North Staffordshire teacher to relive the moment he won Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on TV tonight

ITV is revisiting some of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire's iconic wins in a new series.

While the aim of the show seems so simple - answer just 15 questions with the help of three lifelines - and you get to take home £1million.

But anyone who has watched the ITV show will know it's far from easy, and only a handful of people have managed to claim the top prize in the show's 16-year history, not including 'Coughing Major' Charles Ingram.

The first of the six-part series Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: The Million Pound Question aired last week.

It revisited the iconic win of Judith Keppel, the first UK millionaire from the world-famous gameshow.

And this weekend's installment will relive the moment former North Staffordshire teacher  David Edwards took home the top prize.

Here we take a look back at David's 15-question journey to becoming an overnight millionaire - and what he planned to do with the money.

And while we're at it, here are the other winners and their all-important £1 million questions. From new marriages abroad to bankruptcy and grim gardening accidents, here's what came next...

David Edwards - 2001

David Edwards is a former physics teacher of Cheadle High School, Blythe Bridge High and Denstone College near Uttoxeter.

He devoted £1,000 to phoning the show after calculating how many times he would need to call to get on.

David - then aged 54 - also practiced finger co-ordination for the Fastest Finger selection round, having been beaten in an earlier appearance.

His scheme worked and in April 2001 he became the show's second winner, pocketing £1million after identifying that Quercus Robur as the Latin name for a type of tree.

Following his success, David went on to compete in both series of Are You an Egghead? in 2008 and 2009.

When he was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, David’s Phone-a-Friend was his son Richard, who later competed himself and won £125,000.

Despite becoming an overnight millionaire, David - who competes for Wales in international quizzing -  vowed to carry on teaching until a replacement could be found.

He went straight back to work and only moved 200 yards down the road to a bigger house with wife Vivian.

Speaking to The Sentinel at the time, David - who previously won Mastermind and Mensa Superbrain - said: "I find the fastest finger round the hardest but I knew if I got into the chair I had a realistic chance of winning a lot of money.

"I have a good general knowledge brain but I was also aware I could come up against a real banana skin of a question.

"I was aware it was going well but was not thinking too far ahead. I never expected to be walking away with £1 million.

"After, Chris Tarrant said something quite perceptive - he thought it was more important to me to get 15 questions right rather than walk away with the money.

"One thing I do remember is being very relieved to get to £32,000 as that couldn't be taken away from me.

"I used all three lifelines on the £125,000 question - Jack Straw's proper name. I thought John was perhaps too obvious. I really did not know which of the four it was. I was hoping the audience would give me a clue. I then phoned my son. I wasn't surprised when he said: "Sorry dad, I've no idea."

"I then thought I'm not walking away without using a lifeline. I thought it was between James and John which the 50-50 threw up.

"I went for John as some of the audience would have known if it was James and the show makes a point of not having any trick questions.

"I knew the next one and grinned and I would have answered the other two straight away if asked them in a pub quiz.

"It was only on the final question that I became conscious of what was at stake.

"If I'd lost the £468,000 I would have thought it wasn't to be, but the next morning I would have felt a little bit differently.

"There was just one moment when I was really worried - when Chris Tarrant said: 'If you had gone for grain - and you did not think it could possibly be grain.'

"For a tenth of a second I screwed up my eyes and thought 'Oh no.' I was confident the answer was trees apart from then.

"When I realised I had won I remember feeling an anti climax as the last question had gone and there were no more for me to answer. I've obviously got a warped mind."

The couple, who used to live in Cheadle for 15 years before moving to Denstone, revealed at the time that they had no immediate plans to leave Staffordshire.

Instead, they intended to use some of the winnings to visit relatives in Australia.

He also bought a holiday home in France and used some of his cash to pursue his love of traditional Northumbrian sword-dancing.

David, formerly head of science at Cheadle High School, added: "We have mainly been around friends since the win and I do not feel anybody has treated me any differently so far. Nobody seems to have shown any jealousy. There has not been a vaguely negative comment."

In 1985, he won Brain of Britain and five years later he was the 19th winner of Mastermind.

He remains a popular and well respected member of the Derbyshire and East Staffordshire Pub Quiz circuits.

He said: "It's my oxygen and it's something I enjoy socially. I will carry on watching Millionaire - I find it compulsive watching."

Winning question: If you planted the seeds of Quercus robur, what would grow? A – Trees, B – Flowers, C – Vegetables, D – Grain.

Answer: The answer was A.

And the other winners...

Judith Keppel - 2000

In 2000, garden designer Judith Keppel - made quiz show history as she became the first ever winner of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.

In desperate need of cash so concocted a plan to spend £100 calling the quiz show more than 50 times in the hope of securing a place.

Judith - then aged 58 -  is also the only woman ever to have won the million-pound prize.

Fun fact, she is the third cousin of Camilla Parker-Bowles and can trace her ancestry back to the Royal Family, who her jackpot question just happened to be about.

Cautious of wasting her win, she treated herself to a relatively modest £20,000 Audi - chosen because of the boot space - holidayed in Indian and Asia and made a donation to a tiger conservation charity.

She sold her Fulham townhouse in favour of a small London flat and a property in Albi, south-west France before landing a regular role on BBC game show Eggheads in 2003.

And she believes she has her single status to thank for her dramatic change in fortunes.

