full distance and became the first jackpot winner on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 14 years.
A history teacher at Jeremy Corbyn’s former school, he whizzed through the questions in what is believed to be record time for the show.
He said he was able to answer the £1million question – ‘In 1718, which pirate died in battle off the coast of what is now North Carolina?’ – before he’d seen it properly.
It was at this point in the show – the final question – on September 1 last year that his retired geography teacher brother Davyth, 60, stumbled and chose to walk off with his half million.
But as a history buff, Donald, from Shropshire, knew the answer to his question instantly.
‘The first thing I spotted was that there was a date in there… then a microsecond later I saw that it was 1718,’ he said. ‘Then synapses went, “That’s got to be Blackbeard”. That was the only thing it could be. I’m a dates man.’
The day after his win in the recorded show, Mr Fear handed in his notice as head of history at Haberdashers’ Adams grammar school in Shropshire, which the former Labour leader attended.
He will see out the school term, then begin his retirement two years earlier than planned.
He intends to give 70 per cent of his winnings away to family members and to charity and leave himself with just enough for a ‘comfortable retirement’.
The father-of-four and grandfather hesitated on only two questions, using his 50/50 lifeline for one of them.
‘I was so fortunate,’ he said. ‘Of the 15 questions, I probably knew 13 immediately before the options appeared.’ He added: ‘A quiz is very easy if you know the answers and I did know the answers.’
He said he is ‘happy’ in the house he shares with Deb, his wife of 33 years. The couple are parents to Kat, 31, Ali, 30, Izzy, 26, and 22year-old Chris.
The last £1million winner on the show was retired civil servant Ingram Wilcox in 2006.
‘Easy if you know the answers’