Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? player turns down final question – but wins £500,000

The first player to face the £1million question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in over a decade turned down his shot at the jackpot – but still won a cool £500,000.

The third series of the ITV gameshow’s revival began tonight with its biggest game yet as contestant John Robinson stormed his way to the top of the money tree.

Despite having no lifelines remaining, John played his penultimate question: “Which of these geological periods occurred most recently?”

Proclaiming himself to be “certain”, he correctly answered ‘Cretaceous’ and went up to half a million pounds.

Presenter Jeremy Clarkson was delighted, commenting: “That’s the biggest winner I’ve had since I started sitting in this chair.”

“Considering I didn’t know the £2,000 question, I think I’ve done okay!” laughed John.

Of course, this meant that Jeremy finally got to pose an all-important million pound teaser.

“I didn’t actually ever believe I’d say this, but I’m going to,” remarked The Grand Tour frontman.

John was asked: “Which of these UK prime ministers never served as foreign secretary?”

The four options were Winston Churchill (A), Alec Douglas-Home (B), Anthony Eden (C) and Harold Macmillan (D).

Explaining his thought process, John said: “I think Churchill did, I’m pretty sure he was foreign secretary before he was prime minister.

“Alec Douglas-Home I don’t know much about, other than his reign as prime minister was pretty short.

“Eden was prime minister after [Clement] Attlee, so he wouldn’t have served as foreign secretary around Attlee’s tenure, because Attlee was Labour and Eden was Conservative.

“I think Macmillan was foreign secretary for a while. It’s think it’s probably between B and C.”

However, the Birmingham English teacher was understandably unwilling to gamble his already vast winnings and opted not to play the question.

“I’m not prepared to risk it, it would take several years of teaching to take £500,000,” he commented.

“I think I’m gonna take the money, final answer.”

Nonetheless, the result thrilled Jeremy, who reacted: “What a player, what a fabulous player! That was incredible.

“There really is a lot you can do with that.”

When prompted, John said he would have answered Eden – only to be surprised when Jeremy confirmed Churchill as the correct option.

Having set his second safety net at £64,000, he’d have lost £436,000 on an incorrect guess.

This marks the first time since 2006 that a contestant on the UK version of Millionaire has reached the £1million question.

John is now the show’s biggest champion since its relaunch last year, a record previously held by two £125,000 winners.

Millionaire continues every weeknight this week at 9.00pm on ITV.