An English teacher missed out on winning the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? jackpot after being unable to answer the £1 million question.
John Robinson, from Birmingham, raced through the questions on Monday night’s episode of the ITV show, before arriving at the final hurdle with no lifelines left.
For the £1 million question, Robinson had to say which former UK prime minister had never served as foreign secretary.
He was unable to choose from the options of Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home.
“I didn’t actually ever believe I’d say this, but I’m going to, this is your question for a million pounds” – Which of these UK prime ministers never served as foreign secretary? #WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire
— Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (@MillionaireUK) March 4, 2019
Deciding he was not willing to risk so much money, he opted to take the £500,000.
The correct answer would have been Churchill.
It was the first time host Jeremy Clarkson has seen a contestant get to the final round since he took over from Chris Tarrant in 2018.
The nail-biting moment was also the first time viewers had seen the show’s jackpot question being asked since 2006.
What a show that was! Make sure you tweet along with us tomorrow night (and all week) using the hashtag #WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire Can anyone else win big or even get the million? Tune in tomorrow at 9pm on @ITV/@UTV/WeareSTV to find out! pic.twitter.com/qPpDfbMw1Q
— Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (@MillionaireUK) March 4, 2019
Afterwards, Clarkson said: “What a player, what a fabulous player” and called the game play “extraordinary”.
Viewers said watching Robinson climb up the ladder had been stressful.
There have been five £1 million winners since Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? started on UK television in 1998.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? continues on ITV all week.