Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Winner Donald Fear Shares Secrets Behind Record Win

Master Donald Fear took home the ultimate TV prize last night by winning the top prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and he was better than his brother, who made £ 500,000 on the show a year ago.

The 57-year-old Donald was the coolest player on the ITV show, using just one of his four lifelines to go all the way and become the sixth winner and the first in 14 years. He answered host Jeremy Clarkson’s 15 questions in just under 20 minutes to race to the award.

Donald, who has returned to teaching history and politics, told the Mirror how his brother Davyth advised him on how to succeed, who came close to winning the jackpot in September last year after hitting the 1 million pound question. but walk away when he couldn’t. answer it.

Recalling the moment when he won the fastest round of fingers to get into the hot seat, Donald said: “Instantly when they read my name and I was the fastest, that second I thought it was right, my brother said to me ‘ go to the program and do a professional job work, focus and concentration. ‘ And I did it.

“So at that moment you see me serious, there were no punches in the air or that kind of lark, I was in the zone. The next thing I had to negotiate was to get on the chair because I was a little worried that I would fall because my legs are very short ”.

But Donald didn’t slip in his chair or when it came to questions. He used a 50:50 on the £ 32,000 question but was confident throughout.

“Of the 15 questions that I knew, probably 13 of them immediately before the options appeared,” he said.

“The question included the million pounds, the 500,000 pounds and the 250,000 pounds. It is very easy if you know the answers.

“How did I feel when the million pound question came up? ‘I know the answer. I’m just going to try. ‘ So the thought ‘OMG I’m walking the tightrope here with a tremendous fall down’ never occurred to me. It was a simple question and most history teachers worth their salt would know the answer even if it was not part of the curriculum. That was one of the easiest million pound questions. “

Referring to his brother’s earlier appearance, Donald added: “He’s very happy for me. In fact, we went and stayed overnight in a hotel with our wives last week, and we were absolutely drunk and he kept prodding me and telling me how pleased and happy he was about it, etc.

“Obviously we’ve had a simmering rivalry our entire lives, he’s two and a half years older than me. But he couldn’t be more delighted with him than I was when he won on the show.

“Actually, he is much smarter than me, but I was a lot, I had more luck with the questions and the final question.”

The show that came out last night was filmed in July and Donald and his wife of 33 years Deb celebrated winning a million with a modest holiday to the UK in a caravan.

He said: “We had booked the caravan holidays well in advance. We were supposed to take the ferry from Plymouth to Santander. Then he stayed in Santander, Bilbao, Pamplona, ​​driving through the Pyrenees to France and seeing castles, but Covid had other ideas. So we desperately tried to get what we could, Whitley Bay in a caravan. Sounds bad, but that’s the Northumberland coast and we took a boat trip around the island of Faroe. Saw 4000 puffins and lots of seals. It was idyllic and we had lovely walks along the coast.

“I am thinking of buying a motorhome, I have never owned one so we are going to try to rent one. I would love to take the next plane to the States, it just isn’t an option. Right now it’s wonderful UK and probably Wales so I’ll be spending my million pounds on a motorhome in Wales haha. “

Donald saw his victory on ITV with family members at home, he and his wife Deb have four children; Cat 31, Ali 30, Izzy 26, Chris 22.

When asked how he will spend the rest of the money, Donald added: “I’m a bit of a Democratic Socialist, so to speak, and just like my brother did with his victory, this money will be wasted on the whole family.

“I intend to give at least 70% of the money and leave enough for myself so that I can have a comfortable retirement. To be honest, if I had a million pounds, I would have no idea how to spend it. I could buy an Aston Martin, for example, but I could get into the thing, but I could never get out of it. I’m fat! The only other thing you could spend it on would be moving in, but I’m very happy with our house. It’s in a beautiful area and we’ve been there 27 years and we have lovely neighbors, so why move? So I prefer to keep the money and give it to the people I love. An RV is the only purchase on the horizon. “

Donald returned to Haberdashers Adams Elementary School in Newport, Shropshire yesterday and will remain in his teaching position until the end of December, retiring two years earlier than planned. As homework, he had given his students the exercise of watching last night’s program, but he had not told them how much he had earned. They will be able to question him about his new fortune on Monday.

He said: “I quit the day after the show, the rules are that you have to leave at the end of the term, but I would never investigate the possibility of whether it was possible not to come back at all. How unfair would they have been to my A-level students?

“They are amazing people and that would have completely disappointed them. So what I have said is that I will do this term and make sure that my Year 13 students are not lost in any way. And I’ll make sure all twelve are released. It never occurred to me not to come back at all. “

Donald is the show’s sixth million-pound award winner and the first since the show returned with new host Jeremy Clarkson in 2018, who replaced Chris Tarrant.

The UK’s first millionaire winner was Judith Keppel in 2000. She remains the only woman to win the top prize. Now 78, she spent £ 100 calling the show more than 50 times to secure a spot.

Former physics professor David Edwards and Oxford-educated banker Robert Brydges won in 2001.

Pat Gibson, a multi-time world champion Irish game player, became the fourth person to win the UK jackpot in 2004 and was followed by civil servant Ingram Wilcox in 2006.

Commander Charles Ingram also won £ 1 million in 2001, at the height of the show’s popularity.

But the episode was never shown and he was stripped of his award after being convicted of cheating in 2003.

• If you missed last night’s episode, you can watch Donald win a million on ITV Hub.