“I’ve always thought I wouldn’t have done Millionaire if I’d been married,” she once told the Telegraph.

“I just feel my husband would have said something like, 'Don’t be so silly’, and then I wouldn’t have done it. And I think there are a lot of women out there in similar situations who maybe don’t have the confidence to go on TV. It’s a real shame.”

Winning question: Which King was married to Eleanor of Aquitane? A – Henry I, B – Henry II, C – Richard I, D – Henry V.

Answer: The answer was B.

Robert Brydges - 2001

Fans were up in arms when the already-loaded former city banker scooped another million in September 2001.

Robert, then 60, had retired 20 years early after making millions as vice-president with US banking giant Hanover Trust, before becoming a director of investment brokers GNI Fund Management.

He lived a lavish life with his American wife and their two privately-educated children, splitting their time between their £900,000 Hampshire mansion and £2million townhouse in the exclusive Holland Park area of West London.

Robert reportedly only entered the show because he thought the questions were too easy not to.

One neighbour sniped: “Gambling on the tricky questions must be a lot easier when you’re already worth millions. I suppose £16,000 must seem like loose change to him.”

After winning, he studied for an MA degree at The Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham and dedicated his time to the ultimate upper-class dream.

“I planted 50 truffle-inoculated oak saplings, which take around eight to ten years to produce," he said.

Winning question: Which scientific unit is named after an Italian nobleman? A – Pascal, B – Ohm, C – Volt, D – Hertz.

Answer: The answer was C.

Pat Gibson - 2004

Wigan software developer Pat is one of the world's most successful quiz champions and in 2018 was ranked the number one quizzer in the world.

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

And on a roll after his win, he went part time to devote himself to quizzing, and was crowned Mastermind champion in 2005 before winning BBC Radio 4's Brain of Britain in 2006 and landing a part on Eggheads.

He now spends four to five hours a day honing his quizzing talents, but told The Sun nothing compares to the pressure of being sat in that chair.

“I remember when I first saw the show wondering how they would avoid being besieged by a wave of big winners," he said.

“But for a contestant on set, the music, the audience, the lighting and fog machines, and the opponents in the Fastest Finger contests made it far more dramatic and stressful in person.

“I was extremely tense but Chris was expert and supportive as I slowly progressed through the questions. I can remember the studio atmosphere mounting as I kept pressing forward."

Winning question: Which of these is not one of the American Triple Crown horse races? A – Arlington Million, B – Belmont Stakes, C – Kentucky Derby, D – Preakness Stakes.

Answer: The answer was A.

Ingram Wilcox - 2006

Professional quizzer Ingram was broke from his divorce and living in a one-bed flat in Chippenham, Somerset, when he became the fifth winner in September 2006.

Despite their divorce, his ex-wife Rebecca was thrilled for him, telling The Mirror: "The money is much needed and well deserved. I imagine Ingram will buy a house. I doubt if he will give me any money - but he will probably take me out to dinner. We are both pretty broke after the divorce."

"Quizzes have always been his passion and it's terrific he has finally won a big prize," Rebecca explained. "He is quiet and charming and quite a modest sort of man - but he is very clever. He has a massive general knowledge and is a walking encyclopedia."

After scooping the prize he quit his £20,000 job as a civil servant, gave his kids £50,000 each and bought a VW Touran.

But even by 2006, £1million wasn't what it had once been, especially after the property boom, and Ingram moved to France after finding himself priced out of the market.

“Even at the time I won it, when I started looking round for a house, nine years ago, I saw that quite sizeable areas of Bath didn’t have a house for less than a million. At the time it seemed like an unimaginable amount, but I have learned better than that," he said.

Winning question: Which boxer was famous for striking the gong in the introduction to J. Arthur Rank films? A – Bombardier Billy Wells, B – Freddie Mills, C – Terry Spinks, D – Don Cockell.

Answer: The answer was A.

And... Charles Ingram

 

Former Army major Charles seemingly fluked his way to success in September 2001, taking a stab in the dark at most of the questions and changing his mind at the last minute.

But TV producers smelled a rat and a court later found him guilty of cheating thanks to perfectly timed coughs from college lecturer Tecwen Whittock, who was seated in the Fastest Finger seats.

Charles and his wife Diana were given 18-month suspended sentences and fined £15,000 while Whittock received one for 12 months.

All continue to maintain their innocence and the scandal was revisited in the ITV series, Quiz, earlier this year.

In 2018 The Sun reported that the couple had been forced to sell their £450,000 home, and they're said to have declared themselves bankrupt for a fourth time in August 2019.

In court, Ingram said his life had become a 'living hell' since the show, telling newspaper: “My family has been subject to about 60 acts of assault, aggression, abuse and vandalism over the last five years.”

And in 2010 the father-of-three was badly injured in a freak gardening accident where the three biggest toes on his left foot were ripped off after he slipped on a rotten apple and lost his footing under the steel blades of the petrol-powered mower.

He told the North Wiltshire and Kennet Gazette & Herald: "I was only wearing Wellingtons and it sliced right through the rubber.

"I remember seeing my big toe lying on the grass and thinking, 'oh dear'.

"I got up and managed to shuffle down to the front of the garden."
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: The Million Pound Question airs at 8PM on Sundays from 22 November on ITV.