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  "path": "/2026/03/24/1-000-000-questions-wants-a-millionaire-contestants-couldnt-answer-27534701/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-24T14:44:04.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Entertainment",
    "TV",
    "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?",
    "knowing you would have done better on a TV quiz",
    "found himself embroiled in a coughing cheating scandal",
    "Warwickshire",
    "Durham",
    "Leicestershire",
    "Mastermind",
    "Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source"
  ],
  "textContent": "Only a handful of contestants have gone all the way (Picture: ITV)\n\nEveryone knows the gratifying – perhaps sometimes delusional – feeling of just knowing you would have done better on a TV quiz than the person on the screen.\n\nAnyone who’s watched Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? will know that the show eases contestants in gently, lulling them into believing it might be them who leave the studio with a seven-figure cheque.\n\nHowever, the jackpot has only been won a handful of times. Six, to be exact (not including celebrity specials).\n\nCharles Ingram, a major in the British army, notoriously answered the million pound question correctly before the episode was pulled from air and the winnings withheld as he found himself embroiled in a coughing cheating scandal.\n\nCharles got the million pound question but not the prize money (Picture: ITV)\n\nOthers have come close, with 10 reaching the final question but falling short. Here are the questions they were unable to answer, see if you could have bagged the top prize. Answers at the end.\n\n## 1. Which county cricket team plays at Chester-le-Street?\n\nAfter the show was over, Chester-le-Street District Council leader Malcolm Pratt invited contestant Peter Lee to a one-day international match at the cricket ground that could have made him a millionaire, had he known a bit more about it.\n\nA. Warwickshire\n\nB. Durham\n\nC. Northants\n\nD. Leicestershire\n\n## 2. Which sovereign bore the moniker ‘the wisest fool in Christendom’?\n\nThis question completely stumped writer Kate Heusser but luckily she wasn’t too hard done by as she still managed to walk away with £500,000.\n\nA. James I\n\nB. Charles I\n\nC. Edward\n\nD. Henry I\n\nJeremy Clarkson has hosted the show since 2018 (Picture: ITV)\n\n## 3. Oberon orbits which celestial body?\n\nJohn Randall, a horse racing statistician, was doing rather well up until this question. He even managed to answer what a spelunker does as a hobby (with a 50:50 lifeline), which sounds pretty tricky. It’s exploring caves, obviously.\n\nA. Mercury\n\nB. Neptune\n\nC. Uranus\n\nD. Mars\n\n## 4. In the year 1912, which party did ex-US President Theodore Roosevelt run for?\n\nSteve Devlin managed to take away £500,000 answering questions such as ‘What kind of drink is “scrumpy”?’ (cider) and ‘Which Charles Dickens novel features the sisters Charity and Mercy Pecksniff?’ (Martin Chuzzlewit).\n\nBut this was the question that ultimately stopped him getting the coveted millionaire, as he had a good guess as to the answer but didn’t want to risk it.\n\nA. Bull Frog\n\nB. Bull Elephant\n\nC. Bull Dog\n\nD. Bull Moose\n\nJudith Keppel was a former garden designer until she won the £1 million prize in 2000 – the first contestant ever to win the jackpot after correctly answering the question about which king was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine (Henry II). She later became part of a team of quiz experts for the BBC game show Eggheads (Picture: Photo by Shutterstock)\n\n## 5. Tomas Masaryk was the founding President of which nation?\n\nMike Pomfrey might not have managed this question, but he did make history as the first contestant to have an ex-partner as a possible phone-a-friend, having originally tried to appear with her on a couples special. Isn’t that sweet?\n\nA. Poland\n\nB. Czechoslovakia\n\nC. Hungary\n\nD. Yugoslavia\n\n## 6. Outside of music, what profession did composer Borodin hold?\n\nPeter Spyrides, a freelance proofreader, was not put off quiz shows by missing this crucial question as he would go on to appear on Mastermind in 2003 with his specialist subject Blackadder, finishing joint 2nd. And he won £500,000 here. Not bad, Peter!\n\nA. Naval captain\n\nB. Chemist\n\nC. Lawyer\n\nD. Chef\n\nWilliam Ho took on the game recently and joined the unwanted club of those who left with nothing (Picture: ITV)\n\n## 7. Which of these is a butterfly, not a moth?\n\nRoger Walker won an impressive £500,000 on the show, but missed the chance to double it on this question.\n\nA. Mother Shipton\n\nB. Red Underwing\n\nC. Burnished Brass\n\nD. Speckled Wood\n\n## 8. Which of these UK prime ministers never served as foreign secretary?\n\nJohn Robinson, an English teacher from Birmingham, may have failed at the last hurdle in 2019 but he became first contestant to reach the £1,000,000 question since Ingram Wilcox won a million way back in 2006.\n\nA. Winston Churchill\n\nB. Alec Douglas-Home\n\nC. Anthony Eden\n\nD. Harold Macmillan\n\nChris Tarrant hosted the show for more than 15 years (Picture: Rex)\n\n## 9. Which of these people was born the same year as Queen Elizabeth II?\n\nDavyth Fear, a geography teacher from Caernarfon in Gwynedd, went home with £500,000, and the following year his brother, Donald, actually managed to cinch the million. Family board games are taken very seriously at Christmas.\n\nA. Audrey Hepburn\n\nB. Judy Garland\n\nC. Julie Andrews\n\nD. Marilyn Monroe\n\n## 10. In the history of motor sport, which of these iconic races was held first?\n\nAndrew Townsley, a retired GP from Glasgow, had a pretty impressive game in 2020, becoming the first contestant to win £64,000 with all four lifelines intact.\n\nA. Le Mans 24 Hours\n\nB. Monaco Grand Prix\n\nC. Indy 500\n\nD. Isle of Man TT\n\nDonald Fear was the last to take home the £1m in 2020 (Picture: ITV)\n\n## How many did you get right? Answers:\n\n1. B: Durham\n2. A: James I\n3. C: Uranus\n4. D: Bull Moose\n5. B: Czechoslovakia\n6. B: Chemist\n7. D: Speckled Wood\n8. A: Winston Churchill\n9. D: Marilyn Monroe\n10. D: Isle of Man TT\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "The £1,000,000 questions Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? contestants couldn’t answer"
}