Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: How many people won the top prize and what was the £1m question?

Test your knowledge

If you were unable to name a single person who won the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? jackpot before the start of ITV series Quiz, you most certainly will be able to now.

The three-part drama charts the coughing scandal, which saw Charles Ingram cheat his way to the £1m prize fund in 2001.

With all this talk of Ingram, you might not realise that there have been a total of five other winners, who took home the prize without breaking the rules (oddly, one of these was just 11 days after the couging scandal was televised).

Below are the five other Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? winners alongside their £1m question.

Correct answers at the bottom of the page

1. Judith Keppel (2000)

Judith Keppel was the first person to win £1m on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ (ITV)

Judith Keppel – now a quizzer on BBC show Eggheads – became the first winner of the ITV show in 2000.

To this day, Keppel – the third cousin of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall – remains the only woman to have won the prize fund.

Her winning question: Which King was married to Eleanor of Aquitane?

A – Henry I, B – Henry II, C – Richard I, D – Henry V

2. David Edwards (2000)

The Welsh physics teacher, who had previously won Mastermind in 1990, won £1m six months after Keppel. His son Richard would go on to win £125,000 on the show.

His winning question: If you planted the seeds of Quercus robur, what would grow?

A – Trees, B – Flowers, C – Vegetables, D – Grain

3. Robert Brydges (2001)

ITV producers were relieved when Robert Brydgers won the jackpot without any scandal just 11 days after Charles Ingram cheated his way to the top.

Oddly, though, Brydgers was in the studio audience the night Ingram “won” the £1m. He later returned to the show for a charity special in 2003 where he won £32,000 for charity alongside actor Judith Chalmers.

His winning question: Which scientific unit is named after an Italian nobleman?

A – Pascal, B – Ohm, C – Volt, D – Hertz

4. Pat Gibson (2004)

Gibson achieved the rare feat of having two lifelines remaining for the 15th and final question and used them to win the £1m prize fund.

His 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

5. Ingram Wilcox (2006)

Wilcox is the final person who won the show before it came to an end in 2012, a victory that extended when ITV resurrected the quiz show with Jeremy Clarkson in 2018.

He used all of his lifelines by the 10th question, so was forced to guess his way to the £1m.

His 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.

ANSWERS

1 – B

2 – A

3 – C

4 – A

5 – A