Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? stand-in ‘won £1million in rehearsals’

A stand-in contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? no doubt wishes he’d been playing the game for real – after ‘winning’ the £1million top prize.

ITV is bringing back the legendary big-money gameshow next week to mark its 20th anniversary, with new host Jeremy Clarkson.

Ahead of the revival, bosses have been staging rehearsal games to help Jeremy get to grips with the job.

However, staff were apparently left ‘stunned’ when one punter ended up nailing his million-pound question.

According to The Sun, bingo caller Alan Russell was hired as a test contestant – and he ended up going all the way, answering all fifteen of his questions correctly.

Had Alan been competing for real on the TV show, he’d have become its sixth millionaire winner.

Instead, he was paid £80 for the day – equivalent to 0.008% of the jackpot prize.

“Alan is a quiz buff and punters at the bingo hall are always saying he should apply,” a source told the newspaper.

“His partner works on Millionaire so when she told him that they needed stand-ins to help Jeremy rehearse he jumped at the chance.

“It’s a real shame he went home with £80 and not the full prize.”

Nonetheless, Alan enjoyed taking part. “I loved sitting in the iconic chair,” he commented.

“Maybe I should apply to play properly and see how far I get.”

Millionaire originally ran on ITV between 1998 and 2014, presented by Chris Tarrant.

While it appears the show is returning to its original fifteen-question format, the broadcaster has teased there will be “new twists and turns for audiences to look forward to”.

The new series of Millionaire will feature seven hour-long episodes airing stripped across one week.

It kicks off on Saturday 5th May at 9.15pm, then continues every night at 9.00pm until Friday 11th May.